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By Margaret Battistelli Gardner

"Because this would be a single-issue focus as opposed to a general appeal, we were aware that we might ultimately raise significantly less money than the previous two campaigns," he says. "But the issue was too critical to ignore."

So buoyed by incoming Board Chair Barbara Dobkin's matching-gift offer, the organization launched the Fight Hunger from the Ground Up campaign with a straightforward e-mail from Dobkin, explaining the matching-gift opportunity and why she was providing it. That e-mail raised $19,000 right off the bat, and three subsequent e-mails — equally as tight as the first but signed instead by AJWS President Ruth Messinger — generated more than $185,000.