It’s one of the most exciting times of the year at United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, when we celebrate the success of the previous year and we kick off our Annual Campaign to encourage investment in our community impact work; to thank our passionate donors, advocates and volunteers for their support; and to energize the Live United movement to maximize our collective impact this year.

Click below to see a video recap of our incredibly impactful 2022-2023 Annual Campaign, and then read on for highlights of our 99th Annual Campaign kickoff.

Wednesday, Sept. 27 marked the start of our 99th Annual Campaign—the final campaign in our first 100 years of service to the North Texas community. We celebrated the occasion with United Way donors and volunteers, some of our most dedicated corporate partners, Tocqueville Society members and other members of the Live United movement at the Hilton Anatole.

The event included three important pieces of news: the announcement of significant investments from three of our most generous corporate partners, a new campaign chair, and the recipients of our most prestigious award, the J. Erik Jonsson Award.

Announcing $3.5 Million in Investments

In her opening remarks, Jennifer Sampson, McDermott-Templeton president and CEO of United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, announced that we’re beginning our new campaign year with a strong start of $3.5 million in investments to support our Aspire United 2030 community impact goals. Thank you to Comerica and Vistra, each of whom announced gifts of $1 million, and to Celanese, which announced a gift of $1.5 million.

These generous gifts will enable United Way to continue to create measurable impact in the areas of education, income and health in the coming years. This investment will fund life-changing programs for 1.6 million North Texans—or more—each year.

New Campaign Leadership

During the event, we had the opportunity to thank our Campaign Chair for the past year, Jean Savage, CEO of Trinity Industries, who demonstrated incredible leadership and truly delivered for our North Texas community. We were also thrilled to welcome Curt Farmer, chairman, president and CEO of Comerica Incorporated and Comerica Bank, as Campaign Chair for our 99th Annual Campaign year.

CEOs Discuss Challenges and Opportunities

The kickoff celebration also included a panel discussion featuring Farmer, as well as two other local business leaders: Antonio Carrillo, president and CEO, of Arcosa; and Tom Luce, founder and chairman emeritus of Texas 2036. The panel was moderated by Katrice Hardy, executive editor of The Dallas Morning News.

The CEO panel included key issues that impact our region, including:

• The greatest risks and opportunities facing North Texas
• The importance of policy and advocacy in driving meaningful change
• United Way’s role as a corporate social responsibility partner and advisor
• Examples of businesses partnering with United Way to create meaningful change through targeted initiatives

View a video of the CEO panel below.

J. Erik Jonsson Award: Honoring Two of Our Most Dedicated Supporters

Finally, we closed out the event by announcing the 2023 recipients of the J. Erik Jonsson Award, our highest honor for volunteer service. This year, we’re thrilled to honor both Karen and Tom Falk, who for decades have shown an unwavering commitment to United Way’s mission to create opportunity and access for all North Texans to thrive.

Learn more about the Falks and the J. Erik Jonsson Award on our blog:
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