The Board of Directors wishes to thank Marketing EDGE for its very generous legacy grant of $15,000 to the DMAW Educational Foundation, in Memory of Jonah Gitlitz (1929-2021).
“It’s very fitting that Jonah Gitllitz would be the bridge between Marketing EDGE’s legacy of 56 years of service to our industry and the future of the DMAW Educational Foundation (“DMAW/EF”). Jonah was a visionary leader in the field of direct marketing, and we were honored to have him serve many years on our board, including two years as its President, from 2007 to 2009,” said current foundation President Courtney Lewis of Fuse Fundraising in Reston, Virginia.
“Because Jonah was the former CEO of the Direct Marketing Association, we also felt very fortunate to have the benefit of his perspective on national issues affecting our local industry, particularly with respect to recruitment. The mission of the DMAW/EF is focused primarily on working with instructors at colleges and universities in the mid-Atlantic region who are teaching — and in some cases, creating — direct marketing courses. Through our annual Professors Institute, we work to ensure these educators have access to state-of-the-art information to teach in their classrooms. Then we connect with their best students through our other programs, like the Collegiate MAXI Awards competition and the Mentor-for-a-Day externship program. This has helped to create a higher quality pipeline of entry-level talent for direct marketers in the Washington, D.C. region,” Lewis continued, “And this legacy grant from Marketing EDGE in Jonah’s memory will help secure the financial future of our 36-year-old foundation.”
“The Marketing EDGE grant in memory of Jonah Gitlitz is a game-changer for our foundation,” added DMAW/EF Treasurer Rick Powell, President & CEO of Production Management Group, Ltd., in Columbia, Maryland. “When he was President, Jonah always helped the board set a prudent fiscal course. Likewise, our board will work carefully to make sure this grant is used in a sustainable, repeatable way to fund the involvement of more professors and more students in DMAW/EF programs each year, for a very long time to come. I counted Jonah as a friend — this is a very apt way to honor his memory, and one that I feel certain would make him very proud.”
Founded in 1986, the DMAW/EF is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., and closely aligned with the Direct Marketing Association of Washington (“DMAW”). Though the two groups are separate entities, they collaborate to attract the interest of marketing professors, with the aim of preparing and encouraging their most qualified students to consider careers in the field of direct marketing.
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For a copy of the statement, please click here.