U. charity campaign ahead of schedule

"We're a little ahead of what we expected," said Assistant to the President Linda Hyatt. The charitable campaign is a system that allows University employees to contribute to charities through paycheck deductions. According to Hyatt, faculty and staff have responded well to this year's new method of solicitation. "One of the ways the charitable workplace campaign is different is in the design and solicitation of materials," Hyatt said. "We have had tremendous response indicating that they like this." This year, faculty and staff were given a single book, listing the different charities in alphabetical order, and giving a description of each. Previously, staff had received multiple mailings regarding the separate charities. "From a Penn perspective, just having a single book . . . is wonderful," said Jane Combrinck-Graham, a member of the Committee for a Combined Campaign. In the new campaign, there are seven United Way-sponsored federations and six independent ones, including Bread and Roses Community Fund, United Negro College Fund and Women's Way. A federation is a group that represents various charitable agencies and organizations when soliciting funds. The charitable campaign was redesigned last spring after faculty and staff complained that the only groups they could give money to were the United Way-administrated charities. The Committee for a Combined Campaign was formed last year to ask the University to allow non-United Way charities to be part of the campaign. Staff voted in a referendum this summer to change the campaign design and put all of the charities on an equal basis. The United Way charities have also been reorganized into seven separate funds. These funds group together specific interest groups, although they are still administered under the United Way's umbrella. Combrinck-Graham said she was pleased with the way the reorganization worked out. "The best thing is, it's Penn's campaign, it's not United Way's campaign," Combrinck-Graham said. "It belongs to the workplace."

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