New Fundraising Campaign
Maccabi GB "MORE THAN JUST SPORT"
Maccabi GB today announced a new Fund Raising campaign which they hope will focus the Community's attention on their core objectives of Jewish Continuity. The campaign entitled "More Than Just Sport" highlights the organisations success in using sport to encourage the community to get in touch with their Jewish identity.
Maccabi GB Chairman Stuart Greenberg explained, "For over 70 years, we have played a key role in the Jewish Life of this country but at times our real mission has been masked by the large number of sports events Maccabi GB and its many affiliates deliver each week. The images we will be using as part of this campaign highlight our core objective and we hope that the message will strike a chord with our community. The future of our community rests on engaging the next generation, which is proving to be a difficult task for many organisations. At Maccabi GB we are managing to connect with large numbers of young people every week which means that supporting us and our work will have a direct impact on the community's future.
Stuart continued, "Maccabi GB is proud to provide sports for our community, but it is vital that the community understands why we do what we do and the funds we need to deliver over 200 projects, programmes and events to 26,000 users annually.
It may not be at the forefront of their minds, but if you speak with young Jewish people who play Maccabi Sport you will find that as a direct result of their involvement in Maccabi they have made lasting friendships and created meaningful relationships that have lasted a lifetime".
"Currently young people spend a great deal of their time 'social networking' in a virtual world, Maccabi GB offers them the opportunity to actually meet new people through sport." 2009 has been a record year for Maccabi GB in terms of reaching young people, but like so many other charities we have seen a reduction in the community's financial support". Stuart added, "Whilst we all appreciate how difficult the economy is right now, the community cannot afford a year or two where people do not continue to support charitable organisations such as Maccabi GB. Every day, month or year without a Maccabi GB activity increases the chance of a further reduction in the Community's size."
"There are many in our community that give financial support to us and other Jewish charities, but there is still a significant proportion of the community that uses the services we provide, but donates very little towards its existence. I really hope that this campaign reaches our community, on all levels, to help us continue to deliver this vital work."
Stuart concluded, "Sport is what we do, but Jewish Continuity is why we do it and with thousands playing Maccabi Sport each week we have a range of activities that helps these young people stay connected to their roots. In addition our programmes such as Streetwise (our joint partnership with the CST) and our Schools Programme are reaching thousands of young people each month and our Leadership Programmes continue to develop more Sport and Youth Leaders than ever before. But these programmes need financial support and I hope this initiative will reach the hearts and minds of our community. Stuart concluded "A community that plays together stays together and we will continue to do everything we can to reduce assimilation and promote Jewish Continuity via our broad range of projects, programmes and events".
For more images please click here
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