Volunteers are pushing Washington-area employees to donate as much as $7 million more before the Combined Federal Campaign ends Jan. 15.

The last-minute push has more urgency this year because the campaign had been extended until Jan. 30 in previous years. The deadline change has driven campaign managers to make employees aware they have less time to donate than they think.

"Federal workers are very busy and deadline driven, and this push helps to remind them of why to give," said Wendy Beach, director of communications for Global Impact, which oversees the National Capital Area's campaign.

Beach said the campaign will likely meet its $64 million goal. A thermometer on the campaign's Web site showed the tally of donations at more than $57 million on Jan. 8.

"Every time you refresh the page, it goes up," she said.

All other CFCs ended Dec. 15, and those managers are counting pledge totals. Employees gave nearly $276 million in 2008.

Many employees wait until the last minute to give, making last-minute pushes critical.

"I think there will be a lot of chili cook-offs in the next few days," said Linda Adams, who oversees the Agriculture Department's campaign in the Washington area. Her campaign has raised 87 percent of its $1.9 million goal.

USDA drove employee participation through interactive events, including a county fair where one booth sold strips of duct tape as a fundraiser. Employees who bought the tape could then help tape their boss to the wall, Adams said.

Adams plans more social events for the final week, including more presentations by charities.

"When I went to visit charities, I was quite impressed. … There's just nothing like hearing and seeing how a charity works," she said.

And while the National Capital Area pushes toward its goal, some campaigns across the country are finding they were able to meet their goals during a recession.

The Tennessee Valley CFC raised $2.3 million and counting, besting its $2 million goal. The campaign's chairwoman credited volunteers with connecting employees to the right charities.

"We make sure that we educate and remind our folks, especially our newly hired federal folks, about what CFC represents … and the importance of giving back," said Donna Johnson, chairwoman of the campaign's Local Federal Coordinating Committee.

The Metro Denver Area CFC worked to meet its $3.5 million goal by tracking down employees in small rural federal offices in the 18-county area. Workers also identified district offices that were contributing to their headquarters' D.C. campaign and redirected their pledges instead to the local campaign, said Royann Killoren, Denver's CFC director.

U.S. Postal Service workers were hesitant to contribute during a period of "incredibly high" job uncertainty, and Killoren worried that decreased postal contributions could hurt the campaign. The campaign is still counting pledges, but she said she's confident it will make its goal.

"There was a lot of pessimism going in, but we found that the civil sector — not the Postal Service, but the rest — saw a lot of increases. They really dug in and pushed the message that ‘If you're reading this brochure, you're one of the fortunate ones because you're working,' " she said.