Combined Federal Campaign-Overseas starts Monday

This year’s Combined Federal Campaign-Overseas program kicks off Monday and continues through Dec. 4.

According to campaign officials, CFC is the only authorized solicitation of federal employees in their workplaces and offers employees the opportunity to donate to thousands of charitable organizations. The program dates to the 1960s and is an effort to consolidate charitable solicitations and give donors a means of donating by payroll deduction.

The CFC-Overseas program raised more than $15.8 million during its 2008 campaign.

Contributors can fill out a pledge card with a representative who serves as the CFC “keyperson” for their unit or organization, complete a pledge card online or donate online by credit card.

An “online pledge assistant” is available on the CFC-O Web site to help donors find charities by name or type and guide contributors through the process of filling out a pledge card online. Other areas of the site offer guidelines to help donors make informed decisions about their contributions.

The pledge assistant is not an online contribution, but generates a pledge form that must be printed and given to the keyperson for the donor’s organization. The CFC-O Web site offers contacts to help contributors identify their keypersons if necessary.
Credit card donations are online donations. The contributor goes through the same pledge assistant process to select a charity, opts to make a one-time or monthly recurring donation, then completes the transaction immediately by entering valid credit card information.

When making donations, contributors can designate that their pledges go to support specific charities. Overseas donors can also contribute to one special program – the Family Support and Youth Programs initiative.

One hundred percent of donations made to FSYP go directly to overseas military communities to help fund child care, emergency assistance, recreation, community education and other quality of life programs and facilities, and enable overseas locations to offer free or reduced-cost programs.

More information on the program and opportunities to donate will be available from unit or organization representatives during the campaign or at any time by visiting the CFC-O Web site at www.cfcoverseas.org.

(Courtesy of U.S. Army and 7th Army)