Combined Federal Campaign CFC FAQs

No. Your organization’s tier and AFR are determined using the total revenue reported on the IRS Form 990 that you submitted to the Internal Revenue Service or the pro forma IRS Form 990 you complete for CFC purposes only. The organization’s IRS Form 990 (or pro forma IRS Form 990) must be for the same fiscal period as the audited (or reviewed) financial statements submitted with the CFC application.

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).

OPM does not set a monetary goal for the CFC nationally. The Local Federal Coordinating Committee (LFCC) may set a monetary goal for its CFC zone. Each federal agency or military installation may also set monetary goals.

Local organizations must certify that the organization address submitted with the application is the primary location from which the organization's services are rendered and/or its records are maintained. A local organization may apply to as many campaign zones for which this certification can be made. A different five-digit CFC Universal Code, i.e. CFC Code, will be issued for each campaign zone to which an organization applies.

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 application fee is charged to the organization to process the application to become a CFC charity. The listing fee will be applied to all charities approved for participation. These charities will not be listed in paper or electronic Charity Lists, and CFC contributions will not be processed on their behalf, if they do not submit the listing fee prior to the annual date set by OPM.

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.

Starting with the 2017 application period, organizations that choose to apply to the CFC program must pay the application fee when submitting an application via the online application system. Listing fees are only paid by organizations approved to participate in the campaign.

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.

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.

No.

Every applicant must submit an IRS Form 990 (or pro forma IRS Form 990) with its CFC application. If the Internal Revenue Service does not require the organization to file the IRS Form 990 ("long form"), it must complete and submit a pro forma IRS Form 990 with its CFC application. IRS Forms 990-EZ, 990-PF, 990-N, and other comparable forms will not be accepted. Organizations that file these forms must submit a pro forma IRS Form 990.   The organization's revenue can be found on page 9, line 12, column A of the IRS Form 990 (or pro forma IRS Form 990).

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.

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.