Charitable Campaign
Annual campus program offers ease and choice in community giving

By Karen Holtermann, Public Affairs

31 October 2001 | Campus employees may target donations to any of hundreds of local or national charitable organizations through the UC Berkeley Charitable Campaign 2001, to be launched this month by Chancellor Robert Berdahl.

For the fourth year, the campus has made special arrangements to assure that 100 percent of staff and faculty gifts go directly to the charities they designate.

Gifts may be directed to nearly any charitable organization, benefiting health, education, and community outreach and services.

“Our lives are touched every day, in ordinary and unexpected ways, by hundreds of organizations working to make our community better,” said the chancellor. “The Charitable Campaign is our chance to give as a community, to the community.”

A campaign packet, to be mailed soon to faculty and staff, lists hundreds of organizations to which employees can designate their gifts.

Two programs are especially featured for easy, “fast track” donations: the campus’s own School/University Partnership Program (formerly the Berkeley Pledge), a model educational outreach program for K-12 students, and the United Way Community Impact Fund, which consolidates gifts for many organizations working together to solve critical problems locally. Community Impact Funds may be directed to general assistance for the Bay Area or to specific counties. The United Way also suggests that the community funds aid agencies in helping local people deal with effects of Sept. 11.

Donations to the campaign may be made directly or spread out over time through payroll deductions.

For information on the campaign, look for a pledge packet in campus mail or visit the Web site at www.berkeley.edu/charitable.