Ken Fredeen settles into a child-sized chair and starts to read to a keen audience of four- and five-year-olds who are spread out on the floor before him.

The book he's holding is nothing like the legal documents he is accustomed to reading as general counsel of Deloitte & Touche LLP.

But it's time that he has chosen to devote to Bond Street Nursery in Toronto, a United Way-supported preschool, as part of his involvement with Deloitte's commitment of time and money to helping charities.

It's a commitment that kicks into high gear around this time of year, as the accounting, tax and consulting firm holds its annual three-week United Way campaign. This year's drive featured activities ranging from pie throws at senior partners to pancake breakfasts and pizza lunches, and saw 80-per-cent participation generating $1.5-million in donations, says Mr. Fredeen, a member and former chairman of the firm's Toronto-area United Way campaign steering committee.

Those are the kinds of events that are being replicated in many workplaces across the country, as corporate fundraising campaigns for United Way and other charities move into seasonal overdrive.

For the charities, these seasonal campaigns, concentrated between September and December, certainly count big.

In the Toronto area, last year's campaign raised $107-million, with about 60 per cent coming from employee workplace donations, says Susan McIsaac, vice-president of fundraising for the United Way of Greater Toronto. In Calgary, the total was about $50-million, with about 55 per cent of that from employees at work, says Brian Bowman, senior director of campaign and resource development at the United Way of Calgary and area.

As e-mail inboxes fill with announcements for yet another bake sale or names of raffle winners, employees disappear from their workstations to help out at events and pledge cards land on desks, many enthusiastic workers see these campaigns as opportunities not only to do good for charities but also to do well for their careers.

Others, however, see the barrage of pleas as intrusions and disruptions, and would rather have nothing to do with them at all. Only trouble is, they wonder, how will they be seen at work if they choose not to participate?

How big is the split? In a recent Globe and Mail online poll asking about attitudes toward charity fundraising at work, 51 per cent of 17,263 respondents said they like to support them.

However, another 13 per cent said they felt pressured to contribute, and 36 per cent said they preferred to make their donations privately.

Actively participating in campaigns can develop many skills that can be career boosters, from communication to networking and project management to teamwork, says Colleen Clarke, president of career specialist Colleen Clarke and Associates in Toronto. "If you can be part of the committee that organizes these things, your visibility increases profoundly."

Campaign leaders are often rising stars in a company, Ms. McIsaac adds. The opportunity to work closely with more senior executives on high-profile assignments gives them a special chance to shine. And they learn to meet new challenges, working long hours in unfamiliar roles while continuing to do their jobs, she says.

Many companies see it the same way.

"We look on it as a leadership opportunity," says Chris Seasons, president of energy company Devon Canada Corp. of Calgary, which recently wrapped up its one-week seasonal campaign in which there was 80-per-cent participation from the company's 950 Calgary employees.

He adds that employees who chair campaigns often come from the company's middle-management ranks and must perform tasks that are often unfamiliar to them in their jobs, such as speaking to large audiences and handling media interviews.

"I think the best way to test leadership is to get people out of their comfort zones," he says, adding that, with management support, campaign volunteers are given unusual freedom to run drives as they see fit. There are 80 core volunteers, he says, who are "in charge."

While taking on a leadership role will earn the most notice, any kind of participation can be beneficial to a career, Ms. Clarke says. "It doesn't matter what role you play, as long as you sit on the committee and do something."

Typically, charitable campaign committees strive for representation from as many departments and locations as possible.

This can provide valuable opportunities to network and demonstrate capabilities widely, says Kathleen Hunt, chairwoman of Calgary-based Enbridge Inc.'s campaign for Canada from Ontario eastward, which ran for a month. "They're from all different departments, ages, roles. It's wonderful."

And the connections don't end at the charities' doors. "I have that many more contacts that I can turn to in questions related to my job," adds Ms. Hunt, a program manager in the company's engineering group in Toronto.

Still, group enthusiasm can cross a line, Ms. Clarke adds. "There can be a lot of peer pressure because corporate pledge drives are pitched as social responsibility, and people are told that they should contribute to help the team meet its goals."

And the pressure can mount when companies aim for distinctions, such as raising the most money in an industry.

There are many employees who don't appreciate the pressure tactics, and companies have to be mindful of them, Ms. Clarke says.

"Nobody has the right to impose their values on you. It is still your right to make choices."

Major charities, including United Way, have clear policies against strong-arm tactics and try to remind companies, says Ms. McIsaac of the Toronto United Way.

Beyond that, there are ways to reduce the pressure, she says. One is to keep the boss out of the fundraising picture and restrict it to peer-to-peer canvassing so that workers find it easier to say no to colleagues than to superiors.

As well, donation decisions should be made in private, Ms. McIsaac says. "It should be group education, group fun, group kick-off events, but individual decision-making."

To help maintain privacy, donations should be made anonymously. Devon, for instance, provides an on-line tool so employees can register their pledges directly without the need for administrative staff to process them, and know who is, and is not, contributing, Mr. Seasons says.

For those who decline to become involved, there should be no career repercussions. "It's really important to respect people's right to say no," Deloitte's Mr. Fredeen acknowledges, which is one reason his firm's donation process is anonymous. "No one has access to who contributed."

Nor should non-participants feel badly. "You have to give yourself permission to not feel guilty if giving to a particular charity is not one of your priorities," Ms. Clarke says, adding that it's important to remember that, even if the boss is putting on the pressure, charity drive participation is not a condition of employment.

How to say no, which has the potential to cause hurt feelings and damage relationships in the workplace?

It's best to be polite and firm, Ms. Clarke says. But an explanation, such as you have already allocated your charitable donation budget, can help.

"Let's face it, everything that we do is recorded either consciously or unconsciously in someone's mind. You might want to give a reason for your decision so that everyone feels better about it."

When you decline, "it's important not to say something negative. Then you're judging those that are doing."

And sometimes, Ms. Clarke says, it just pays to go along, especially if it isn't much money and not a frequent request. "If your boss is selling chocolate almonds for his kids' hockey once a year, then come on, play a little politics."

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Campaigns at work

How to run effective workplace fundraising campaigns so that everybody is happy? Here are tips from the experts:

Aim for wide participation in many fun activities to build interest.

Focus major efforts on no more than one or two campaigns to avoid overdoing it.

Keep campaigns short -- two to three weeks -- to keep interest levels up.

Bring in speakers from benefiting agencies to help employees understand the value of their contribution in action.

Encourage employees to contribute time instead of, or as well as, money.

Keep donations anonymous.

Maintain canvassing among peers to keep employees from feeling pressured by superiors.

JUST SAY NO

For employees who'd rather not participate in company drives:

Be polite but clear. If you avoid a straight answer, you're likely to just get hit up again.

Explain that you have already set your charitable budget.

Don't make any negative comments about the value of the charity you're being asked to contribute to.

David Aston