Centier Bank presented a record-breaking donation to United Way of Northwest Indiana on Feb. 26 at Centier Bank’s Corporate Centre in Merrillville. Associates of Centier Bank come together annually for the United Way Workplace Campaign, making contributions and a corporate gift impacting hundreds of thousands in Indiana. The partnership between United Way of Northwest Indiana and Centier Bank demonstrates the synergy between the two partners joining forces and contributing to our communities.
“We have an annual employee workplace campaign with Centier Bank that involves employee and corporate contributions. They generously donated $65,000 this campaign year, which is an amazing donation. We are most grateful to the whole Centier team for their continued support of our communities and United Way Northwest Indiana," said Rich Shields, Chief Marketing & Development Officer of United Way Northwest Indiana
Every year, Centier partners with United Way Northwest Indiana to contribute to the community through corporate giving, volunteerism, and through a variety of outreach efforts. Over the years, this valiant team effort from both parties has turned into something amazing. Everyone involved has truly been able to make a statement and show that the community is in good hands and has people who care.
“This is a big milestone day for us because we have been very passionate about the United Way. When I say that, I feel like every year we have been so blessed with the help of the entire Centier family, and all of our associates, and we have been able to kind of increase the participation rate. The number of our associates that are participating in the campaign, and ultimately because of their efforts has increased the ultimate dollars that we raise every year. This is our biggest year in history both for total dollars and participation,” said Anthony Contrucci, President of Centier Bank’s holding company, First Bancshares, Inc.
When it comes to volunteerism, both parties have been determined to succeed in giving back to United Way recipients in many ways over the years. With record-breaking dollar amounts comes record-breaking volunteer work in Northwest Indiana as well.
“This year was just an incredible year, we had our largest number of volunteer hours recorded by our associates in history, we actually exceeded 26,000 hours, which is what I'm most proud of,” said Contrucci.
Behind every team is a leader who strives for their team to go above and beyond expectations.
“I have been the manager of our internal workplace campaign since 2020. My focus has been on increasing our associates' involvement, which nearly doubled our participation rate from 2022 to 2023. That was a huge win for us. It is the largest dollar amount that we were able to raise, but again, it's just that impact that we are able to make for so many clients in the United Way locations, but also to get our associates involved with it,” said Ashley Stephan, volunteer engagement specialist at Centier.
United Way Northwest Indiana is committed to enriching lives throughout Northwest Indiana.. That being said, the organization will continue to contribute to the community and each year look to implement more and more to their list of goals.
“In our communities, we rely on the support of generous corporations like Centier Bank, who's one of our strongest partners, and this record-breaking dollar amount they have given us is really going to alleviate and help break that generational cycle of poverty for the families we serve and help our level up program,” said Adam O'Doherty, President and CEO United Way Northwest Indiana.
United Way Northwest Indiana program ‘Level Up’ is designed to help those who are living paycheck to paycheck get out of that cycle of dependency. With that program, United Way assists them to become financially stable and independent.
“This truly is a team effort. I mean, the Centier staff and our staff really worked together as a team to help make this happen. Centier’s staff really took the lead on it and made this whole thing possible. It has been an amazing partnership,” said O’Doherty. For more information visit: unitedwaynwi.org.
