For Charities

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.

How to apply to the Combined Federal Campaign

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.

Should you apply to the CFC this year?

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.

New CFC rules will finally be implemented in 2017

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.

Combined Federal Campaign pledges down 8% in 2015

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.

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.