Fort Jackson is asking the community to “give happy” during the current Combined Federal Campaign that ends Sunday.
The post held a charity fair, Jan. 10 at the Exchange to give service members and federal employees an opportunity to meet charities face-to-face.
The 10 charities attending the event are a “few of the roughly 5,000 charities that participate in the Combined Federal Campaign,” said Colin Hawkins, CFC program manager. “They’re just here giving you information about their organizations and opportunities for federal employees to make donations to their charities.”
While the program is vast, charity fairs like this one help people connect to different organizations on a personal level.
Giving to the CFC campaign can be a meaningful experience and a way to help out local, national and international charities.
“We can talk about CFC as a larger event, but when you can see charities that are doing things that are important to you, and you can connect with that charity it makes your donation just that much more meaningful to you,” Hawkins said.
The CFC is an annual fall campaign that enables retirees and federal employees the ability to donate to charities they might otherwise not have known existed. It is one of two annual campaigns allowed by law that can solicit donations from Army employees. The other campaign is for Army Emergency Relief, which takes place every spring.
The campaign dates back to 1961 when President John F. Kennedy signed Executive Order 10927 authorizing the U.S. Civil Service Commission to develop the guidelines for charities to solicit from federal employees. The Office of Personnel Management oversees CFC program.
According to the CFC website, GiveCFC.org: “The CFC today is known to be the most inclusive workplace giving campaign in the world with the number of participating charities estimated at over 20,000 nonprofit charitable organizations worldwide. The charities supported through the CFC range from nascent community groups to large, well-known charities.”
“The devastation of multiple natural disasters continues to shock and sadden us all due to the loss of life, property, history, and culture,” wrote Kiran A. Ahuja, director of the Office of Personnel Management, in a memorandum. “Donating through the CFC is an excellent vehicle to support charities on the ground helping communities rebuild and providing long-term relief.”
“I think it’s pretty important for people to have a way to fulfill their needs to help society, and CFC gives them the means to donate,” said Alfred Luna, garrison CFC coordinator.
The campaign has set up a website to make donating easier.
Donors just have to visit GiveCFC.org to find all the information they need to donate. They can search through listings of charities, find one (or many) they want to support and fill out an online form.
“You just find a charity that you want to support and then you enter the donation code and it’s an automatic payroll deduction,” Hawkins said. “It’s safe, secure and you don’t have to think about it after that.”
Donations start at $1 per paycheck with donors having the ability to up to any amount they desire.
According to the CFC, it has raised nearly $8.7 billion since its inception.
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