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.

I used to donate through CFC but stopped after consulting with friends who work at a few eligible charities. They all indicated that while CFC is fine, their organizations prefer direct donations. So that's what I do now.

I don't mond Feds Feed Families since it's very low-key at my agencies. HR puts put some big boxes, I buy food and leave it in a box, done. We get a few reminder emails, but that's it.

Anonymous wrote:I HATE these programs with a passion. What annoys me the most is that my coworkers have to run these programs- which means taxpayers are paying their salary while they're nagging all of us for money or food.

My Department also runs a "service day" that I have to take annual leave to attend. Umm no. I'm not picking up trash alongside the roadway to make my Department look good and taking annual leave for it. I would be fine attending if it were after work or on weekends, but I have little to no annual leave as it is.

Really? That's crazy. Not a chance I would do that. Do you have a union? If so, have they tried to push back on this?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, lots of bad feelings here!

My family gives a lot via CFC. I like that it's anonymous so we don't get multiple solicitations from charities wanting more and more. I really like the program. I mostly ignore the events, and haven't found issue with the places I've seen donated to before.

I hadn't thought of that! I donate a significant amount to St. Jude every year but am considering stopping because they won't stop mailing me. Why are they wasting the money I donate to them on mailings?

Donate through Charity Navigator (Network for Good) instead.

CFC takes a cut of donations before giving them to the charities and are not very transparent about the size of the cut (approximately 10% the last time I dug it up).

Charity Navigator (Network for Good) has a smaller processing fee (approximately 3%) and allows you to cover the processing fee, so the charity gets the full donation. The processing fee is tax deductible. Similar to CFC, Charity Navigator doesn't share your information with the charity unless you allow it.

i don't do it any longer. give to my own charities

I like CFC because I can donate without seeing it in my paycheck. I think the events are stupid.

Anonymous wrote:Wow, lots of bad feelings here!

My family gives a lot via CFC. I like that it's anonymous so we don't get multiple solicitations from charities wanting more and more. I really like the program. I mostly ignore the events, and haven't found issue with the places I've seen donated to before.

I hadn't thought of that! I donate a significant amount to St. Jude every year but am considering stopping because they won't stop mailing me. Why are they wasting the money I donate to them on mailings?

I HATE these programs with a passion. What annoys me the most is that my coworkers have to run these programs- which means taxpayers are paying their salary while they're nagging all of us for money or food.

My Department also runs a "service day" that I have to take annual leave to attend. Umm no. I'm not picking up trash alongside the roadway to make my Department look good and taking annual leave for it. I would be fine attending if it were after work or on weekends, but I have little to no annual leave as it is.

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.

agreed. we donate on our own not through CFC

Wow, lots of bad feelings here!

My family gives a lot via CFC. I like that it's anonymous so we don't get multiple solicitations from charities wanting more and more. I really like the program. I mostly ignore the events, and haven't found issue with the places I've seen donated to before.

I stopped contributing to CFC the year that we had furloughs - I think that we knew that we were likely to have furlough days, but we didn’t know how many furlough days that there would be, at the time that we had to commit to CFC. Even though I had enough space in my personal budget to still donate to CFC even with the salary loss from some furlough days, I stopped on principle: I didn’t want to make a commitment to a workplace organized fundraiser when that workplace couldn’t commit to my coworkers and I.

I ended up switching over to direct donations with most of the charities that I had been supporting through CFC. A couple of charities didn’t have the option of setting up monthly contributions, so those charities lost out, but oh well. Since that point I’ve never switched back to CFC.

I find CFC to be obnoxious and a huge waste of time, regardless of whether I am getting a raise. The man hours and resources that go into planning and holding events are wasteful. While some of the participating charities are not explicitly political (because they are charities, duh), but they nonetheless have an almost partisan agenda. Plus, the government should not be in a position to monitor the legitimate charitable contributions of its employees.

Feds Feed Families is less obnoxious, but in my office it is a competition between divisions, and I find the constant exhortations to contribute to be a little much.

I am not a fed, but I find office sponsored charity obnoxious in any setting. If the employer thinks something is a worthy cause, it should make a donation, or other contribution. It shouldn't solicit money from its employees. I give my time and money to charities that I select, and I resent my employer or co-workers trying (and failing) to guilt me into contributing to a charity of their choice.

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.

We just had presentations on Fed Feeds Families (they want us to put money in a box and then someone will go to Walmart and get all the food) as well as CFC (including begging someone to be the coordinator).

In this anti-fed/no raise environment, I'm slightly annoyed that our leadership is bugging us for money.

Just curious if anyone else feels this way.