Breakthrough - Osteogenesis Imperfecta Foundation

Fundraising Briefs
Hustle of UPS’ business doesn’t slow support of OI
by Heller An Shapiro
OI Fdn. Executive Director
Photo Courtesy of UPS
Foundation streamlines process with new lock-box
You’ll soon be seeing a new post office box address on
many of the OI Foundation’s materials.
In order to streamline our
check-processing system, all donations,
renewals and orders accompanied
by a check or money
order will be sent directly to a
post office box at our bank,
rather than the national office.
“We’ll save hundreds of manhours
each month by having the
bank prepare the deposits and process the checks,” according
to Tom Costanzo, the Foundation’s Director of Finance
and Administration.
The new process will not slow the handling of orders for
resources, or delay correspondence. All materials that arrive
The belts are always moving at UPS sorting facilities
throughout the country.
The UPS offices are
dramatically different from a
standard office. Inside huge
warehouses, all activity centers
around giant conveyer belts
filled with packages. Small,
linked trailer trucks move
unusual packages, such as tires,
shovels or brooms. At regular
intervals, brown UPS delivery
trucks squeeze into slots
alongside the belts, so close
together you can’t even walk
between them. The 24-hour roar of
trucks, belts and movement is extraordinary.
Rising from the cement floor
are small, portable offices where the
management staff sporadically are
able to sit down to work.
It’s here that OI Foundation staff
have an opportunity to tell the OI story.
In conference rooms and break rooms,
surrounded by trucks, almost drowned
out by the roar of machinery, we talk
about life with OI, and UPS employees
listen. The hardened faces of union
mechanics, the young faces of parttime
package sorters, and the faces of
seasoned managers all fill with empathy
when they learn about what living
with OI means to 8-year old Jeffrey
Krudys, whose father, Dan, has been
with UPS for 25 years.
Since 1996, more than 450 UPS
employees have taken a leading role in
the struggle to improve the lives of
people with OI by contributing more
than $631,000 through payroll deductions
and stock gifts to the annual
United Way campaign, and through
organizing fund raising events such as
golf, softball and basketball tournaments.
And the commitment to contributing
to the OI Foundation continues
through transfers to new states and
at the lock box are forwarded to the OI Foundation offices
the next business day. Thank you letters and tax receipts will
also not be affected by the
Mail donations, renewals & orders to:
change. The Foundation
has simply eliminated the
more time-consuming steps
in processing gifts or resource
orders.
Correspondence to
staff members should still
be sent to the Foundation’s
office address. When in doubt, community members should
use the Gaithersburg address and staff members will route
the mail as appropriate.
The new address will be printed on envelopes and other
materials as they are reprinted.
The OI Foundation
P.O. Box 630342
Baltimore, MD 21263-0342
new jobs within UPS. Many
employees have been giving
annually, ever since Jeffrey was
born, and the only thanks they
want is to see Jeffrey grow and
achieve.
UPS employees contributed
more than 15% of the
Foundation’s total annual budget
in fiscal year 2003. This is more
than any other corporation’s
employees donate. The UPS -
OI Foundation partnership
provides free information and
support services, and is a vital
component of the OI research program
which seeks treatments and a
cure.
In the middle of all the activity–
hustling, whirring conveyor belts,
roaring trucks, and automated machinery
moving anonymous boxes, packages
and “next day” envelopes– it
would be easy to forget about one
small voice and simply focus on the job
at hand. Yet UPS employees consistently
manage to find the time to give
so generously to support Jeffrey and
the rest of the OI community, giving
the phrase “UPS Delivers” a special
meaning to everyone with OI.
Breakthrough Winter 2004 Page 4