Gifts to the 2017 Cornell United Way campaign continue to move the university closer to its $750,000 goal for the 2016-17 academic year. Pledges and gifts as of Jan. 18 have brought the university to $638,630.16, or more than 85 percent of its goal.

Two upcoming events are expected to increase that total:

• Cornell’s United Way team will host a table at the Winter Employee Celebration,Jan. 28, 2-6 p.m., in the Ramin Room, Bartels Hall, providing activities for kids, information and giveaways.
• The second Big Red One-Day Online Auction, Feb. 10, midnight-to-midnight, will feature dozens of Cornell- and Ithaca-related items and experiences up for bid, including behind-the-scenes tours of buildings such as Sage Chapel, meals and gift baskets.

Cornell campaign organizers are hoping to continue to raise campaign participation rates before and after the auction. All gifts, at any level, aid members of the community in need, and thousands of Cornellians rely on services from the United Way of Tompkins County or have at some point in the past.

For example, a recently released video features a family that has benefited from the Franziska Racker Centers, an agency supported in part by the United Way of Tompkins County.

Also, a Jan. 23 “East Hill Notes” column by Susan Riley, coordinator for the Cornell United Way campaign, features an individual who benefited from another United Way-supported agency, the Women’s Opportunity Center.

Riley said that her position has increased her commitment to the United Way: It “provided me the opportunity to work closely with other staff who have contributed their time and efforts to help promote the campaign with their colleagues. …Yet the biggest reason I give now and will give going forward is that I’ve had more opportunity to see the impact United Way has in our shared communities.”

An overview of this year’s United Way of Tompkins County campaign, and Cornell’s role in it, can be found in this week’s “All Things Equal,” podcast, featuring an interview between Gary Stewart, associate vice president for community relations, and Joe Mareane, Tompkins County administrator and the United Way of Tompkins County campaign chair.

Through the Cornell United Way campaign:

• A dollar per paycheck can help address a long list of needs in the community. Every dollar given by individuals to the campaign directly benefits programming.
• The Cornell campaign provides nearly 40 percent of the annual Tompkins County United Way campaign goal.
• You can designate your gift to a program or agency of your choice, including any nonmember 501(c)(3) health and human service agency, in or outside Tompkins County.
• Giving is easy with Cornell’s online giving system or by using a hard-copy pledge card or by emailing community_relations@cornell.edu.