Diana Lenkowsky knows a thing or two about giving back to the communities in which she lives and works. As the holidays approach, she hopes more people in Fairfield County will do their bit to help the constellation of local nonprofits ”“ and to get a street-level view of the challenges they face.
The Business Council of Fairfield County made Lenkowsky this year”™s recipient of the Walter H. Wheeler Jr. Leadership Award, named for the onetime Pitney Bowes Inc. CEO. A longtime Purdue Pharma L.P. manager, Lenkowsky runs the company”™s facilities including its Stamford headquarters.
On the side, Lenkowsky volunteers for a half-dozen organizations, including the Human Services Council of Norwalk, the Norwalk 2.0 community development organization and the Stamford Achieves education nonprofit, which she chairs.
Volunteerism dropped in Connecticut in 2010, both as measured by the number of people giving their time ”“ as well as by the amount of time given by those who did. On average, 864,000 residents in Connecticut devoted 31 hours to volunteer work, according to estimates published by the Corporation for National & Community Service (CNCS).
In both lower Fairfield County and Connecticut, just under a third of residents volunteer, according to CNCS, ranking the county 30th of 125 municipal areas nationally included in the survey.
Among states, Connecticut barely cracked the top third, with Utah leading the nation with nearly 45 percent of its residents volunteering, though Connecticut ranked third in the East after Vermont and Maine.
In November, CNCS launched a drive to recruit small and mid-size businesses into its Billion + Change initiative, under which 50 large corporations have pledged more than $1 billion in pro-bono services for nonprofits. Participants include Fairfield-based General Electric Co. and Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM Corp.
“Lots of times corporations don”™t really think of in-kind,” Lenkowsky said. “For many years, Purdue has really maximized our impact (by providing) a tremendous amount of printing. We obviously do a lot of marketing and have an in-house printing facility.”
For young professionals those who aspire to take a leadership position in the nonprofit sector, Lenkowsky says get to know any organization they adopt in the same way they know their own company.
“No. 1, go to the meetings,” Lenkowsky said. “Take it as seriously as your day job. Read the financials, read the minutes. Visit their programs, so when you go to the board meetings you are knowledgeable. If you do go out into the community and (see) those ideas in action, you have a much better idea of how to ”¦ make the most of your contribution.”
