Day of Caring. Day of Doing.

Since the beginning, NorthWestern Energy has been committed to providing our communities with the best possible service. United Way’s Day of Caring is a huge undertaking in the Huron community, and 2022’s project was the most significant project Dennis Heinz has participated in since taking over leading employees for the volunteer event.

Dennis, NorthWestern Energy’s Credit Manager of Wholesale Energy Supply, wears many hats. He’s a volunteer, a coach and a painter. But when it comes to the Day of Caring, he’s also an organizer. The 2022 project, painting a two-story house, was more than what he was prepared for, but his team did a great job completing it.

The Day of Caring is a day to unite friends, neighbors, co-workers and the community for one crucial cause — doing good for others. Thanks to everyone’s hard work, volunteers successfully scraped, primed and painted a house all in one day for the 15th annual the United Way’s Day of Caring in Huron.

Dennis has dedicated his time to the United Way’s Day of Caring for more than a decade. He started as a volunteer, helping with painting and repair projects at local schools and community centers, and now he works closely with our team to ensure each project is a success.

“There’s no question about it, when these projects come into this system, there’s a lot of times they request NorthWestern because they know the quality of work and detail that we do,” Dennis said. “So I always share that with the volunteers — that just shows what kind of people our employees are.”

NorthWestern employees have volunteered their time throughout the years to help with a number of projects in the Huron community.

Past projects have included painting picnic tables, softball fields, basketball courts and guardrails in parks; working at the Girl Scout camp, cleaning up around the area and doing landscaping work; helping with projects at the Huron library; building three little lending libraries that are strategically placed throughout different parks in Huron; and volunteering at the senior center.

Beyond volunteering, we also provide a donation through our employee team grant program and a $250 contribution toward the cost of the Day of Caring T-shirts every year.

It’s not just about the time employees spend helping others — it’s about how our employees feel about themselves after doing it. When our employees volunteer with Day of Caring, we know they feel good about what they’re doing and why they’re doing it. And if there’s one thing Dennis knows, it’s that feeling good makes us better at what we do every day at work.

One of the things he’s most proud of is the number of volunteers who come back year after year. He loves that most volunteers bring their children to help out. Day of Caring has created a family culture around volunteering at NorthWestern Energy.

The culture and the caring family atmosphere are things Dennis values.

“It’s really encouraging and neat to work for something and somewhere like that,” he said.

Dennis has been with NorthWestern Energy for 25 years and says working for this company is special. He started as a credit collection supervisor and then moved into the role of call center supervisor and billing area manager. Today, he manages wholesale energy supply and other credit exposures within the company.

“I’ve said that time and time again, every year my anniversary comes up, I think that’s my consistent comment: I would’ve never dreamt of being in one place for so many years,” Dennis said.

“But that is entirely attributed to how the company has operated, upper management flexibility, and over the last several years, especially in (retired CEO) Bob Rowe’s tenure, the culture he developed here is remarkable.”

Since 2019, Dennis has led and organized volunteers annually for the United Way’s Day of Caring. NorthWestern Energy has supported the Day of Caring through our employee volunteer program - read more about it on Pages 48-49.

NorthWestern volunteers for Day of Caring:

2019 - 19

2020 - 14

2021 - 21

2022 - 17