Hundreds of volunteers help Federation kick off ‘Super Week’

On Feb. 12, more than 700 volunteers convened at sites from Manhattan Beach to the Conejo Valley for a day of community service projects and fundraising to support The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles.

But unlike last year, when at the close of Super Sunday, Federation knew how much it had raised for its annual campaign, the sum total of the more than 1,000 pledges made last Sunday still hadn’t been added up on Feb. 14, when The Jewish Journal went to press.

This year, Federation has changed what was a one-day affair into a “Super Week” of fundraising efforts.

The week started on Sunday, when about 300 volunteers gathered in Federation offices on Wilshire Boulevard and in the West Valley to make fundraising phone calls to Jews across greater Los Angeles. At the same time, more than 400 other volunteers took part in community services projects, all of which were part of Federation’s current month-long campaign to ensure that Jews with disabilities can participate fully in all aspects of Jewish life.

This year, for the first time, the fundraising didn’t end at the conclusion of the first day. As of Monday evening, about 50 volunteers had signed up to make phone calls on the evenings of Feb. 13-16, in a move Federation hopes will result in a broader cross-section of the Jewish community supporting its work.

In another change from previous years, donors who have made larger gifts to Federation in the past were not among those on the call lists handed to volunteers. Those higher-level donors will instead be approached by Federation staff over the course of the year.

In 2011, Federation raised $47 million from 14,000 donors for the variety of programs it runs and supports. About 10 percent of that sum — $4.6 million — was pledged on Super Sunday.