Jewish communities in 215 cities throughout the country raised more than $135,000,000 in 1946 campaigns for local, national and overseas agencies, the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds disclosed today.
Reports from 218 member agencies of the CJFWF in 215 cities, with results incomplete in some instances, show a total of $128,643,693 raised in 1946 campaigns. This does not include income from community or war chests, or sums raised through Jewish campaigns independent of welfare funds. It does not reflect fund-raising for local or non-local capital fund purposes except to the minor extent that these may have been included as an integral part of the regular welfare fund campaigns.
Eleven cities reported income of $4,374,681 from war chests supplementing the amounts which they raised directly in their own campaigns. It is estimated that 19 cities which have not thus far reported raised about $2,222,200 in 1946, and that 11 cities whose campaigns are still incomplete may raise an additional sum of $398,700. The addition of these figures to the total of $128,643,693 results in an estimate of $135,639,274 representing total campaign income of CJEWF member agencies in 1946, excluding special capital fund campaigns.
In 194 cities whose campaigns have been virtually completed, federations and welfare funds raised $108,912,221 in 1946 as compared with $52,574,656 in 1945, a gain of 107.2 percent. The average increase for welfare funds in 1945 over 1944 had been 22.9 percent. Cities which were in war chests during 1945 report an even more striking increase in 1946. Reports from 20 cities in this group indicate that they had received a total of $6,273,109 in 1945 through war chests, plus some supplementary campaigns. Their income in 1946 totalled $24,012,153, including $4,374,681 received from war chests and $19,637,472 from their own independent campaigns. The overall increase in funds available to these agencies was thus 282.8 percent.
The rate of increase over 1945 results was somewhat higher in spring than in fall campaigns. Spring campaigns in 149 cities raised $79,762,910, or 139.5 percent more than the $33,308,241 raised in 1945. The comparable figure for completed fall campaigns is an increase of 128.3 percent.
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