Community Gifts Donations Surpass Last Year’s by $69K

The generosity of Harvard employees has always been great. This year it has proved to be greater than ever.

The 1999-00 Community Gifts through Harvard Campaign has raised $871,912, an increase of $69,286 over last year’s total. More than 700 charitable organizations benefited from the Campaign, with only 6 percent of the funds donated to agencies outside Massachusetts.

Vice President for Government, Community, and Public Affairs Paul Grogan, who served as chairman of the Campaign, said, “The results show that people at Harvard University appreciate the remarkable network of nonprofit organizations serving the tremendous range of social needs in our two cities. And once again their response to this appeal has been terrific, a 9 percent increase over last year. We can’t really succeed as a University without healthy communities, and this Campaign is one way – only one way – that Harvard seeks to strengthen the communities in which we live and work.”

The United Way of Massachusetts Bay received $447,197 (51 percent) of the receipts. According to Brad Lestage, director of fundraising for United Way, Harvard University’s employee United Way Campaign leads all educational institutions in the United Way of Massachusetts Bay area and is the 11th largest contributor among nearly 1,700 workplace campaigns in that region.

Community Works received the second largest amount in the Other Charities option of the Harvard Campaign with $22,679. In total, $424,715 went directly to other charities. Other top charities of the 1999-00 campaign were Rosie’s Place, the AIDS Action Committee, Partners in Health, the University Lutheran Homeless Shelter, Planned Parenthood, Combined Jewish Philanthropies, Shelter Inc., Cultural Survival, Literacy Volunteers of Massachusetts, and Horizons Initiative.

Associate Director of Community Relations Mary Ann Jarvis, who served as manager of the Campaign, said that she and other leaders of the University-wide effort “are thrilled with the results. We very much appreciate the work and time that each of the campaign workers gave to this very important endeavor. This is a wonderful contribution to our host communities and a very important part of our community outreach. We are also fortunate to have the University provide options for individuals to reward their favorite charities using a payroll deduction. This convenience has made our campaign successful and allowed us to make a very large impact on the community.”