The largest donation campaign of its kind in the county has begun soliciting pledges in its 39th annual drive from state employees to donate funds to local, state and international charities.

Jody Medeke, campaign marketing chair for the Partners in Giving Campaign, said the campaign runs through Nov. 30 and added she hopes to see the campaign raise close to the same amount of money as in previous years.

According to Phyllis Fuller, co-chair of the marketing campaign, the campaign was started in 1973 by the Department of Administration to reduce the amount of solicitation to state employees and combine it into one effort. Now, it is Dane County’s largest charitable workplace giving campaign, she said.

Medeke said the campaign raised $2.5 million last year, and 7,400 employees donated to at least one of the 520 charities. She said the charities range from local organizations, such as the Dane County Humane Society, to international organizations, such as Doctors without Borders.

Medeke said this year, the campaign hopes to engage more people and add 1,000 new donors. She said its approach is to find out what is important to people and inform them about one of their widespread charities. She said coordinators throughout different areas of Dane County use personal connections to solicit people to donate.

According to Fuller, this method of personal communication seems to be more effective than sending out forms for people to fill out. She said state agencies are able to have face-to-face conversations with their co-workers to make more of a personal connection.

Medeke and Fuller both addressed how it is important for people to realize any donation is a gift.

“Even many small contributions make a huge impact,” Fuller said.

According to Rachel Meek, chair of the statewide eligibility committee, the charities interested in being a part of the campaign must go through a screening process to make sure they are eligible. She said the eligibility screening consists of two phases; they are first reviewed to ensure they conform to administrative codes and then are transferred to the Department of Administration, where they are selected.

Meek said a variety of charity organizations apply once a year through an umbrella organization, such as United Way, and they can select if they would like to be involved in the Partners in Giving Campaign or the other two annual campaigns in Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Campaign and the Statewide Campaign.

Meek said she has been working with the campaign ever since she started working in state service. She said she believes the campaign is effective because there are so many different charities to which people can donate.

According to Medeke, the campaign consists of different committees. As chair of the marketing committee, Medeke said she is involved in compiling a list of charities for employees, keeping the website updated, sending out news releases and coming up with a theme.

“I really enjoy how engaged everyone is and how creative the volunteers are in engaging people in the campaign,” Medeke said. “It really fits with the theme for this year: ‘Together we move mountains.'”