ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. - The APG community pledged $635,719 during the 2011 Combined Federal Campaign.

APG remains the third largest donor agency within the Chesapeake Bay Area CFC (CBACFC), and the CBACFC remains the third largest region within the CFC worldwide, according to APG 2011 CFC Chairman Richard Newcity.

"APG raised $528,575 during the 2010 campaign, so this year's results were $107,144 higher than last year's, a 20 percent increase," he said.

Newcity said even with a much larger population due to Base Realignment and Closure relocations, APG had an impressive increase.

"Keep in mind that we did have a big headwind to deal with this year: the economy," Newcity said. "Many people are feeling some financial stress, and even those who have a secure federal
job may have a spouse or new college graduate in the house who cannot find work. Further, we have to remember that during hard economic times, many charities are hurting as well, so we needed to raise as much money as possible to provide the CBACFC charities with the resources necessary to adequately help those in need. That was our mission."

He said to counter the impact of a down economy, the installation's campaign strategy focused on three key components:

"First, we worked really hard to teach our CFC key workers how to be professional fundraisers via training sessions conducted by Chesapeake Bay Area Combined Federal Campaign officials,"
Newcity said.

"Second, we strategically displayed 1,200 campaign posters throughout the installation. And finally," he said, "we developed a strong marketing campaign, consisting primarily of weekly e-mail messages to keep the CFC on everyone's mind throughout the campaign."

The marketing campaign was developed by APG's new CFC marketing team and educated potential donors on the CFC program, explaining why it was so important to give.

Newcity said the team received a lot of positive feedback from donors, "regarding the impact our marketing emails had upon them by encouraging them to make a donation when they otherwise
may have not."

APG's CFC officials attended the CBACFC's awards ceremony in Catonsville March 8.

FYI: The CFC total for DoD activities worldwide is approximately $120 million, historically nearly half of CFC's annual approximate total of more than $250 million.