By McGill Reporter Staff
The final total for the McGill Centraide campaign has been tallied and the news is good. Better than ever, in fact. In the end, the generosity of the McGill community helped raise $468,000 for Centraide of Greater Montreal – marking the highest amount ever raised by McGill.
“When McGill launched the Centraide campaign in September, we set two lofty goals: increase the community participation rate to 10 per cent, and raise $425,000,” said Rosie Goldstein, Vice-Principal Research and International Relations and a 2014 campaign co-chair. “We were confident that the McGill community would continue to show strong support for this fundraising initiative, but we were blown away by the final results. We look to the 830 donors, all of whom shared in our vision and enthusiasm, for helping us meet and surpass both our goals by a wide margin. None of this would have been possible without them, and without the support of Centraide and our many volunteers.”
Centraide raises millions of dollars every autumn to support 360 agencies in the greater Montreal area that provide help to individuals and families in poverty or who live their lives cut off from contact with others. These agencies have deep community roots and have demonstrated an ability to innovate and work with other partners as they focus on empowering individuals to overcome hardship.
As part of McGill’s commitment to the Montreal community of which it is a part, the University has been a strong supporter of Centraide for the past 10 years and is one of the top workplace fundraisers. McGill’s annual campaign has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to help people who are hungry, alone, in need of care or a helping hand to get back on their feet.
Earlier, Centraide of Greater Montreal announced that the campaign had raised a total of $55 million. “Each contribution, large or small, helped to us to advance in the right direction,” said Elliot Lifson, Vice-Chairman of Peerless Clothing and co-chair of Centraide’s 2014 campaign. “We want to extend our heartiest thanks to the thousands of donors and volunteers who joined in this adventure with heart and passion in order to brighten the lives of hundreds of thousands of our most vulnerable fellow citizens.”