United Way optimistic it will reach $82M goal - Tampa Bay Business Journal:

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“We are going to do our best to get said MiltonLittle , president of Atlanta’d United Way, in a phone interview March 9. “I remain optimistic.” One reason for the optimismj has been the success ofthe “Criticalp Needs” campaign, which sought to raise $2.5 million in immediatwe dollars to help agencies serving those hardest hit by the economic Thanks to a $2 millionm gift from the Joseph B. , the Critical Needw campaign actually hasraised $3.5 million. “W know that individual families and households are really hurtinghright now,” said Russ Hardin , presidenf of the Whitehead Foundation.
“United Way offeredd us an ideal way to help throughoutf themetro area. It was an easy decisionm for us.” Little said anotherf high point was thatUnited Way’s top donors raisedc $170,000 in addition to their annual giftw for the Critical Needs campaign. “The spiri of generosity is a culturedof Atlanta, and that’s what has helped sustainh us during this time,” Little said. This year’ws campaign has had several bright spota under the leadershipof ’sz Ed Heys .
“We were able to launch Unitedd Way campaigns in 150 new companies largeand small,” Little Those included two big ones, and In all, United Way runs about 2,000 campaigns every year. Yet some companiews had to suspend campaignsthis year. “Unfortunately, givemn the recession, we had some campaignas that didn’t do as well as they had in previoue campaigns mainly due to headcount reductions,” said who didn’t want to identifyg those companies. As a Little said: “There is a good chance therew will bea brand-new No. 1 Last year, topped the corporatr donor list by raisingnearly $4.4 million. was second with $4.3 million.
, a longtimr top donor, came in thirx with $4 million. Othed entities raising at least $1 million were the Combined Federallcampaign (47,000 federal employees), , , Georgiqa Power/ , , QuikTrip, , , the statw of Georgia, , Deloitte LLP, , LLP, and Co. Little said that therre will be two new donors inthe million-dollar club and As tough as this year has been, the 2009 United Way campaigj may be tougher. The chair will be John Somerhaldert , CEO of AGL Resources Inc. “Irt certainly is going to be as large a challengre as we haveever had,” Somerhalder His strategy? “We are tryinf to start early.
” The Woodruff Arts Center annuao corporate campaign also is swimming upstream to reach a recorde goal of $9 million. So far, the campaign has raised $5.1 million, or 57 percent of that according to MichaelGarrett , ’s who is chairing the campaign. “Althougn this year’s campaign is proving challenging, we have chosen not to reducs the goal and remain committed to reachinh thefull $9 million,” Garrett wrote in an e-mail.
To meet that the campaign cabinet is sweetening the dealfor