Durham, NC - Halfway through this year's "Doing Good in the Neighborhood" campaign, Duke is still looking for more employees to pledge their support for local charitable programs.

Last year, Duke employees pledged nearly $500,000 to support Durham community programs and services. This year, the need for support is even greater.

"Unfortunately, we lost many of our steady donors last year due to a processing change that required faculty and staff to resubmit a pledge form instead of allowing their contributions to rollover automatically as they have for years," said Phail Wynn, vice president for Durham and Regional Affairs. "We've addressed that issue this year, but as a result, donations last year dropped to about half of what they were a few years ago."

The "Doing Good in the Neighborhood" campaign invites faculty and staff to give directly to about 30 organizations and programs supported through the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership and the Duke University Health System. These contributions are not subject to any administrative fees, so the entire contribution goes directly to support organizations in local neighborhoods.

Employees can also contribute to United Way agencies through the "Doing Good" campaign. These contributions are subject to the United Way's administrative fees.

To learn more about Doing Good in the Neighborhood or to make a pledge online, visit the Duke: Community Engagement website. This site includes short video comments from Duke leaders such as Debara Tucci, Ben Reese, Steve Smith, Kevin Sowers and Steve Nowicki about why they contribute to the campaign.