Ron and Cheri Fromm recently announced the largest-ever fundraising campaign goal for United Way of Greater St. Louis to a room of 600 attendees at the fourth annual luncheon hosted by the St. Louis Rams in support of United Way. The Fromms are this year’s fundraising co-chairs for the St. Louis branch of the United Way. They announced that this year’s goal is to raise $72,250,000 to support more than 170 area agencies that provide social services to the region.
“We’re not just helping one person with a handout, but people who need help over time,” said Ron Fromm, chairman of the board of Brown Shoe Company. “This is really a core theme of the United Way today.”
“We have been so amazed at the enthusiasm and the generosity of business people and their companies,” Cheri Fromm said. “We live in a great city with lots of great people who really want to help.”
The Fromms, this year’s co-chairs for the local United Way fundraising campaign, were instrumental in determining the campaign goal.
“We spent the greater time of the last three months meeting with over 100 people who represent CEOs and business leaders in the community,” Ron Fromm said.
“What we heard was that for the community in St. Louis, the needs are always great. And in the current situation, where there’s a lot of pressure coming from a reduction of state and federal grants, the need is, quite frankly, greater.”
The United Way of Greater St. Louis partners with many different types of agencies throughout Missouri and Illinois, including major partnerships with American Red Cross, the Salvation Army and the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis. Through meeting with several of these diverse agencies throughout the region, the Fromms were able to see trends in areas of need.
“One of the largest areas for support and need is for children’s services,” Ron Fromm said. “Those could be things such as the Crisis Nursery in St. Charles.”
The Fromms also noted this need for children services being particularly acute in St. Louis city. Cheri Fromm mentioned the importance of agencies that provide afterschool care like the Boys and Girls Club of Greater St. Louis.
“The places children can go after school are so wonderful,” Cheri Fromm said. “They are safe places and helpful places. They have computers, which often they do not have in their school and at their homes. Another thing is they have eye care and dental care there. A child needs to have good eye care and dental care in order to be successful in school.”
The Fromms also noted another big need in the community.
“Another real focus is, of course, the elderly and their needs,” Ron Fromm said. “We got to visit a number of those agencies as well. And you’re just delighted when you’re seeing that they can really be in a setting that feels like home.”
While this is the largest campaign goal in United Way of Greater St. Louis history, the Fromms said it is reachable. Along with encouraging individuals and companies to give more this year, they have planned other strategies to reach this historic goal.
“One of those is giving incentives to those who step up and give more than they did last year,” Ron Fromm said.
This year people will see 20 co-branded billboards throughout the area that show companies who support United Way. Another key way to raise money is through various affinity groups.
“All the affinity groups are our biggest supporters,” Cheri Fromm said. “They are so enthusiastic, and they have an energy level. They see the purpose and feel the purpose. They have ownership in this community.”
The Fromms mentioned the importance of the African-American affinity group, the Charmaine Chapman Society, founded by The American’s publisher Donald M. Suggs. “The Charmaine Chapman Society has been our model for our affinity groups,” Ron Fromm said. “I had a chance to visit. I left there and I just thought, ‘How do you get people to see this community at work where people are excited about what’s going on in this community?’”
The fundraising campaign began September 3 and continues through early November. For more information, visit http://www.stl.unitedway.org/.
