United Way Tocqueville Donors Recognized Nationally For Local Giving

May 6, 2010
Contact: Shelley Szafraniec, APR, CPRC
(706) 327-3255 ext. 202

The United Way of the Chattahoochee Valley, Tocqueville Society was recognized last week in Washington D.C. for having the highest percentage of donors who increased their giving more than 10 percent in 2009. Last year, 34 percent of the local Tocqueville Society (88 members) increased their contribution to United Way. The members pledged $1,585,000, which is 23 percent of the 2009 United Way campaign. (The United Way of the Chattahoochee Valley was recognized in the category of serving an area of 300,000 - 500,000 people.)

The United Way Tocqueville Society is a national association created to celebrate individuals who make an annual contribution of $10,000 or more to the United Way. The society takes its name from the French historian and aristocrat Alexis de Tocqueville who expressed his admiration of the American tradition of neighbor helping neighbor in his classic, “Democracy in America.”

According to Scott Ferguson, president of the local United Way, many communities have struggled with growing a Tocqueville Society, but that has not been the case in the Chattahoochee Valley area.

“We established a Tocqueville Society in 1993 with only five members,” said Ferguson. “By the following year, we had doubled and began to emerge as one of the most recognized societies in the country.”

The local Tocqueville Society continued to grow, averaging an increase of 10 new members annually, said Ferguson. “We live in a caring community with people who believe and trust in the work of the United Way,” he said.

The United Way of the Chattahoochee Valley improves lives and builds a stronger community by bringing people and resources together. Your United Way has 26 partner agencies and funds 50 programs that serve residents of Chattahoochee, Harris, Marion, Muscogee, Stewart, Talbot and Taylor counties in Georgia and Russell County in Alabama.


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