A Resource for Donors
Charitable Choices emerged out of the effort in the 1980s to open up the world's largest workplace charity drive (the Combined Federal Campaign) to a much greater range of charities. We've always worked to give all charities -- large and small, well-known and unknown, national and local -- an opportunity to communicate to donors why their work is important. Our website -- which we began in the 1990s -- is an extension of that commitment.
Our charity guides are very engaging and easy to use, being organized by the type of work charities do (animal protection, medical research, etc.). We have a unique system for distributing our guides, handing out many of them to federal and military employees as they enter their workplace.
We offer all charities very low-cost ways to communicate with potential donors, especially CFC donors. We also offer in-depth information and guidance about the Combined Federal Campaign.
Learn about How to become part of our guides and website.
In the past, the most difficult part of the CFC application process has always been documenting a charity’s services and benefits, especially for a national organization, which had to document its services in at least 15 states. At the CFC’s 2017 application training, the CFC’s Marcus Glasgow talked a lot about how a charity should document its services, responding to many questions.
One of the biggest changes in the 2017 Combined Federal Campaign involved the application process. Most of the changes will help CFC charities.
Charities that are already part of the CFC will only have to do a full application once every three years. In the other two years, they submit a “verification application,” which is much simpler.
If your charity is new to the CFC, you must file a complete application your first year, then you won’t have to file another full application for three years.
For many CFC charities, deciding to re-apply is a deceptively difficult decision. One factor: as many as half the charities in last year's CFC may drop out because of the new fees.
Obama expected to issue executive order allowing retirees to be part of the campaign
More than 3½ years after they were proposed, the new rules for the federal charity drive will go into effect for the next campaign, starting in 2017. The rules were finalized in 2014 but implementation was postponed in 2015 and 2016. The rules call for profound changes in the CFC, one reason they have taken a long time to implement.
For the fifth straight year, donations to the Combined Federal Campaign declined last fall, to $177.8 million, an 8% decrease. Since 2010, the amount the CFC raises annually has fallen by more than a third, a loss of more than $100 million a year in donations.
One of the most noteworthy developments in the CFC during the past few years has been the rise of the Wounded Warrior Project, which has come from nowhere to raise the third most in the 2013 CFC -- $4.6 million.
For more than 30 years, Charitable Choices has been helping charities raise more money in of the federal government's on-the-job charity drive, the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC).
If your charity has been part of the federal government’s Combined Federal Campaign, it can be part of this website. The “CFC” requires charities to meet 10 accountability standards, such as having an audit.
https://www.charitychoices.com/sites/default/files/Military%20Insert%20and%20Rec%20News%20Special%20Section%20Invoices%202020.pdfTwo things are at the heart of our work to promote charities in the Combined Federal Campaign and among other individual donors: Our attractive guides that function as guides, not collections of ads. And our complex and very effective system for distributing our guides.