Piedmont Education Foundation is thrilled to announce that they’ve raised their first $1M in this year’s campaign, a strong start towards their goal of raising $5M for local schools this year. The $5 million goal is far beyond what the Giving Campaign has raised before.
Last year’s campaign raised just over $3.6 million. Giving Campaign co-chairs Kim Hunter and Catie Osborn think it’s possible.
“When we volunteered to chair this campaign for a third year, we wanted to make sure it was the right thing for our schools,” says Hunter, “So, we took time to reflect on how we can better engage with our community around giving.”
“We realized that we wanted to move away from a check-writing campaign and open up the conversation to find out what motivates people to give, what motivates them to invest in our schools,” said Osborn. “We want to have deeper conversations with our friends and neighbors about why we make it a priority to support our schools.”
These conversations are beginning to take root. PEF is already seeing more participation and higher donations than at the same point in the campaign in previous years.
Dana Edelman and Luis Alonso, Rick Scholten and Lindsay Larson, and Justin Wallway and Wendi Lelke-Wallway enjoy the evening celebrating Piedmont’s schools. 
Peter Dahling and Caroline Davis join Anna Putnum and Daniel Rampton as PEF says thank you to Giving Campaign lead supporters.
Last Wednesday, PEF honored its lead donors at a party hosted by Aric Shalev and April Gruber. Hunter, Osborn, and Bridget Schreiber, PEF’s board chair, spoke in front of more than 80 guests about their gratitude for their donors and their pride in living in a community that maintains such a high level of investment in public education.
To donate to the Giving Campaign, visit PiedmontEdFoundation.org/donate. To learn more, visit PiedmontEdFoundation.org.
Thank you to all the donors and volunteers! You are appreciated!