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By Lori Ann Burns
This year the Education Foundation (EF) is celebrating its 25th Anniversary! It is an exciting time for all AHRA members. The EF provides so many opportunities for our members to fully embrace education on so many levels.
Each year, the EF chair forms an Annual Appeal Committee with the goal of finding ways to encourage AHRA members to be a part of the EF. Since this year is the 25th Anniversary, we decided to kick it up a notch to grow donations and exceed our goals. To make this happen, we have created tiers of donor recognition:
Bronze: $40-$99
Silver: $100-$249
Gold: $250 and up
As an added incentive, any individual who donates $250 or more this year will receive a special invitation to our VIP Reception at the 2016 Annual Meeting in Nashville. Here we will celebrate our Gold donors in VIP style. We have also brought back commemorative pins to celebrate this milestone! This year there will be two: one pin for members who donate $40- $249, and one for our Gold donors who give $250 or more.
And as an added convenience, AHRA offers the option to have donations withdrawn from an account on a monthly basis. You pick the amount you can afford to give and decide how long you would like to spread it out. For example, if you give $250, you could choose to allocate it as $21/month for 12 months. (Ok, that comes out to $252, but what’s an extra $2 among friends?) I personally took advantage of the monthly donation option, which has allowed me to give more than I would have been able to with a one-time donation.
Due to our very successful campaign last year, the EF was able to create a new Education Waiver Program for members who are out of work but still want to attend the Spring or Fall Conference or the Annual Meeting. This waiver will help the individual network with other members and potentially get leads for a new job. The EF is committed to all our members and would like to see all succeed.
As of the 2016 Spring Conference in Chicago, we had 100% participation from the AHRA Board of Directors and the EF Board of Directors with donations of $250 and more. We also have other AHRA members who believe in our organization and have donated the same. Just recently we were informed that the founders of the EF are joining forces and making a monumental donation! They are all excited that we have grown as an organization and believe in what we do.
Your donation is also 100% tax deductible. I would love for every AHRA member to be a part of history this year, no matter if they donated $40, $252, $1000 or more. Everyone’s donation is essential to the success of the EF. Last year on stage at the Annual Meeting in Vegas, I mentioned that if our 5000+ members all gave just $40 each we would have over $200,000. Just think about the programs we could have for all of our members!
Lori Ann Burns is the 2015-2016 Education Foundation Chair. She is the MRI manager at Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck, NJ. She can be reached at l-burns@mail.holyname.org.
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