I am reporting on the results to date of the 2013 Combined Jewish Appeal campaign and steps still to be taken in order to reach our goal.

The relative success of the campaign should be of interest to the vast majority of our community as we benefit either directly or indirectly from the monies raised that assist in providing services and programs through our beneficiary agencies. Be it older adults that attend programs at the Gwen Secter Centre or children enrolled in the Gray Academy or in summer camps or families that take advantage of educational and cultural programs at the Rady Centre, we all benefit from the resources made available through our generous CJA donors. We should be thankful that we have organizations like Jewish Child and Family Service that assists countless newcomers and native Winnipegers or Shalom Residences that assists our most vulnerable or the Jewish Heritage Centre that preserves our most valuable historical records.

We must remember not to take all of what we have accomplished for granted. We must always work hard to ensure that we continue to be a strong, vibrant and welcoming community going forward.

So, what are the campaign results to date? The 2012 campaign raised $5,617,200 - the most in our history. We set a goal to reach $5.8 million in 2013. As of December 31, we were at $5,575,200 - the most ever achieved as of that date. You would be interested to know that the largest percentage increase in our campaign in the last several years is from our younger demographic with a whopping 22 new members of the Ben Gurion Society (donors under 45 contributing at least $1,000 annually). As of December 31, we are also proud to report that we have 4 new top donors ($18,000 and over) and 8 new Lions of Judah (women contributing a minimum of $5,000).

All of this is good news, but we are still $225,000 away from achieving our goal. The campaign does not close until March 31 and historically there are a number of donors who make their commitments between now and March. However, we have identified donors who normally make their pledges before year end but have not done so yet. As well there is no shortage of potential donors, who have either not made a pledge for a number of years or have never made a contribution to the campaign. PLEASE REMEMBER that every donor and every dollar counts and will make a difference. You will be comforted to know that:

• Only 10% (including my time) is spent on running the campaign and that our goal every year is to maximize what we allocate to our agencies;
• We collect our pledges. Last year our uncollected pledges amounted to $12,000, which meant that 99.78% of pledges made were collected;
• None of the monies raised were used to service bank loans, as the Federation and our agencies are debt-free and operate on balanced budgets.

Finally, for those receiving and reading this report who have not yet made their pledge, PLEASE do so. There is still time and our agencies are counting on us to reach our goal. You can get back to me (204.477.7420 ) or our campaign office (20.477.7428) or click here to donate online now. In the meantime, I want to thank all of you for your generosity and commitment to our community and wish you and your families a 2014 of good health and happiness.