http://www.charitychoices.com/cfcgive.asp

The CFC’s overhead is low, thus nearly all your money goes to the charities. Many people have an image of the CFC as a huge operation, but it is not. Nationally, fewer than 10 people administer the CFC. Most of the work is done by individual federal employees who agree to act as CFC key workers during their work day. The cost to run the DC-area CFC is about 7%. In contrast, direct mail or telephone solicitation can cost 50-100 percent.


Having your gift deducted from your paycheck is a great, nearly painless way to provide a real boost to the charities you choose to support. Having just $10 deducted from your pay every two weeks adds up to a donation of $260 over the year. Plus, because more than a million people give through the CFC each year, your gift adds up. The average CFC charity gets a big boost from the money they receive through the CFC each year.




I donate to organizations I would support outside of CFC-- ACLU, Planned Parenthood, Bread for the City...

There is no pressure for 100% donation at my agency.

One of the PPs who doesn't donate through CFC...

I understand that it gets a great deal of money to organizations by making it easy for feds to donate (fill out a form, and it's all taken care of). And that many organizations have come to depend on CFC contributions.

The problems, as I see it, are that there's an administrative overhead that's way too high (it shouldn't be more than a couple of percent, max), there's a bizarre (and overt) pressure to donate (despite rules meant to prevent this), and significant agency resources (money and manpower) are used to promote CFC, host CFC events, etc.

At a time when my office is pinching pennies so we can buy toner for our printers, I'm offended that money is being spent on a "kickoff" reception for CFC, and other CFC activities. And that the admin person for our section can't take care of things because she's too busy doing CFC stuff. Or that 100% participation is expected and those of us who don't contribute are made to feel bad that we don't.

The whole enterprise just really rubs me the wrong way.

I'll continue to donate through CFC.

This thread makes no sense. Since we are not getting raises we should stop giving to a charity.

CFC has almost something for everyone and it's super easy to give.

[quote=Anonymous]Over 25 years of Federal service and support of the CFC . . . and serve as a volunteer Board member for various nonprofits. Our community charities would be unable to approach thousands of Federal workers without the CFC and the charities are very grateful for the opportunity and understand we don't operate for free as a workplace and neither can a CFC. There are costs to run a large campaign but the benefits are tremendous. [b]We must understand the rules of the CFC and give from our heart.[/b] [/quote]

My heart tells me to avoid CFC and donate directly.

[quote=Anonymous]Over 25 years of Federal service and support of the CFC . . . and serve as a volunteer Board member for various nonprofits. Our community charities would be unable to approach thousands of Federal workers without the CFC and the charities are very grateful for the opportunity and understand we don't operate for free as a workplace and neither can a CFC. There are costs to run a large campaign but the benefits are tremendous. We must understand the rules of the CFC and give from our heart. [/quote]

I am the last PP that doesn't give because I don't like money from the general fund being distributed to all the charities. Yes, I know that charities would go belly up without CFC, but there are some "charities" doing awful things that I would love nothing more than to go belly up. I just don't like the idea of donating to "charity", generally, as though any organization that is 501(c)(3) supports a worthy cause.

Over 25 years of Federal service and support of the CFC . . . and serve as a volunteer Board member for various nonprofits. Our community charities would be unable to approach thousands of Federal workers without the CFC and the charities are very grateful for the opportunity and understand we don't operate for free as a workplace and neither can a CFC. There are costs to run a large campaign but the benefits are tremendous. We must understand the rules of the CFC and give from our heart.

I don't participate in *any* CFC activities - particularly the ones that raise funds for CFC generally. There are organizations doing things that I find morally reprehensible; I don't want even a fraction of a penny of my money going to those organizations. I donate directly to specific organizations.

Anonymous wrote:I already have. Reduced contribution by 50%, though I give more outside CFC now.

I never liked that the CFC is just another layer of administrative overhead to sap dollars from the donees anyway.

I'd rather give $ directly to the recipients, I don't need CFC administration taking a cut.

+1 If you look it up, the CFC admin fee that comes off the top of each donation is like 8%. I had a chunk of change that I wanted to donate one year and after checking out CFC, I decided to go directly to the charity and skip CFC. I think it's a good program in that it encourages people to donate to charities. I hate the pressure to meet "goals". In the past I have been pressured to contribute b/c supervisors in two different groups were competing to see who could get 100% (I didn't know this at the time). I have been to the celebration rallies where the CFC coordinators pat themselves on the back (which seemed rather odd to me b/c it wasn't THEIR money that caused the agency to meet the randomly set "goal").... I could go on. The original idea was good, but it's become something not so good in practice.