The importance of our annual campaign

By Rosalee Bogo, Campaign Chair

What an incredibly caring community we are. Since the appeal for the Israel Emergency Fund has been made, you have answered the call. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have come to our Federation and will go directly to heed humanitarian needs in Israel.

Anytime there are emergency needs, there is a strong effect on our annual campaign. That happened this past year when the community donated funds to help with Hurricane Ian and the war in Ukraine. As a result, the annual campaign fundraising goal, which was set to satisfy the needs of our budget, was not reached. This was especially problematic, and our Allocations Committee was forced to cut the funding of many of our recipients as we simply were unable to fulfill their requests.

You may not know where the dollars you donate to your Federation go. The larger synagogues in our community get scholarship money for religious school and camps. Our smaller local synagogues get funds for help with community programming. The Baker Senior Center gets funds to help with geriatric case management and the Holocaust survivors, who are a priority of this Federation. With the amount of antisemitism happening, it is even more important to give funds to the Holocaust Museum to educate the community about the Holocaust. We support Jewish War Veterans, BBYO, FGCU Jewish students, Jewish Historical Society, and many others. We have local and overseas needs that also must be met.

There are core assessments we must satisfy annually from JFNA to JAFI, ORT and JDC, our overseas partners. This also includes Birthright Israel. We allocate to agencies in Israel that help the elderly, like Yad Lakashish, and the immigrant children who need to be educated to prepare for the army and Israeli life. We support Neve Michael, a residential home for abused children who are referred by the local law. It has the only emergency center for teen girls. Many of our leadership team have visited these sites and see the need for support.

There are so many needs for the dollars we raise. Our campaign kickoff is Nov. 29 and campaign cabinet workers will be calling you to get your pledge. Be sure to thank them for calling. Raising money is not easy, but nothing is more gratifying than helping those in need.

“Be glad you are the hand that gives and not the one who needs to receive.”