In his first interview for a job at a United Way organization, Tim Henkel told an interviewer that he could envision making a career out of working for the charitable organization. It was a good interview answer, and he got the job as a campaign associate for the Heart of West Michigan United Way, in Grand Rapids, Mich.


Now, after a 24-year tenure with United Way organizations in the Midwest, the new president and CEO of Spokane County United Way says the words were more prophetic than he imagined.


At the time I thought it was an interview ploy, he says, but now, it appears the career has taken over.


Henkel, who comes to Spokane after 19 years at United Way of Central Iowa, in Des Moines, where he was vice president of resource development, says he likes the way the organization increases a communitys philanthropic power through collaboration. Its a philosophy and a focus that he says has guided him throughout his career.


Since taking the reins here Aug. 22, Henkel has focused on completing the annual fundraising campaign that currently is under way, but once that is done, he says he will begin looking for trends in both donations and the donor base as he prepares to lead the organization into next years fundraising efforts. He says such an organizational self-examination will help define goals for the organization, which saw a modest increase in donations to $4.8 million in 2006 from $4.6 million in 2005.


Henkel has a track record of increasing United Way contributions. At Central Iowa, he led campaigns that were among the five fastest growing nationally for organizations of its size, he says. Henkel says Central Iowa was one place where donations continued to increase steadily while United Way campaigns all across the country were in a steady decline. Over the course of his tenure there, he says that agencys annul received contributions grew to $22.5 million from about $8 million. Additionally, the Central Iowa Tocqueville Society, which comprises individual donors who give at least $10,000 annually, grew to 233 members from about 70 over the past six years, he says.


Previously, while Henkel was at Heart of West Michigan, the donations received annually by that agency doubled to $10 million in five years, he says.


The population base of Spokane County is similar to that of Central Iowa and is one of the things that drew Henkel to the position here, he says. He says he saw it as an opportunity to advance, but also to remain at a similar-sized organization. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the tri-county area that Central Iowa United Way serves has a population of roughly 480,000, while Spokane County has a population of around 450,000 people.


You can get your arms around the people, places, and issues here, he says.


Finding the issues that energize people as donors and volunteers is key to the success of United Way, Henkel says. One of the things he says he focused on during his time in Des Moines was increasing both individual donations and the donor base, through innovative programs that were designed to engage potential donors with which he thought the organization was not connecting.


For example, Henkel says, he helped form a professional womens initiative, which sought to improve early childhood learning.


We recognized early learning would be a critical development, he says. We worked with local businesses and accounting firms to bring resources to bear on child-care centers. A womens leadership initiative grew out of that, making sure kids came out of those programs ready to learn. That initiative raised about $2 million over a few years, which has been used to improve retention of child-care workers and to improve child-care facilities in at-risk areas, he says.


Another program Henkel helped start in Central Iowa that he says has been successful is an emerging leaders initiative, which seeks to engage young adults in the organization both as volunteers and donors, and provides a mentoring program aimed at decreasing the school dropout rate there.


Henkel says some of those types of initiatives already are happening here, and he says he would like to find the issues here that can get more people involved.


Its not about me, or even about this organization. Its about getting people energized, Henkel says.


He says its vitally important as an organization for United Way, and the public, to understand that the collaboration with other groups and organizations is key. He says being able to take those collective donations and multiply their effects, leveraging them to help garner more dollars, and to streamline the donation process are the key functions of the organization and strengths he hopes to help it build on.


Henkel, a Phoenix native, says he also has made a career out of adapting to midwestern U.S. climates. He says he decided early on that if he was going to live in Michigan with its severe winters, he would have to find things to do to make sure he enjoyed it.


To that end, Henkel and his wife, Sherry Barrett, learned to ski, both cross country and downhill, and are excited by the prospect of being near the ski resorts here, he says. They also like to travel and to hike.


Now Henkel says hes considering taking up fly-fishing, and looks forward to getting out on the links next spring to work on his golf game. He says that Barrett, who has worked as an executive coach and in leadership development, is intrigued by kayaking. Barrett has not decided yet what work she will do here, Henkel says.


The couple has two daughters who are grown and on their own, and is in the process of settling into a new home theyve leased on Spokanes North Side.


Because of the flux in the United Way organization here this year as it settles in with its new president, an official fundraising goal for the current campaign has not been set, Henkel says.


Unofficially, however, he says he hopes the 1,000 or so campaigns under way at Spokane-area businesses since the Sept. 21 kickoff will have helped the agency reach a total of $5 million raised by the end of 2007.


Throughout the year, several hundred volunteers help organize the annual fundraising campaigns within their companies, and more people volunteer their time outside of work on United Way initiatives, Henkel says.


Contact Jeanne Gustafson at (509) 344-1264 or via e-mail at jeanneg@spokanejournal.com.