DTE Energy ended our 2025 United Way campaign with a powerful show of teamwork, creativity and compassion. Through spirited fundraising, volunteerism and new initiatives, employees across the company carried the torch in making a lasting difference.
From cookoffs and raffles to trivia competitions and bingo, DTE teams rallied to raise funds and awareness for United Way.
One of the most impactful ways employees supported United Way was through hands-on service projects like the backpack build in August. Employees gathered at Beacon Park to fill backpacks with school supplies such as notebooks, pens and pencils.
Volunteers fill backpacks with school supplies
“I wanted to give back to the community and volunteer for the kids,” said Caterina Jones, principal analyst on the Customer Service Strategy team and volunteer at the event. “Giving back like this is an example to inspire others, to show how important education is. Education helps people move forward.”
Thanks to the generosity of employees and the DTE Foundation’s match, the campaign raised nearly $2 million to support United Way programs like 2-1-1, which connects people with vital services such as food, housing and utility assistance.
This year’s campaign brought out creativity across the organization. One unique team fundraising event was Worktoberfest, hosted by Gas Operations.
“Knowing what a good cause United Way is, our Leak Management team wanted to host an event that would raise awareness and funds for United Way and at the same time make it exciting and engaging to be part of. After some strategy, our team came up with Worktoberfest,” said Samantha Raupp, principal supervisor for Gas Operations, Leak Management.
The Worktoberfest team
“For the event, employees paid $20 to attend Worktoberfest, which included barbecue, cornhole tournaments, a bake sale, door prizes, quality time with peers and most importantly, raising awareness for United Way. This was one of the best fundraising events we’ve had!”
Another successful event returning from last year’s campaign was a bingo fundraiser hosted by Human Relations. “This is our second year doing this event, and it’s extremely fun and engaging for those who attend,” said Hank Campbell, director of Human Relations. “Specifically, because the grand prize was two tickets to a Detroit Lions game.”
DTE’s Project Management Office also hosted several fun events, including bringing back their popular wine raffle for a second year. For a $10 entry fee and a bottle of wine valued at $10 or more, participants had the chance to win a share of the wine pool. Thanks to the popularity of the raffle, the team was able to award first, second and third place prizes.
“Participation is growing, and we’re hoping to exceed 50 bottles next year,” said Ayo Dawodu, manager in Distribution Capital Management. “We’re also exploring ways to open the wine pool across organizations so we can extend the invite to our colleagues in DO, Gas and beyond.”
Customer Service’s pie smash
This year’s campaign featured several unique activities, including a pie smash and a karaoke party both led by Customer Service.
And of course we can’t forget about the yearly campaign staple, our crockpot cookoff. This year’s competition pitted the executives against the executive assistants with the executive assistants bringing home the win and bragging rights until the next campaign season.
The 2025 campaign was full of creativity, generosity and teamwork across the whole organization. As a company we continued our role as a light for United Way. The official campaign may have ended but our commitment to giving back will continue to shine throughout the year.
Check out our other campaign highlights to see the impact we made this year.
