The Combined Federal Campaign pledge season will begin a month later than usual this year, running from Oct. 2 through Jan. 12, 2018.
The delay will give local CFC zones more time to incorporate changes that go into effect this year, according to an Aug. 3 memorandum from Kathleen McGettigan, acting director of the Office of Personnel Management.
Individual local campaigns choose their time frame within that window for agencies to solicit pledges from their workforce. Last year, federal employees contributed more than $167 million to thousands of local, national and international charities.
Among the changes for this year’s campaign:
- Federal employees will be able to pledge time to volunteer with CFC charities, along with pledging money.
- OPM can solicit federal annuitants and military retirees to continue to use the CFC for charitable giving, with recurring gifts from their annuity.
- Donors can make an online pledge to CFC through an online system. The CFC will phase out paper pledge forms over the next few years; the new system will allow all employees to donate via payroll deduction, credit and debit cards, and eCheck payments.
- Cash donations won’t be accepted at CFC events.
- Charities will disclose fees to donors before they pledge, and administrative costs will be shared by the charities and donors, not just the donors.
Karen has covered military families, quality of life and consumer issues for Military Times for more than 30 years, and is co-author of a chapter on media coverage of military families in the book "A Battle Plan for Supporting Military Families." She previously worked for newspapers in Guam, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fla., and Athens, Ga.