Giving Tuesday was a gateway to this year’s Combined Federal Campaign
"This year we raised $2.2 million in pledges, which is about $200,000 more than last year," said Vince Micone.
The news seems pretty grim these days. But federal employees have their annual opportunity to improve the lives of people they’ve never met. The Combined Federal Campaign is underway. The Federal Drive with Tom Temin welcome the chair for the National Capital Region, Vince Micone.
Interview transcript:
Vince Micone It’s great to see you. Happy holidays. We are doing well with CFC and I’m doing very well myself going into this December.
Tom Temin All right. And we already had Giving Tuesday. That’s kind of your kickoff. And that was a pretty good looking day for the CFC.
Vince Micone Yeah. CFC Giving by federal employees and annuitants, really, it starts in November. But December, we really get steam all the way in through the very last day of the campaign. So Giving Tuesday actually is our single largest day of pledges. And this year we raised $2.2 million in pledges, which is about $200,000 more than last year. So we are really excited. And that’s just in our region. Nationwide, CFC had a $3.1 million pledged Giving Tuesday, which is great, 20% increase over a prior year. So really a strong giving Tuesday, which went right in to some of our volunteer activities and other things we do in early December.
Tom Temin And the region itself is reconfigured this year.
Vince Micone Yes. During the past year, what had been the national Capital area, pretty much DC in our immediate suburbs, merged with the campaign in Baltimore. So literally now our campaign is for federal employees annuitants from outside of Baltimore all the way to Shenandoah National Park. And it really provides us great opportunities to have a bigger region and frankly, to use our resources more efficiently for the campaign.
Tom Temin All right. And what else do we need to know about this year’s campaign? What are some of the innovations going on?
Vince Micone Well, we are continuing to focus on retiree giving, which has been a big tick up. We hope to exceed $5.1 million in contributions by annuitants, which is really important. Many of those individuals have been donors to the CFC for their entire careers and wanted an opportunity to give after they retired. So in working with OPM, we made that happen and we’re in the second or third year, so we’re still building steam in that whole process. But we’re really happy about what’s happening. Also, DoD has had a strong campaign and I really want to do a shout out to our colleagues at Defense and in the military. So far, their campaign has increased 6% since last year. So we’ve got a lot going on. And I think part of that is employees getting engaged in activities in the office. We have more in-person campaign events this year, the most we’ve had since the pandemic. So those are really, I think, opportunities for us to to work together and understand the importance of CFC.
Tom Temin Right. And this is kind of an interesting backdrop because federal employees got a little bit of a bump last year, somewhat larger than normal. They’re anticipating a small bump in salary. So the ability to give more with a stable workforce, I think is really a show of generosity.
Vince Micone Yeah. We encourage employees, we had a lot of employees come to us after the hurricanes that affected so many on the East Coast. Many individuals wanted to do some immediate assistance, so they gave a one time gift which accrues right now. And those money can go to organizations that are helping with those sorts of response activities, but then also do a payroll deduction pledge which gives throughout the year. So we’ve used that sort of messaging and really it has been effective and I think engaged employees on understanding the immediate needs and how they can help.
Tom Temin All right. And how many people? What’s your sense of the base of people giving in terms of just raw numbers?
Vince Micone Well, we’re still trying to track down on the exact numbers because we have to duplicate and all that. But we are right now tracking in our region, we represent about 20% of all federal employees, but we represent 50% of the $33 million that’s been raised so far in CFC. So donors in our region are giving in a very healthy way. And our numbers, I think we’ll sort out a little bit more in a few weeks as we get near the end of the campaign.
Tom Temin And just on that point of annuitants giving, their numbers are maybe dwindling and there’s no new ones being introduced. But those working under the old civil service retirement system, the service employees have the cost of living adjusted for pension. Are they still in with both feet, so to speak?
Vince Micone They still are. We don’t have very many of those employees left working for the federal government. And I can tell you, if I was in the old civil service retirement system, I’d be talking to you as an annuity giver right now, not a federal employee. But I think our strongest opportunity with annuity and giving this right when people retire. So we share information that’s part of the retirement package so they can simply do the paperwork to continue their contributions. And then every year they have an opportunity to change those and in reup. So I think for us, it’s catching people right when they retire.
Tom Temin We’re speaking with Vince Micone. He is chairman of the Combined Federal Campaign for the newly expanded National Capital Area. And that expansion, does that make it tougher to be the chair?
Vince Micone No. We have an incredible board of directors representing federal employees from all around the region. Now, this year we’ve recruited a few new members from the Baltimore area, including some of our larger employees there, like Social Security Administration and some of the DoD installations. So we actually work together even before we merged. So we were all very comfortable with how we would execute the campaign.
Tom Temin And what’s the holiday giving card program? What’s new for 2024?
Vince Micone This campaign is part of our Give Happy for the Holidays campaign where individuals can give a contribution or pledge through payroll deduction in honor of a friend, family member or a colleague to a charity that’s important to them or to the recipient, and either print or have emailed a Give Happy Holiday card to them to acknowledge the contribution that’s been made in their honor. So this is a way to engage, but then also really focus. So for example, in my family, pancreatic cancer has had a pretty big impact and fortunately with survival. And so I do a gift to the pancreatic cancer organization in honor of those individuals who are still living because of the work that they did. You can insert any sort of need or concern, and employees have that option for the first time this year. So we’re really excited about it.
Tom Temin And let’s again review what is the national goal this year, and what is the area goal?
Vince Micone So the national goal is to raise what they did last year, which is really our goal. So we hope to bring in close to $30 million and CFC overall hopes to bring in around 60 million. Again, looking at our region has seen about half of that.
Tom Temin And there’s a pretty good base there already then looks like.
Vince Micone Yeah. We’re tracking right along because we have a huge number of contributions that come in right after New Year’s that are payroll deduction. So those are the ones people are making their final decisions, and they want to get all that stuff booked before the end of the campaign, which ends on Jan. 15. So all of that would start in the first pay period of the next calendar year.
Tom Temin And can agencies host special events? And what are some of the things that might highlight just the people gathering together to raise awareness of all of this?
Vince Micone Well, as part of our Give Happy for the Holidays campaign, we’ve encouraged agencies and offices when they’re having holiday parties to talk a little bit about the CFC to encourage employees to go to the website, givecfc.org and make a pledge and contribution. So in December and early January, it’s sort of hard to break through the noise of everything going on. So we want to leverage what’s already happening in a lot of the holiday parties and gatherings and year end gatherings that agencies have a perfect opportunity for that sort of messaging.
Tom Temin All right. Sounds like you’re off to a good start.
Vince Micone We are. And we encourage everyone to go to givecfc.org. Pledge is as little as $5 can make a tremendous impact on people, as you mentioned that you’ll never know, never see, but whose touch and impact will be great.
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Tom Temin
Tom Temin is host of the Federal Drive and has been providing insight on federal technology and management issues for more than 30 years.
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