ECM Interview with Bill Baddour

All great things come to an end but are never forgotten. This is true in the case of Bill Baddour, who has been dedicated to being the Employee Campaign Manager at Lakewood Hospital for the past three terms.

Baddour has been an employee with the Cleveland Clinic for 14 years and has been involved with United Way of Greater Cleveland at both the Main and Lakewood Campuses.  As a business leader he believes that running a United Way campaign is important.

“It is an opportunity to give back,” Baddour says. “United Way reaches a lot of people.”

Running the United Way campaign at Lakewood Hospital is a team effort and Baddour had a great team. They were able to gain feedback from different departments and determine what efforts worked best for their workplace campaign.  The committee was up to any challenge. 

The first challenge came from the suffering Cleveland economy. Baddour knew that it would be difficult to run a United Way campaign, however, he was confident that he and his organization would be able to increase the campaign goal by 10 percent from 2008.

Of course they could have used the fundraising efforts that worked well in the past -- celebrity coffee breaks, where a member from the executive team runs the coffee stand, raffles and cookouts.  However, they were looking for something new.

Baddour's team had an idea: if they were able to reach the new campaign goal he would have to have his head shaved in public. This was a campaign strategy never used before at Lakewood Hospital.  Luckily, it was just what the organization needed.

“The year before [2008] was like pulling teeth,” Baddour said “this year it was very easy [to reach the goal].”

By the close of their campaign, Lakewood Hospital had raised more than $39,000 and it was time for Baddour to follow through on his end of the deal.  People filled the auditorium and a local barber was brought in to perform the task everyone had been waiting for.  Within minutes Baddour’s head was shaved.

When asked what his favorite campaign effort was, Baddour’s answer was obvious.  He was proud he personally helped his community through United Way in such an economically difficult time, even if the incentive was to shave his head.

Now it is time for Baddour to pass the torch.  Lakewood Hospital finds that rotating their ECMs through the executive team and finding a new group of volunteers keeps the ideas fresh.

Although he will not be running the campaign this year, Baddour will always be a supporter and have a story to tell in the years to come. 

Baddour would like to give a big thanks to the committee members for their hard work: Maureen Duffy, Bob Gleeson, Tim Kaye, Yvette Keaton, Bill Koziol, Sheree Laborie, Tony Mohseninia, Jacquie Nowlin, Aimee Smith, Mohun Sundar, Pam Wright and Dan Zezena.