Federal Employees Are Givers. Service is in Their DNA.

Community leadership takes many forms, and charities in thousands of local communities, across the nation and around the world are fortunate to have the generous support of federal workers who answer the call for leadership each year by participating through the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC).

Only a Few Days Left to Participate.  CFC Ends Wednesday, January 15, 2014.

If you have already made your CFC donation this year, thank you and, please consider making an additional gift if you are able to do so.

If you have not made a contribution through the CFC yet, we ask you to consider doing so now before the campaign closes on January 15, 2014. To participate, contact your agency Keyworker for a CFC Charity List and/or pledge form, or visit http://www.opm.gov/combined-federal-campaign/find-local-campaigns/locator/ to find your local campaign online.  Each charity participating in the CFC has a unique CFC# assigned to them.  To support a specific charity, enter their unique CFC# to support them.  All of America’s Charities’ members participate in the CFC.  For a list of our members and their CFC#’s, click here.

CFC Projected to Fall Short by $10-$12 Million

Money donated through the CFC provides charities with a stream of cost-effective, unrestricted, sustainable financial support that they count on year in and year out to address a diverse range of social concerns and needs – from causes including education, human rights, hunger and poverty, to animals, veterans, disaster relief and children services.

In recent years, contributions to the CFC of the National Capital Area have fallen and things look even worse for the 2013-14 campaign, which ends on Wednesday, January 15, 2014. 

In a Washington Post article recently published by Joe Davidson, Kalman Stein, President and Chief Executive of Earthshare, the federation that currently administers the local CFC, stated, “As of Thursday, the campaign pulled in about $40 million ($10- $12 million less than last year’s campaign).  The decline in donations will impact more than 2,000 local charities and another 2,500 national ones, as well as the people they serve.”

In that same article, Steve Delfin, President and Chief Executive of America’s Charities stated that despite the lower participation rates, “federal employees are givers. Service is in their DNA.  But until the CFC is integrated into broader federal employee engagement, it will be a siloed activity, driven by compliance and regulations, and not realize its true potential as a way to positively engage employees, raise money for charities and — let’s not forget — lessen the burden of government.”

“One way to enhance that engagement, he suggested, is to regularly provide givers information about the charities that are supported. Now, “the CFC is entirely focused on a fundraising sprint with little ability to communicate with employees about the impact of the gifts on a year-round basis,” he said. “Thus the ‘campaign’ becomes disconnected from broader federal agency employee and community engagement strategy.”

We said it before, but it’s worth repeating, THANK YOU!  Every donation counts, and on behalf of all of America’s Charities members, thank you for your past and continued support.

Suggested Reading:

>>  The Washington Post: “Low morale of federal employees is putting a crimp in charitable giving,” by Joe Davidson

>> America’s Charities Blog: “You’ve made a donation, now what?”

>> America’s Charities Research: “SNAPSHOT: Trends and Strategies to Engage Employees in Greater Giving”