Some Combined Federal Campaigns say online donations are becoming more popular this year and are helping them collect and tally donations faster, easier and more accurately.

"We're ahead because of electronic pledging," said Linda Siegle, chairwoman of the committee that is coordinating the Chesapeake Bay Area campaign in Maryland. "People pledge earlier because it's a little bit easier for them."

The Chesapeake Bay Area campaign raised about $2.3 million by Nov. 18 — about half a million dollars ahead of where it was at the same point a year ago. Siegle doesn't expect that difference to stay so big, though she still expects to raise $6.4 million and beat last year's tally by about $200,000.

Online pledging systems allow donors to use their computer to search for charities instead of leafing through a paper catalog. The systems also automatically enter the five-digit code for selected charities, which helps avoid mistakes that arise when campaign officials have to manually key in codes and read sometimes-sloppy handwriting.

Siegle said as many as 30 agencies in the Chesapeake area are using some form of electronic pledging, and employees have so far donated nearly $300,000 online. Last year — the first year online pledging was offered in the Chesapeake campaign — employees at 10 agencies donated a total of roughly $220,000 using electronic pledging, she said.

"This year it's all about electronic pledging," Siegle said.

Ann Canela, a spokeswoman for Global Impact, which runs the National Capital Area and Overseas CFCs, said those campaigns have also noticed more people going online to donate, though she did not have statistics on the use of electronic pledging.

Canela said soldiers and federal employees stationed overseas — especially those in war zones who don't have easy access to CFC charity lists and donor forms — especially find electronic pledging useful.

"It's a very simple process," Canela said. "Service people don't carry a lot of paper with them, so it's very beneficial."

Though most of the larger campaigns say they're well on their way to meeting their goals, the Hawaii CFC is reporting a somewhat slow start.

CFC Director Nita Yates said that Office of Personnel Management delays in delivering charity lists pushed back the production of printed materials, which caused the Hawaii campaign to start about 10 days later than expected. Yates did not have figures on how much had been raised so far.

"I don't think we're doing badly or anything like that," Yates said. "It's just going slower than I had thought."

Yates said the economy may be slightly depressing donations in her area, but she could not say how much the recession is affecting CFC.

"While federal employees still have their jobs, they still read the same papers the rest of us do," Yates said. "I'm sure that's impacted their thinking."

Tony Leverett, director of the San Antonio CFC, said his campaign has so far raised about as much as it did at this point last year. He said he hasn't seen the economy hurt donations much so far.

"They haven't let that stop them," Leverett said. "I'm very pleased at what I see our people doing. We started off with talk of hard economic times, but individuals and organizations have stepped up."