Combined Federal Campaign CFC FAQs

No. Key Workers, Outreach Coordinator (OC) staff and others assisting with the CFC cannot identify those CFC charitable organizations involved in disaster relief in response to requests from donors unless they are following instructions disseminated by the Director of OPM.

No.

No. All CFC Charity Lists must be faithful reproductions of those provided by OPM through the Central Campaign Administrator (CCA). This includes the order of local federations and independent organizations within the local portion of the CFC Charity List, which will be determined by a random selection process. The order of organizations within each federation will be determined by that federation. The order within the national and local independent groups will be alphabetical. For more information see 5 CFR §950.401(g)(2).

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) decision referenced above applies to the use of appropriated funds to provide refreshments at CFC events only. The decision to use appropriated funds in other ways to support the CFC may be made by each agency. As before, campaigns are responsible for clearing all CFC events and fundraisers with the agency ethics officers in advance.

Charity lists can be found on the CFC Pledging System. In CFC zones where printed versions of the charity list are printed, charity lists can be through your local Outreach Coordinator (OC). Campaign contact information can be found through the Campaign Locator.

The approved CFC logos are located on the OPM website at http://www.opm.gov/cfc/Logos/index.asp. This site is the only authorized distribution point for CFC logos and all individuals and entities using CFC logos must be registered through this site.

The Director will approve requests for special solicitations during the CFC solicitation period only upon the showing of extraordinary circumstances.

Yes. CFC Charity Lists include a 256-character statement that is crafted by the applicant and submitted to OPM.

At a minimum, the request should include the following:

• background on the emergency or disaster that is being addressed by the special solicitation;
• information on the agency(ies) and location(s) where the special solicitation will be conducted;
• dates on which the special solicitation will be conducted; and
• information on the charitable organization(s) that will be the recipient(s) of special solicitation funds.

To expedite the request, OPM recommends that the requesting department, agency, or component fax it to (202)606-5056. OPM urges departments and agencies to contact OPM's Office of the CFC at (202)606-2564 or cfc@opm.gov for assistance in the development and implementation of any special solicitation.

The Central Campaign Administrator (CCA) is required to provide summaries to charitable organizations of the amount of pledges they received by a date determined by OPM. These summaries will be available on the CCA website.

This is not required by the IRS. Please see IRS Publication 526 (page 18) for the required documentation. If using take preparation software that should happen to require an address in order for it to accept the information, please use the address for the local campaign in your area. The address may be found using the Campaign Locator.

A special solicitation is, by definition, not part of the CFC. Receipts from the special solicitation cannot be combined with CFC donations. Nor are costs associated with a special solicitation, if any, covered by CFC funds or included in the CFC budget.

When a charitable organization joins a federation, it must allow that federation to complete one full campaign cycle involving distribution payments. This does not prevent the charitable organization from signing with a new federation, but the original federation must complete the distribution cycle. For example, a member organization of a federation in the 2017 CFC must allow that federation to complete its distribution for that member through the final payment, which would occur in 2019. The member organization is permitted to join another federation during 2018, but it may not take the distribution away from the original federation.

No. The required certifications and documentation must have been completed and submitted prior to the application filing deadline. Incomplete applications may not be completed during the appeal process. Further, documents that were not available at the time of the application deadline cannot be considered on appeal.