Nobody would argue that the intentions of the Office of Personnel Management's Combined Federal Campaign are anything but noble. In the more than five decades since its creation, it has filtered roughly $7 billion to charities around the globe. But with giving in steady decline in recent years and huge numbers of federal workers nearing retirement, OPM faces a new hurdle: how to engage the next generation of givers, many of whom approach charitable service differently than the generations that came before them, or risk the viability of the CFC program long term.

OPM's CFC Director Keith Willingham sat down with Federal Times Editor Jill Aitoro to discuss the approach for ensuring CFC survives for decades to come.

Talk to me about why you got involved with CFC.

When former OPM director John Berry gave me the opportunity to manage the program it was a great honor. [This was] a program that he believed required some additional reforms and energy and enthusiasm.

A large percentage of the workforce is approaching retirement. How has that affected their propensity to donate?

We're not seeing any indication that as they get closer to retirement they do not support, or change their behavior pattern around CFC. Our office often gets calls from federal employees concerned their current donations will not be fully deducted from their paycheck after they retire. In addition to that, there are groups interested in OPM making sure [federal employees] can contribute even into retirement. Currently OPM does not allow for the deduction of an annuitant's paycheck to go to charity, but that is something we believe we should pursue.

How do Generation X and millennials compare to older federal employees in their propensity to give?

We don't collect demographic information on our givers. But studies have shown that millennials and Generation X typically like to be hands-on, so they're involved in volunteer opportunities and service projects. Currently, volunteering is not part of the program. The executive order is related strictly to cash gifts. But we believe we should expand the program to allow folks to volunteer not only for the program, but also charities that can benefit from their services.

How has CFC changed to engage current employees?

The federal workforce is changing quite a bit. One of the things we've noticed is the expansion of telework opportunities and flexible workspace, [so] we need to find ways to engage employees working from home. We've expanded online giving. Employees have the opportunity to not only fill out a paper pledge form, they can go online and provide their gifts. We also experimented with credit card giving. We [also] recently added a feature called universal giving. Whereas before federal employees were only able to give to local charities in their area, they can now give to any of the charities worldwide.

What does CFC cost to operate?

The vast majority of the cost of CFC is not from appropriated funds. OPM's cost to manage a $200 million giving campaign is less than $1 million. We're very efficient at managing the public money in order to develop this program. There's also the actual labor cost that goes into the local federal campaign workers doing their job, but that cost is hard to quantifty. We believe we can do a better job of being more efficient, but we believe we've been able to streamline.

How does OPM vet the charities that participate in CFC?

OPM manages the process to review applications from the charities. We make sure they're 501(c)(3), so their donations are tax deductible. We review the audited financial statements that they present to us to make sure they're sound organizations. We also make sure we review the application to make sure they comply with regulations. But more than that, we make sure they're charities doing bona fide work in their communities.

Talk to me about the future of CFC.

The CFC program has been around for over 50 years. And before that, federal government was always involved in partnering with non profit organizations to deal with social matters. So The future looks bright. But we'd like to take advantage of the current technology, to speak to the interests [of] and engage with the new workforce coming in. to make sure the program is sleek and cost-effective, and to make sure the money gets to where it's supposed to go.

About Jill Aitoro

Jill Aitoro is editor of Defense News. She is also executive editor of Sightline Media's Business-to-Government group, including Defense News, C4ISRNET, Federal Times and Fifth Domain. She brings over 15 years’ experience in editing and reporting on defense and federal programs, policy, procurement, and technology.

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