Journal Appeal comes close to 2006 target

The Anglican Journal’s annual fundraising appeal collected $556,065 in 2006, just a hair shy of its goal of $560,000.

“It was still a success since it’s very close to our target,” said Larry Gee, business manager of the Journal.

While less than the 2005 appeal, which collected a record total of $638,000, the donations for 2006 constitute the second highest amount received since the appeal’s inception in 1994, said Mr. Gee. Donations were considerably higher in 2005 since many readers responded to the newspaper’s 130th anniversary that year, he said.

Mr. Gee said that the 2006 appeal also marks the second highest amount returned to the diocesan newspapers, the Journal’s publishing partners, at $207,365. (The Journal shares the net proceeds of the Appeal with diocesan newspapers.)

Journal editor Leanne Larmondin said the continuing support means that “the readers appreciate what we do for them in keeping them informed about their church at home and abroad. It also means that we’re doing something right both in delivering a quality newspaper and by adapting the appeal each year to attract new donors.”

Ms. Larmondin added, “As we told our readers in the 2006 Appeal, their donations from that record year were directly responsible for the two biggest projects we undertook in 2006. That was the first readership survey in more than a decade and the first redesign since 1998 of our Web site, anglicanjournal.com. These projects are so big that we simply couldn’t have done them under our regular operating budget.”

Average giving was at its highest in 2006, at $39. Mr. Gee also noted that the Journal Appeal had 2,015 new donors in 2006. He expressed the hope that like the existing donors, they would continue their support for the newspaper.

“I would like to thank our donors and stress just how important their donations are to us. It’s such an integral part of our budget. When we set our budget, we cannot deviate from it. We have no other sources if our revenues fall short,” said Mr. Gee. The target for the 2007 Appeal would be very similar to 2006, he said.

Three dioceses – Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador, Central Newfoundland and Western Newfoundland – have not participated in the Appeal since 1995.