DATE:   May 14, 2013

TO:       Charity Head

FROM:   Karen Jennings, 2013 LFCC Chairperson

Please see the information below concerning The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) proposed changes to current Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) regulations.

The three biggest changes in the regulations include proposed regulations to:

1)      Change the Structure

a)      Eliminate:

i)        Local Federal Coordinating Committee (LFCC) The LFCC is the Local Board made up of Federal employees.

ii)      Principal Combined Fund Organization (PCFO) In our case the Heart of West Michigan United Way manages and administers the local campaign.

b)      Replace with:

i)        Unclear number of “Regions” to be managed by “Regional Coordinating Committees” (RCC) made up of FEB/FEA and other federal employees who will be responsible for:

 (1)   assisting with the charity application process

 (2)   training agency heads, coordinators, keyworkers and donors

(3)   overseeing a seasonal “Marketing Organization” that will be responsible for administering the regional campaign

c)      Create an unclear number of Central Campaign Administrators (CCA) to manage the fiscal operations

Replace the current 172 LFCC’s with a single digit number (less than 10) of “Regional Coordinating Committees.”

2)      Move to an Exclusive Online Campaign With Payroll and Credit Card Donations Only

a)      Eliminate:

i)        Paper Pledges (Currently 84% of pledges are done via the paper pledge form).  Many Federal employees do not have access to computers to do electronic pledging.

ii)      Paper Charity Guides   Again many Federal employees do not have access to computers to look up the charities of their choice.

iii)    Cash and Check Donations including Donations from Special Events.  Many people prefer to contribute to the campaign via cash or checks.  Under the new proposal Special Events to raise money for the campaign would also be prohibited.’

b)      Have one central website to capture all donations and all charity applications

3)      Charge Non-refundable Application Fees to the Charities

The proposal is to have the campaign cover the costs of operation;

·         With fees charged to the charities that apply to participate.

·         While the exact figures have not yet been released sources are quoting a non-returnable fee of $416.00 up to $630.00 per year for a charity to apply. 

·         This fee amounts to more money than many of our charities receive each year as a result of the campaign.

This proposal is open to public comment until June 7, 2013.  Please utilize the direct link for submitting comments: http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=OPM-2013-0006-0001