June 30 will mark the end of ICMA’s 2015 fiscal year. Below is an update on what ICMA's Fund for Professional Management and Life, Well Run public awareness campaign accomplished in the last 12 months thanks to your generous support.

Since last July, the Fund for Professional Management helped support several communities in their efforts to protect, preserve and promote professional management positions.

• Voters in West Columbia, South Carolina (pop. 15,824) rejected a September 2014 ballot question proposing that the city switch from council-manager government to mayor-council by nearly a two-to-one margin; 1,314 supporting council-manager to 669 favoring the change to mayor-council.
• In November of 2014, by a 57-to-43-percent margin, residents in the capital city of Sacramento, California (pop. 479,686), voted to reject Measure L (the “Checks and Balances Act”), which would have replaced the city’s current council-manager form of government with a mayor-council structure. 
• The Fund also helped the New Jersey Municipal Management Association attend and exhibit at the New Jersey Mayor’s Spring 2015 Conference.

Meanwhile, the Life, Well Run campaign continued to build awareness of the profession and its value through various outreach channels.

• The campaign ramped up social media over the past year running campaigns and building the Life, Well Run online community. There are now 2200 Facebook followers and 1300 Twitter followers. 
• More than 100 print ads ran in 43 state league publications targeting elected officials.
• The campaign continued to expand and enhance the online community success stories map with more than 90 stories added. 
• An enhanced and expanded new student resource page was developed. 
• Brochures, presentations, press releases, and other resources are continuing to be added to the Life, Well Run website for state associations, local governments, and other stakeholders to use. More than 4,000 downloads have resulted. 
• The benchmark Harris Poll that was conducted in 2009 was fielded again in 2015. It showed improvement in awareness of the profession of CAO and the specific work that a city, town, or county manager does.

The work of both of these initiatives is possible thanks to the generosity of individual and organizational donors, like you.

If you are interested in supporting, or continuing to support, the profession through one or both of these initiatives, donate online or contact Erin Carr for a remittance envelope. Thank you, in advance, for helping strengthen communities everywhere by supporting the profession.