United Way: How we support the “social soul of our community”

For many Canadians, September is back to school season: time to put away the bathing suits and beach towels and start indulging in pumpkin spice-flavoured treats. At Payworks, September not only brings about the change of the season; it also heralds another United Way Workplace Campaign!

In 2025, we started working on our United Way Workplace Campaign long before the leaves started changing colour (more on that below) – in large part because JP Perron, Payworks’ past President and CEO, who kicked off his term in February as United Way Winnipeg Campaign Chair for 2025. As the volunteer Campaign Chair, JP is leading the upcoming United Way Winnipeg campaign, including helping the campaign’s cabinet set its fundraising targets, rallying more donors and volunteers, and participating in speaking engagements throughout the year.

“Having volunteered for United Way [Winnipeg] now for over 20 years, I’ve come to realize to what extent it’s this incredible network of 125 agencies and programs that really represent the social soul of our community,” says JP. “The breadth of things that the United Way supports today is absolutely incredible, and I couldn’t imagine our city without it.”

VIDEO: United Way: Winnipeg’s “social soul".

The Payworks x United Way Winnipeg Story

This is just one of many chapters in Payworks’ storied history with United Way Winnipeg. While donations from the Payworks United Way Workplace Campaign are dispersed all across Canada to local United Way organizations in the communities our staff calls home, more than half of our employees work out of our Winnipeg Head Office. We began making employee contributions to United Way Winnipeg all the way back in 2007 and won our first (of many!) Campaign Chair’s Award in 2011.

We’ve lent employees to United Way Winnipeg as Sponsored Campaign Associates since 2014, and Payworks Co-Founder Barb Gamey also held the volunteer Campaign Chair role in 2018, raising a record-breaking $21.3 million for the campaign. Our most recent campaign year broke more records (our own!), raising more than $543k for United Way, with a substantial portion of that directed to our hometown.

Photo: Payworks Past President & CEO JP Perron and Co-Founder Barb Gamey display the United Way Workplace Campaign total in 2024.

As mentioned above, we kicked off our United Way activities nice and early this year: in April, we held a Winnipeg Jets Whiteout Party at the Winnipeg office during the Stanley Cup Playoffs and donated $5 to United Way Winnipeg for every staff member who joined in the fun (as a mirror of the official events hosted by our friends at True North Sports and Entertainment downtown!).

May usually brings flowers, but this year it brought Days of Caring to our Winnipeg HQ. A United Way Day of Caring is a meaningful way for workplace volunteers to get involved in their community. We were paired with United Way Winnipeg agency partners looking for help to complete small projects, supporting initiatives with NorWest Co-op Community Health and Villa Rosa.

“Employees want to work somewhere where they feel their employer has a social conscience,” says JP. “Whether it be a Day of Caring, where you go out in the community and you do some volunteering, or running a campaign, I encourage all employers out there to get engaged with United way, because your staff will love it, and you’ll be making such an incredible investment in your community.”

The summer months took teams on tours of United Way Winnipeg agency partners, including Fort Garry Women’s Resource Centre and Teen Stop Jeunesse, as well as an additional Day of Caring at Rainbow Community Gardens. And we didn’t just go out! We also invited agency partners like Rainbow Resource Centre and Family Dynamics into our Winnipeg HQ to speak with employee groups.

Campaign Kickoff and 60^th Anniversary Match

Recognizing that there have been very successful campaigns before this one, JP has stepped up to the challenge and eagerly rolled up his sleeves alongside the 2025 campaign cabinet to prepare for United Way Winnipeg’s 60^th
anniversary year campaign. To kick off 60 years of United Way Winnipeg’s impact in the community, they brought
back a beloved initiative – the Plane Pull – for the campaign launch event which took place on September 12. Payworks has participated in past Plane Pull events (and won top fundraising team!) and we were excited to sign on as an Aviation Sponsor for 2025.

Photo: The Payworks team at the United Way Winnipeg Plane Pull event in 2024.

And that’s not all… Payworks is also sponsoring the 60^th Anniversary Match for United Way Winnipeg. For new donors to United Way Winnipeg’s community fund, Payworks will match gifts up to $600! For those donors already contributing to United Way Winnipeg’s community fund, Payworks will match any increase to gifts up to $600 per person. We’re thrilled to Pay it Forward for even more Winnipeggers this year and continue to invest in our community.

VIDEO: Why supporting United Way is a smart investment.

“I encourage everybody, as part of the 60^th anniversary, to give back to United Way,” says JP.

We’re working together with United Way to improve lives locally. If you want to learn more about our Pay it Forward program or be part of an organization that values giving back, check out some current career openings: https://www.payworks.ca/about-us/careers.