October 5, 2006
CFD 2006 makes noise in its kickoff meeting
The 2006 Combined Fund Drive kicked off Wednesday on the UW campus with words of inspiration, a special song and a whacking-loud group percussion performance by the campaign coordinators.
Last year, the UW community raised a record $1.6 million through the CFD — the UW’s workplace giving campaign — for the more than 2,300 charities and organizations that receive help through the fundraising drive. That total reflected an increase in participation of 9 percent from the year before.
But in a spirited kickoff session in the Walker-Ames Room of Kane Hall Wednesday, campaign coordinators from across the campus were encouraged to increase the numbers of those giving even more.
UW Executive Vice President Weldon Ihrig told the gathered coordinators, “We take time out of every year to give back to and support our community … to take the extra time and effort to step up and say, from our personal lives through our professional giving, we want to do more.”
Ihrig mentioned the CFD 2006 goal of improving campaign participation by 11 percent, adding that personally, he’d like to see that level increase by another 20 percent this year. “Each of us makes a difference, and we are not reaching enough of our faculty, staff and students.”
The audience got further inspiration from Sandra Madrid, assistant dean for students and community development for the School of Law, and current chair of the United Way of King County, who said serving the United Way has been “a wonderful and humbling experience.” Madrid encouraged the campaign coordinators gathered — some of whom volunteered for their positions and others of whom courteously stepped forward when asked — to embrace the experience of the campaign. “Your time and efforts will be paid off,” she said. “The personal rewards are priceless.”
Madrid reminded the coordinators, “The biggest reason people don’t give is that they have never been asked before. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.”
Madrid asked the audience to remember who these efforts are for: “the homeless, the forgotten, the disabled, the children.”
Following Madrid’s comments and lunch, a group called Jamtown handed out percussion instruments of several types and guided the audience through an improvised concert. Earlier in the program, Tracy Spring, regional director of Global Impact, one of the many agencies receiving CFD support, performed a song titled “A World of Difference (In Our Hands)”
Coordinators with the 2006 fund drive say the ability to make and adjust donations online is even easier this year, too, with the new ability to log onto the Giving Station with a UW Net ID.
For more information on the ongoing campaign, visit online at www.washington.edu/uwcfd.
Look for profiles of CFD volunteers in University Week: Sandra Madrid will be profiled on Thursday, Oct. 12.
