Feds - do you find the Feds Feed Families and CFC annoying when you are not getting a raise?

[Anonymous]

Um, extortion, anyone?

[Anonymous]

We were strong armed into CFC at my private organization this year. The organization wanted to brag that they had 100 percent participation so they were like "everybody needs to give. Even if it's only fifty cents a pay period." Same thing, we haven't had raises for years, and they encourage you to give to the internal Employee Assistance Fund so that your secretary can get a grant to go visit her dying mother, etc. Maybe our organization should pay the secretary enough that she doesn't have to beg her coworkers for charity to visit her dying mother.

Kind of like those feel good stories where everyone donated hours so a woman could have maternity leave. YOu know what? Every other civilized country in the world has maternity leave without anyone having to donate their annual leave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the concept of CFC (i.e. providing a way for employees to do charitable giving through their paychecks) is terrific.

I think the way the CFC is run in practice is horrible. I have been pressured by a co-worker to give, and then when I didn't (I was clueless at 23 yrs old), he came back and tried to get me to sign the form and he would put $2 in for me. I later found out that he and the other CFC rep from another division had a bet (or maybe the bosses had a bet) to see which division could get more participation (perhaps they were trying to get 100% participation). I guess my non-interest was holding my group back! I didn't know that at the time. I just thought the guy was being persistent. What he didn't know was that I was planning to leave my job in the next year to work full time for a non-profit doing direct services to poor people in DC -- in a full time volunteer corps program. But, actual charity gets lost in the CFC competitions.

I felt that it was nobody's business what I did with my GS-7 salary and I didn't need to be pressured to participate or pressured to sign a form while someone else gave a donation in my name.

Some years later, I was back in the gov. as a lawyer and as the new person in the office, I was tagged to be the CFC rep (they didn't know my history with it or my feeling about it!!). So, I did a low-key job of promoting CFC to my co-workers. I had to attend some kind of CFC gov-wide event at a Marriott (the big one up by the zoo). The CFC people had these barometers of what our fund raising goals should be and all I could think was "who the heck are YOU to just decide how much OTHER PEOPLE should be giving out of their paychecks?" They just take whatever they got last year and add 10% or something on it and decide that THAT'S what other people need to be contributing to CFC... and they were all rah-rah-rah and patting themselves on the back.

I just don't get how anyone thinks they (1) should decide what other people should be giving, and (2) should take credit for other people's generosity. It just doesn't make sense to me.... but it showed me how much of an industry this CFC thing is. It's not just a nice little process for people to make giving to charities easier. It's an industry. I disagree with that concept of "charity."

While I worked in an office that had some oversight over the CFC program, I experienced a situation where I received some life insurance money. My spouse and I wanted to use that $ to contribute to a charity that was related to the person's cause of death. Since we were going to make a decent sized donation anyway, we thought maybe we could boost the CFC totals too. Came to find out that the "overhead" is for CFC before a single dollar goes to the charity was like 14%. I thought, why would I send this money through CFC to get to X charity? My charity (and the cause) get less. We sent the money directly to the charity and skipped CFC.

To the extent that CFC makes it easy for people to give to charities and be helpful in the world, I like CFC. To the extent that CFC is about competition and pressure and people just making up "goals" so that they can then pat themselves on the back for other people giving money, I think CFC is a crock.

[Anonymous]

This is exactly my issue with it. All the emails and pressure are simply because people at the top need to look good to their peers.

[Anonymous]

Yes, but I'm better than the imbeciles we rely on to fully fund government, including salaries.

So every year I was a Fed (26) I gave $100 to CFC, earmarked for my choice(S). And I donate multiples of that directly.

I don't see the need to havecCFC's overhead affect most of my charitable gifts, so I gave to CFC for substantive reasons and so my participation counted for our office.

Bottom line, it may sting but most people I know can see past /above that. Even a small contribution is worthwhile IMO.

[Anonymous]

Even without a raise I have money to spare and I give to charity.

But the idea of giving money for people to spend at Walmart is so inefficient. Donating directly to a food pantry allows them to buy the food they need at a much cheaper rate (plenty of articles like this online: https://communityactionprovo.org/food-donations-vs-monetary-donations/) and why should Walmart, which pays its workers so little that many of them need to use food pantries, get any profits from my donations? No way would I participate in that. Better to use CFC to give directly to anti-hunger organizations.

[Anonymous]

I like Feds Feed Families and am happy to participate in that, backpack drives, coat drives, etc. My office is located in a very poor neighborhood, and I think I am paid well for what I do. My donations probably don't go up as much in years where there are no raises, but I don't mind giving at the same level.

I stopped giving to CFC when I found out what a huge cut they take. Before that, I didn't mind it although I was never the key worker and didn't attend the events. I donate to all the same charities now, I just do it myself. It's slightly less convenient.

What I *do* hate are all the fundraisers for office events and morale committees. There are constant bake sales, chicken sandwich sales, etc to raise money for semi-optional events like the office picnic. It's annoying and also pretty low dollar return for the time involved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were strong armed into CFC at my private organization this year. The organization wanted to brag that they had 100 percent participation so they were like "everybody needs to give. Even if it's only fifty cents a pay period." Same thing, we haven't had raises for years, and they encourage you to give to the internal Employee Assistance Fund so that your secretary can get a grant to go visit her dying mother, etc. Maybe our organization should pay the secretary enough that she doesn't have to beg her coworkers for charity to visit her dying mother.

Kind of like those feel good stories where everyone donated hours so a woman could have maternity leave. YOu know what? Every other civilized country in the world has maternity leave without anyone having to donate their annual leave.

Sounds like annual giving, not CFC.

[Anonymous]

As of last year CFC is no longer allowed to do fundraisers. It’s gotten much lower key. I still don’t participate for many of the reasons others in this thread have listed, none of it salary related.

[Anonymous]

On the list of things that bother me in a year without raises, solicitation for charitable contributions is way below increasing health care premiums and price hikes in cafeterias running on government contracts. I feel like the government should be able to say, "Look, we aren't going to pay our people a penny more, so you have to keep your prices the same if you want us to continue paying you."

[Anonymous]

I don't like when a lot of time gets sucked into CFC-- contests etc. I generally just tune it out. I used to participate in FFF but in this administration I just can't-- I'll look for ways to give that don't allow Trump appointees to claim credit for my donations while they destroy the country.

[Anonymous]

I hate the idea of my employer knowing about and taking credit for my donations to charity. MYOB, Uncle Sam!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I find it annoying and a waste of time and resources. But to me this isn't tied to whether we are getting raises or not.

same. i just ignore all the emails asking for money.

[Anonymous]

Yeah I'm over it. I stopped contributing a few years ago when people were furloughed. Luckily its not overwhelming at my agency. All the retired in place old timers do most of the organizing. I guess its their contribution to the office.

[Anonymous]

Being a Fed is the same as being on welfare.