by David Ball
Staff Writer
City of Jacksonville departments are well on their way to meeting the $360,000 goal for this year’s United Way campaign, with about $75,000 being raised since the campaign began Nov. 1, said campaign manager James Richardson.
“We’re doing good so far,” said Richardson of the campaign that ends Dec. 15. “We’re still in the very early stages and not everything has been reported yet.”
Last year’s campaign raised more than $386,000, well above the goal of $358,000. About 70 percent of the funds are raised through direct employee contributions, while there rest is through fund-raising activities like the recent “Great Planning Dept. Annual Chili Cookoff” that raised $500.
Last Friday, several City departments set up booths in Hemming Plaza to sell hot dogs and drinks as well as garage sale items provided by City employees. Richardson said the event raised a small amount of funds, but the real purpose was the generate excitement over the current campaign.
“The primary purpose was to create a buzz,” said Richardson. “We have the United Way agencies set up a table to provide information about the programs, and it provides the departments an opportunity to increase their totals.”
Richardson said the Public Works Department is usually the biggest fundraiser, as it accounted for $85,000 (22 percent) of last year’s total.
The City’s contribution of $360,000 would represent about 2 percent of United Way’s total community campaign, said Vice President of Resource Development Linda Malloy.
“That’s a pretty good amount,” said Malloy. “The City employees are very strong contributors to our community fund, which goes to those group of programs that address Northeast Florida’s most critical health and human service needs.”
Outside of just fund raising, the City also partners with United Way on programs like Mayor John Peyton’s literacy program Rally Jacksonville!, the United Way’s 24-hour referral hotline and the Real Sense prosperity campaign to provide tax information to individuals.
Malloy said she expects the City to exceed its campaign goal as it did last year.
“They went through some reorganization and had a little bit of a late start,” she said. “But we set a very realistic goal of $360,000, and I think they’ll exceed that.”