Partners in Giving pledges increase

Organizers of the Partners in Giving campaign are smiling this month. Dollar totals and donor numbers at the university were up significantly from last year when the annual charitable workplace campaign officially concluded Nov. 30.

With contributions still streaming in, pledges from university employees totaled $894,296 by Dec. 6, compared with $789,266 a year ago. Pledges from employees at UW Hospital and Clinics stood at $74,306, nearly $10,000 more than last year.

The number of contributors stood at 3,218 — an increase of more than 400.

Campaign organizers say they won’t have final figures until mid-winter.

Tom Sinclair of the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, who chairs the campaign’s marketing committee, says that pledges using payroll deduction must be turned in by mid-December to ensure that deductions begin in January.

Partners in Giving dollar contributions totaled $2,000,722 as of Dec. 6, and 7,694 university, state and UWHC employees had contributed to the 2004 campaign. This year’s goal is to raise $2.7 million. Weekly progress reports will be posted through early February online.