Lake County Public Library’s Greg Madouros builds Region community through support of United Way Northwest Indiana

Greg Madouros Jr. has been a staple of the Lake County Public Library since he joined the team 18 years ago. He serves as the library’s director of human resources, and this has given him the opportunity to get to know many of his coworkers in a way few get the chance to.

“I get to talk to everybody in one capacity or another,” he said. “I’ve also hired a bunch of them too. I’m in charge of all aspects of Lake County Public Library’s human resources and payroll, so I’m in most of the hiring interviews.”

With his knowledge of his coworkers and a drive to support the Lake County community, Madouros has been instrumental in the charitable and educational campaigns the library runs throughout the year, including the library’s annual workplace giving campaign supporting United Way Northwest Indiana.

The Lake County Public Library has a long history supporting local nonprofits. The workplace campaigns for United Way began small. Once Madouros was tapped to begin motivating employees to participate, they began to grow.

“We first started with donation forms,” Madouros said. “The executive director at the time asked me if I could motivate the employees a little bit, and the campaigns have gone from there. We started small the first several years I was doing it, but over the last 10 years, it’s just been getting bigger.”

Madouros and the team slowly began to expand the workplace campaign until its current level. What began with employee donations now includes games, an employee benefits fair, themed decorations, and more. This year’s campaign raised over $6,700 dollars, a feat that wouldn’t be possible without employee buy in.

Madouros used a variety of strategies to increase employee participation in the workplace campaign, but the biggest motivator has been showing people how their donations impact their community, the people they serve, and their coworkers.

“Talking to employees about what United Way is and what it does, showing them that their donation stays in the community, and letting them know it helps their coworkers – those are the big motivators,” Madouros said. “Having the games and the decorations is fun, but that’s not the main thing getting our employees motivated. It’s explaining the programs so they know and can see the impact firsthand that’s getting them to buy in.”

Madouros believes the partnership between United Way and the Lake County Public Library is very natural. When employees can see United Way’s programs in action or hear stories from those who have benefitted from the organization’s programs, it can resonate with their own work at the library.

“The library offers so much more than books,” Madouros said. “There are so many programs that the library does for the community like the English as a Second Language program. We also host programs like United Way’s First Time Homebuyer Fair which is a one stop shop for first-time homebuyers about the resources available to them.”

Madouros’ efforts have not gone unnoticed. Both the library and Madouros himself have been recognized by United Way on several occasions, including winning awards for workplace campaigns from 2012-2017. The success of the campaigns derives from effective use of the library’s resources as well as an understanding of its limitations.

“The library is a not-for-profit, so we don’t have a budget for a campaign like this,” Madouros explained. “Instead, we have to be creative and think outside the box to get people motivated, even if it’s in a small way. When we first started, we were doing 50/50 raffles and themes like ‘football’ since the campaign is in the fall – small ideas before it started growing bigger. If employees can’t donate monetarily, we make sure they know that United Way has a lot of volunteer opportunities as well.”

Since Madouros joined the library’s workplace giving campaign, the library has donated almost $150,000 to United Way’s programming in the Region. Madouros is looking forward to growing that number every year.

“I enjoy doing this because I know that I’m helping our community in Northwest Indiana,” he said. “I know where the money’s going and how it’s helping people, including our coworkers. If you’re going to do a workplace campaign, knowing where the funds go and what they do for our community is very important.”

Madouros encourages others to give where and what they can to support United Way Northwest Indiana. Learn more about opportunities to give time, money, and expertise by visiting the organization’s website or by calling 219-464-3583.

Learn more about the Lake County Public Library and its service to the Region at lcplin.org.