2015 Federation Campaign Kicks Off with Early Success

The 2015 Jewish Federation of Louisville Campaign is in full swing. The Campaign has raised more than $1.4 million toward a goal of $2.2 million. There’s still a lot of work to do to solicit the funding our community agencies need to carry out their missions.

“This year we decided to do a few things differently” said Doug Gordon, campaign chair. He added “We felt that most of our generous donors would make their pledges a little earlier than normal if we just asked them.”

Gordon explained that moving the campaign year earlier in the calendar year allows for more effective planning for how best to use the funds and builds in time to plan an even more effective campaign in 2016.

During the Week of Giving, from December 7-11 volunteers and staff from all of the community’s Jewish agencies came together those evenings at the JCC to make calls, and during those few days raised over $400,000. Combined with pledged received prior to the Week of Giving and at the Million Dollar Dinner, the Campaign surpassed the goal of receiving $1 million in pledges by December 13.

Another change was to open the Federation Campaign’s signature event, this year’s Million Dollar Dinner, to donors who pledged, individually or as a couple, a minimum of $1,000 to the 2015 Campaign. In prior years different giving levels have been tried, and this year’s level significantly increased participation and awareness of the work done through Campaign funding by inviting donors who previously may not have qualified to be part of our communal fundraising effort to participate and become stronger advocates for Federation’s work on behalf of our Jewish community agencies.

“To ensure everyone has a chance to make a pledge to the Campaign, we also sent pledge cards to many of our community members” Gordon added. “This gave them the opportunity to participate even if they haven’t attended one of our events or we were unable to reach them by phone” he said. Another mailing has just been distributed, so if you have not yet had your chance to make a pledge to the 2015 Campaign, please do so by returning your pledge card or by pledging online at www.jewishlouisville.org/donate. Pledge now and we won’t need to call.

Thank you for supporting Louisville’s Jewish community. Together we do extraordinary things.

Leave a Reply