The United Jewish Appeal/Federation Campaign for 1985 has raised $548.1 million, an increase of 12.2 percent over Campaign 1985 and a dollar gain of $59.6 million, Alex Grass, the UJA’s national chairman, told the Jewish Agency leadership here yesterday. Grass said the campaign pace is $40 million ahead of last year. Currently the campaign is 78 percent completed with Campaign 1985 pledges open from persons who pledge $150 million to Campaign 1984, Grass added.
Grass also reported that $638.5 million has been raised for Campaign 1984 by this juncture. “This even exceeds the projection we made in our April report to the Agency,” Grass noted. “And it represents the largest sum ever raised by UJA/Federation Campaigns in any peacetime year in our history. Many communities have finished their ’85 campaigns and we are working with the remainder to help them complete theirs successfully.”
Turning to cash collections — and pledges mean nothing if they are not paid, he noted — Grass said these were up too. So far in calendar 1985, $171.2 million has been received, an increase of $30.3 million over the same period in 1984.
$161.4 MILLION RAISED FOR PROJECT RENEWAL
Project Renewal, the partnership program by which Jews in American communities provide financial aid and support to distressed Israeli neighborhoods with which they are linked, or “twinned,” has raised $161.4 million to date, including $9 million in Campaign ’85, he said.
“The officers of the United Jewish Appeal, at their retreat in May,” Grass said, “concluded that the United Jewish Appeal reaffirms its commitment to Project Renewal and recognizes the obligations to raise the necessary funds to complete the program.”
He said he will appoint a special task force of UJA national officers to examine Project Renewal fund-raising, community by community, to help maximize the campaign. The task force will also explore the potential for Project Renewal fundraising to help Israeli neighborhoods not yet twinned to American Jewish communities.
Grass said plans are being formulated for Campaign ’86, including major fall missions for large contributors. He said that 24 officers have already made pledges to Campaign 1986 totalling $2,164,000, along with two additional Project Renewal gifts totalling $60,000.
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