With just over three weeks remaining in its 2003 campaign, EmoryGives, the University’s corporate giving program, is about 75 percent of the way toward its goal of raising $425,000 for Atlanta-area charitable organizations.

According to Michelle Smith, director of corporate giving, EmoryGives has brought in almost $319,000 through the first week of December. That’s an encouraging figure, she said, but a lot more work is necessary to reach the program’s goal.

“We’ve had a good response, but we need people to give a little more,” Smith said. “Emory is a community of caring, so I’m confident we’ll reach the goal.”

Donations can be made either through payroll deduction or through a one-time gift of cash or check. The deadline for donations to be counted for this year’s campaign is Dec. 31.
Universitywide, nearly 1,000 employees have made donations to EmoryGives. Ninety-five of those donors have given more than $1,000. Because of that generosity, they are termed “Emory Angels.”

This year, EmoryGives introduced two new partnerships. One lined up participants and donations for the American Heart Association’s Heart Walk at Turner Field, Nov. 16. More than $250,000 in donations were collected, and $10,000 of that was for EmoryGives. More than 2,000 walkers registered, the vast majority of them Emory employees.

The next evening, Emory-Gives hosted a shopping party at the Phipps Plaza Parisian department store. The store stayed open late, and for the purchase of a $5 ticket (with the proceeds going to Emory-Gives) shoppers received 20 percent off everything in the store.
More than 500 tickets were sold.

“People loved it,” Smith said. “We filled the store. It was what shopping used to be like.”
Last year, nearly $450,000 was raised through EmoryGives. Because of the country’s difficult economic situation, the 2003 goal was set a bit lower. That doesn’t mean, though, that giving is less important. In fact, giving is perhaps even more crucial now than it ever was before, Smith said.

“So many of us at Emory are fortunate in that we haven’t been touched by layoffs that are so common in other parts of Atlanta,” she said. “But that makes the needs of the community even greater than in the past.”

For more information about donation or about the EmoryGives program, visit
www.emorygives.emory.edu.