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PUTTING THE �FUN� BACK IN FUNDRAISING

BE GENEROUS WHILE YOU TRAVEL

A few years ago, two of the travel industry�s top professionals, Rockie Ruttenberg and Richard Krieger, met at one of those interminable black-tie charity galas where the main �entertainment� is an assertively ebullient, in-your-face auctioneer. When the fundraising mercifully ended, both got up from their table vowing never to attend such a boring event again. Sometime later, they met again and agreed to blast the boredom out of charity events and inject excitement into fundraising. They combined their 30 years of experience in the travel industry and formed a company to help organizations meet their fundraising goals through travel. This travel is not just run-of-the-mill cruises and sleepy sojourns to the usual destinations; rather, it is travel that is eye-popping, unique, extraordinary, and, above all, unforgettable.

Today the concept behind Preferred Fundraising has been expanded from helping charities to raise funds through travel to enabling corporations and other organizations to treat their most valued employees to a travel fantasy come true�to a thrilling travel experience that would remain with them forever. Preferred Fundraising is based in Boca Raton, Florida and has offices in Athens and Paris.

Examples of Preferred Fundraising�s Extraordinary Travel

Attend the Cannes Film Festival in haute style! Imagine yourself going to the fabulous Cannes Film Festival like a Hollywood mogul in your own private yacht. Preferred Fundraising offers a floating six-star hotel stocked with champagne and caviar to a non-profit group, who�ll in turn offer their top patrons a choice of 50 luxurious private suites.� The vessel will be anchored in the beautiful harbor at Cannes on the Cote d�Azur, where it will tender its pampered passengers to and from the star-studded premieres and glamorous parties at the world�s most elegant film festival.

Cruise the Greek Islands with a tribute to Broadway. At the same time you�ll be helping to raise funds for the American Theater of Broadway Musicals to be housed in the new Performing Arts Center in Miami. Preferred Fundraising is arranging a sailing extravaganza for 200 guests next fall to celebrate 50 years of show business.

Thrill to �Bright Lights, Big Cities�--another travel extravaganza from Preferred Fundraising. It�s a show-stopping tour of New York City produced and directed for a cast of 25 fortunate women who�ll give their personal regards to Broadway. They�ll experience all of the city�s glamour, thrills and excitement up-close and behind the scenes in four glorious days and three star-filled nights in New York City and along its �Great White Way.� Far from just another Manhattan tour, these 25 women are in for the star treatment that only Preferred Fundraising knows how to deliver. They�ll stay in a hotel that was once a mansion built in the 1920�s, sit in choice seats at four of the hottest Broadway shows, dine at Manhattan�s best restaurants, meet theater insiders, get the inside scoop from a Broadway critic, tour a costume design studio and shop the city�s best specialty stores, boutiques and high-style salons.

Tour inspiring and unforgettable points of Jewish Interest in Central Europe. Here is a remarkable experience that begins in one of Eastern Europe�s most sophisticated capitals, the vivacious metropolis on the Danube--Budapest. The tour includes a visit to the Dohany Street Synagogue, Europe�s largest, then on to the city�s unique Holocaust Memorial and then to the center of the Jewish Community. Along the way, there are visits to the city�s fine museums or perhaps shopping in the smart boutiques that line the fashionable Vaci Street, Budapest�s elegant pedestrian shopping mall, located near the group�s hotel overlooking the beautiful Danube. Then it�s on to Krakow, the seat of Poland�s oldest university and Poland�s capital until 1611. The tour includes a visit to Kazimierz, where many Judaic buildings remain intact, including the 15th Century Old Synagogue, which houses the Museum of Jewish History and Culture. From experiencing the majestic and inspiring heights of Jewish culture and religion, the tour moves on to a solemn examination of Auschwitz and Birkenau, the most notorious Nazi concentration camps. Next the group travels to Prague, a center of Jewish community life continuously since the Middle Ages. There it winds through the narrow lanes of Josefov, the Jewish District where the Alt Neue Synagogue, the oldest active synagogue in Europe, is located.� The group visits the State Jewish Museum Complex, and goes on a walking tour of Golden Lane, where the great Czech writer Franz Kafka once lived and through the Old town, including the famous Town Square, the Old Town Hall and its astrological clock, which comes to life with the striking of each hour�signifying a time to be long remembered.

Edited by Kerry Cohen

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