FORT BENNING, Ga., (Sept. 17, 2014) -- Fort Benning's Combined Federal Campaign kicked off Sept. 16 with a dodgeball tournament at Smith Fitness Center.

Laura Walker, the manager for the Columbus/Fort Benning Regional CFC, said the dodgeball tournament was really popular last year and the single-elimination tournament grew to 16 six-man teams this year.

CFC is the world's largest and most successful workplace charity campaign, according to its website, www.opm.gov/combined-federal-campaign. The campaign runs from Sept. 1 through Dec. 15 and is open to all federal employees including the military. With almost 200 campaigns in the overall program, last year nearly $210 million in donations were raised.

Last year, electronic giving was introduced with a link on the main menu page of the MyPay website. Walker said nearly $40,000 was raised electronically.

New this year is Universal Giving. Walker said this is where donors, no matter where they are stationed, can continue to give to any charity they choose, including the local charities of a particular duty station. She used Santa's Castle as a local example. Santa's Castle helps provide military children with Christmas presents if their parents are financially strapped. There are 132 local charities in this year's campaign and more than 20,000 nonprofit charities worldwide.

"Because we are a very mobile society, people want to continue to support their local charities through CFC, and now they can," said Walker, who is working on her sixth campaign. Other changes coming to CFC include only payroll donations starting in 2015 and by 2022, the campaign is supposed to be completely electronic - no more pledge cards or CFC booklets listing eligible organizations.

Walker said she hopes to surpass last year's total of $623,000 and plans to move the thermometers that will be placed on Fort Benning's major roads to reflect the percentage of that goal. Training for unit keypersons takes place this week and next.

Walker said she encourages everyone to turn in the pledge cards early "so we can see some movement on the thermometers in October."

Editor's note: See next week's paper regarding the campaign's kickoff.