To a resounding chorus of a “Dayenu” prayer describing the achievements of outgoing community campaign chair Bruce Arbit, the Milwaukee Jewish Federation last week celebrated the workers of the Community Campaign 2001, which officially closed Thursday after raising $8.2 million.
The total represents a 4.6 percent increase over last year and some 5,000 donations raised by 600 campaign workers. MJF’s Women’s Division raised more than $2.2 million of the total, a 5.6 percent increase over last year.
“We are one people with one heart,” Arbit said, “and I sought for our campaign to be inclusive. The beginning of an outreach revolution in the campaign is one of the programmatic initiatives for which I would like to be remembered.
“Through the efforts of the phenomenal Women’s Division, our Agency Incentive Plan, endless telethons and direct mail, we brought in almost a thousand new gifts. We began to reach out to New Americans and involve them. With the guidance of my wife, Tanya, there are now over 260 Jews from the former Soviet Union who made gifts.”
After honoring acting campaign director Kathie Bernstein; campaign workers of the year Stephanie Wagner and Richard Ruvin; associate campaign chairs Penny Deshur, Jane Gellman, David J. Lubar and Scott Sampson; and former campaign chair Betsy Green, Arbit turned the program over to Susan Strait, chair of the Agency Campaign Partnership Incentive Program.
“Now in its third year, the program bolsters agency enthusiasm for, and increased participation in, the annual campaign and awards financial incentives based on the participation of agency boards as well as dollars raised and new donors acquired,” explained Strait.
This year for the first time, Children’s Lubavitch Living and Learning Center received first prize in the bonus section of the program. Also for the first time, all nine participating agencies met a baseline standard of achievement. And, for the third year in a row, Yeshiva Elementary School received the Super Sunday Traveling Trophy for having the highest percentage of board members participating in Super Sunday and Super Week.
“Expanding our donor base and involving our agency leadership in community fundraising are two of the most important ways we can assure a strong future for Milwaukee’s Jewish community,” said Strait. “The results of this year’s Agency Incentive program were impressive: We gained 137 new donors; 250 out of 300 possible board members were campaign workers; 84 percent of board members increased their gift; 74 percent participated in Super Sunday and Super Week; and gifts from board members increased by 11 percent.”
In the bonus section, four agencies received prizes based on 100 percent board giving, number of new donors, increase per solicitation, number of campaign workers and participation in Super Sunday.
CLLLC received the top prize of $10,000; YES received $8,000, Hillel Academy received $5,000 and the Milwaukee Jewish Council for Community Relations received $3,000.
Yerachmiel Robbins, who headed CLLLC’s participation in the program, said, “We are very pleased to have won this award. It’s a testimony to the hard work of all our volunteers, working as part of a collaborative effort for the greater good of our community.”
Receiving $2,000 each for meeting a baseline of achievement were: B’nai B’rith Youth Organization; CLLLC; Harry & Rose Samson Family JCC; Hillel Academy; Hillel Foundation-Milwaukee; Jewish Family Services; MJCCR; Milwaukee Jewish Day School; and YES.
In handing over the reins to incoming Community Campaign chair Jody Kaufman Loewenstein, Arbit said, “The annual campaign, together with MJF’s Jewish Community Foundation, provides millions on millions of dollars in the holiest of missions — tzedakah. This mission … binds together our endeavors and gives them power and substance both at home and worldwide.”
Arbit said he would also “like to be remembered for helping to put overseas needs back on the table and raising almost $400,000 for last year’s special Rescue and Relief Campaign. It is one of the core issues that unite us. No Jew should ever go to bed hungry, and no Jewish child should ever go to bed afraid. Every elderly Jew, wherever they live, must be able to live out their life with dignity. On these issues, we cannot, we must not, ever compromise.
“The last few months of my tenure has also been a time of great anguish and pain in Israel. If there is anything good that can come out of this situation, it is that Israel has returned to center stage in our community and in our hearts. It is unfortunate that it takes bloodshed to remind us how inextricably linked we are to Israel.”
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