Q. Does the economy affect donations and your ability to collect money for the Aloha United Way campaign?

A. We do see some effect by the economy, but it's just so amazing how people here are really generous. People here in Hawai'i, they really do see the need in the community and they really give what they can. So even if the economy may be low, we've been pretty stable at increasing or having resources stay about the same. In the past we've always tried to strive for our goal and getting the resources out to the community.

Q. Are there any new initiatives that you've implemented to raise more funds?

A. One of the strategies has been our online auction. We have an online auction that started this week and it's running in April and people can actually bid online. It's kind of like eBay so it's really fun. You can go to our Web site (www.auw.org) and there are all these items and you can bid on anything from spa retreats to hotel stays. This is our second year doing it so it is something new ... to supplement the Pacesetter and general campaign. It raised about $28,000 last year so that's really good in a one-month period. It's really a good way to also reach a different demographic of donors, trying to reach the younger donors as well as ones that are using the Internet instead of just giving through the workplace campaign.

Q. How else are you using the Internet at AUW?

A. More just communicating with our donors, like our thank-yous. We're looking to e-mail communication as well as some of our newsletters.

Q. What are your responsibilities and vice president of the campaign?

A. We help to increase resources for Aloha United Way. We run a Pacesetter campaign as well as the general campaign that help raise money for the community. Usually we raise about $13 million each year. The Pacesetter campaign is an early campaign that happens during the summer, and that's the campaign that some of the companies run and it really sets the pace for the general campaign. The general campaign runs later in the fall. Our department is in charge of implementing and getting the materials out to people and educating them about Aloha United Way.

Q. The $13 million goal, does that change each year?

A. It's been pretty stable so it's been roughly about $13 million.

Q. To reach this goal, do you have to touch bases with each organization and recruit new organizations to contribute?

A. We have about 1,200 companies and organizations that run fund-raising campaigns with their employees and each year we do try to touch more people. We try to encourage new businesses to also run a campaign at their workplace.

Q. Is it difficult to do this?

A. One of the challenges is definitely communication, talking to our donors, letting them know about the new things that we're doing, explaining to them some of the results. It's just touching bases with them and we're trying to do more of a year-round communications strategy with them so that they're involved throughout the year with us.

Q. Are there other challenges for you?

A. Just keeping people motivated and letting them know what we're doing. We also recruit volunteers to help us so it's not just our staff that raises the money. We have about 3,000 volunteers that help us go out in the community. We have coordinators at companies and organizations helping us educate the donors and people about what we do. It's really a big effort on everybody's part. The campaign staff is eight people, so without the volunteers, it would be impossible really for us to raise all the resources that we do. So we do depend a lot on the community and volunteers to get our job done.

Q. How many agencies receive AUW funds?

A. Sixty-three different partner agencies will be allocated the funding. We also have four different issue areas. One is reducing homelessness, another is increasing family self-sufficiency, reducing crime and drugs, and improving early childhood development. We're looking at how we're going to disperse that money so we have agencies in some of those areas.

Q. How did you wind up at AUW?

A. I started as a marketing intern. It was a summer internship, and I didn't get paid. When I graduated, there was an opening in the campaign department as an assistant vice president so I worked in that position for three years. I left for five years and then the opportunity came up where the vice president position was available and I came back. It really was a full-circle experience for me. It's just like coming home, actually. It's just a very rewarding job to actually be able to have resources that go out to the community and you just meet so many people who are so generous. It's just amazing the people you meet and what you get to tell them and talk to them about Aloha United way and what we're doing.

Q. It sounds like your job is part public relations and part accountant. Are there a lot of different areas that you have to be involved in?

A. We do PR in the sense that we have to talk to our donors and educate them about what we're doing. We also are the ones who do the actual pickup of the donations. It really is different facets of skills that we use in the campaign department.

Q. What do you do when an organization tells you that it's been a difficult year and they may not be able to donate as much as they used to?

A. We understand that every company is different and we really try to stress that people should give what they can give. If the company isn't able to bring in or raise the funds then we hope that they can do the best that the donors are able to give. It is challenging some years, but if people do give to the community one year, then maybe they will see the benefits of that and then hopefully continue to give in future years.

Reach Curtis Lum at culum@honoluluadvertiser.com.