Increase in Community Fund Raising Reported by Council of Jewish Federations

Central Jewish fund raising efforts — as exemplifies by the campaigns conducted by federations and welfare funds in cities throughout the country — resulted in more than a 326 percent increase during the ### period ending December 1946, it was reported today by the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds on the basis of a recent special study.

The study disclosed that 160 member agencies raised nearly $105,000,000 in ### against $50,000,000 in 1945, $40,856,000 in 1944, $33,240,000 in 1943, and ##,000,000 in 1942. It described the upward trend in welfare fund and federation fund raising to a combination of factors; the increasing recognition on the part of ###butors of the urgency of overseas needs; the improved economic conditions in re### ears; the steadily expanding sphere of interest of local central fund-raising ##es as reflected by the inclusion in welfare fund budgets of a variety of caus## were previously supported by independent appeals; improved campaign organi##; and increased taxes, especially during the war years, which were of advantage to tax-exempt philanthropic giving.The upward trend of campaign goals was reflected by fewer campaings for goals of ### than $100,000 and the tremendous increase in the number of campaigns seeking ### 000 or more. In the $100,000 to $499,999 category, the number rose from 17 ##igns in 1942 to 78 in 1946. The $500,000 and over campaigns grew from seven ### in that period.

“Reasons for this can be found in the records of 120 communities which have been reporting their complete returns to the Council since 1939,” the report says. ### showed that for every $100 raised in communities which conducted campaigns ##less than $25,000 in 1939, over $800 was raised in 1946. Gains were also ###d in intermediate communities with increases ranging from 418 to 542 percent. ### large campaigns — for $500,000 or more — showed an average gain of 269 percent.”

LARGE PROPORTION OF JEWISH POPULATION CONTRIBUTES TO LOCAL CAMPAIGNS

In 1946, exclusive of New York City, broadest coverage of contributors was {SPAN}##ined{/SPAN} in communities with campaigns of $50,000 – $99,999, an analysis of 111 campaign disclosed. There an average of 35 persons in each 100 of the estimated Jewish population were contributors. Other campaigns up to $500,000 ranged from 28 to {SPAN}##ivers{/SPAN} per 100 Jewish population. The largest campaigns – those for $500,000 and {SPAN}###{/SPAN} – secured about 23 to 24 contributors per 100 Jewish population.

Of the total number of contributors to these 111 campaigns, the Council sur## revealed that 20 out of every 100 gave $100 or more; 43 gave $10 to $100, and contributors gave less than $10. Sharpest deviations from this distribution oc##red in campaigns for less than $100,000. From 29 to 36 percent of contributions these campaigns were in amounts of $100 or more, and from 11 to 21 percent in ##nts of less than $10. In general, the larger communities showed a smaller ##centage of contributors who gave $100 or more, than did the intermediate and ##aller communities (those ranging from under 5,000 to 40,000 in Jewish population.)The decline in the number of small contributors and the marked rise in the ### of “upper” bracket or “big gift” contributors — $100 or more — is striking ### revealed by the statistics gathered after analyzing the results of 21 of these ### agencies which have been reporting their campaign information since 1939. In ### year these communities raised a total of $1,288,427 from 34,869 contributors. ## average gift per contributor amounted to $36.95; there were 17 givers per 100 ##wish population.