The Enbridge way: Employee-driven campaigns raise US$6.1 million for the United Way in 2018

Regional drives across North America help build essential building blocks for communities

We lip-synced, barbecued, pitched softballs, answered trivia, auctioned and cooked our way through 2018 at Enbridge—all in the name of the United Way.

And with dozens of volunteer campaigns championed by Enbridge employees, and fueled by corporate and personal donations, we ended up raising nearly US$6.1 million (or nearly C$7.9 million) for United Way chapters across North America.

“It’s amazing to me what our people accomplish every year—not just raising money for communities, but constantly finding creative ways to do it, and devoting countless hours to make sure it’s done right,” says Roxanna Benoit, Enbridge’s Vice President of Public Affairs, Communications and Sustainability.

Over the past five years, Enbridge employees and contractors have raised about US$26 million (or C$34 million) for the United Way, with those totals including special events, employee donations and corporate matching.



A few examples of Enbridge’s numerous employee-powered giving campaigns in 2018 included:

  • A lip-sync competition, a giant gift card pool and some tarmac tenacity at the annual UPS Canada Pulling For U plane pulling event courtesy of our Union Gas colleagues, who supported 21 United Way chapters across Ontario;
  • A gigantic meat raffle—two sides of beef totaling about 1,700 pounds of protein—in the Twin Ports of Duluth, MN and Superior, WI, and a trio of barbecues in North Dakota;
  • Eight bag-lunch assembly shifts at the Calgary Drop-In Centre, slo-pitch tournament, and a Great Game Show Mash-Up, replete with rap battle, in Calgary;
  • An American Ninja Warrior-style competition, and ball field volunteer beautification work at the Boys and Girls Clubs Spring Branch clubhouse, in Texas;
  • A crock pot cookoff—which produced, among other tasty concoctions, a smoked chicken gnocchi soup—as well as Meals on Wheels deliveries, community garden prep, and English instruction for newcomers by our Enbridge Gas employees in southern Ontario;
  • A massive ball hockey tournament, poker competition, poverty simulation exercise, golf tournament, and Pies in the Park pie-throwing free-for-all in Edmonton;

“The United Way focuses on education, jobs and health—essential building blocks for quality of life. We’re very proud to be helping the United Way to strengthen that community fabric,” says Ms. Benoit.

(TOP PHOTO: In Houston, Enbridge employees took part in an American Ninja Warrior-styled competition that involved, among other things, carrying a towering (and often toppling) stack of pizza boxes.)