Helping People
Lead Enriched and
Fulfilling Lives

ABOUT THE CFC

For more than four decades, the U.S. government has sponsored the Combined Federal Campaign - the world's largest workplace fundraising drive.

Each fall, beginning in September, Federal employees - civilian, military and postal - are invited to support eligible national and local charities. Each year more than 1.3 million employees pledge over a quarter billion dollars.

Employees choose the groups they wish to support from a list of charities that have submitted applications and been deemed qualified by the CFC. Approximately 1,900 national organizations and 40,000 local organizations qualify for the Campaign annually.

Donors may give once or request that a specific amount be withheld from their paychecks throughout the following calendar year. Employees overwhelmingly select the ongoing payroll deduction program.

The CFC's combination of donor control and payroll deduction leads to high levels of enthusiastic support. Over a third of the federal workforce participates in the CFC each year, with the average pledge exceeding $150.

The CFC's long history, significant success, and special concern for the screening and validation of charities has led other campaigns to follow its lead. Administrators of numerous state, municipal and private-sector campaigns incorporate all or part of the CFC list of charities into their own fundraising drives.

For more about the Combined Federal Campaign, please visit www.opm.gov/cfc.

ABOUT FEDERATIONS

The Combined Federal Campaign and numerous other workplace campaigns authorize organizations like us to act as “gateways” or “federations.” Each federation is itself 501(c)(3) tax exempt and is governed by a volunteer board of directors. Federations review applications, provide marketing services, and distribute donated funds.

There are currently more than thirty federations within the CFC, most of them like us organized around a specific theme. State and local campaigns also invite the participation of federations, but the number of such umbrella groups varies significantly from state to state and from municipality to municipality.

Organizations are not required to affiliate with a federation in order to enter a campaign, but most applicants do - for three key reasons.

1. Admissions support. Federations assist groups in preparing their applications. The requirements for participation in workplace campaigns can often seem complicated, and federations can help groups understand what is required and advise early in the process if corrections to the application are needed. If a group does not qualify initially for a campaign, federations can suggest changes that may result in admission in later years.
    
2. Increased visibility. Federations make it far easier for donors to find and support groups they are interested in. Campaign directories are often quite lengthy: In the CFC the directory of approved groups has about 100 pages. Federations are listed at the front of these directories in the table of contents, so donors interested in supporting work of a specific kind will quickly be led to a focused list of relevant organizations.
    
3. Fiscal services. Federations substantially reduce the administrative burden of processing donations. In the Combined Federal Campaign, for instance, almost 300 administrative units conduct the fall fundraising drive and, in the year that follows, forward pledged money to the intended charities. For organizations that participate in the CFC or other campaigns through a federation, donated funds are first transferred to the federation.
   
   Rather than receive correspondence, checks and electronic transfers from hundreds of local administrators, a federation's members receive donated funds on a regular basis from a single office - thereby cutting down on mistakes and confusion.