The Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) is an easy way for employees of the federal government to donate to their favorite charities. It's easy because in most workplaces, a designated "key worker" will deliver a CFC catalog and sign-up sheet right to your desk. To participate, just flip through the catalog, enter your charity's number on the sheet, and designate how much money you'd like to donate to that charity each pay period.
The catalog gives a brief description of a bunch of charities and even specifies their overhead. That's great because then you can tell how much of your dollar actually goes toward fulfilling their mission, as opposed to renting their office space or paying employees' salaries. Donations to charities participating in the CFC are also tax deductible.
Since there are hundreds of charities to choose from, and the CFC web site isn't terribly useful, here are some ideas:
- -Air Compassion America
- -American Association for Cancer Research
- -American Cancer Society
- -Angel Flight for Veterans
- -Cancer Treatment Research Foundation
- -Caregivers Association of America
- -Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
- -Gilda's Club Worldwide
- -Lymphoma Foundation of America
- -Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center
- -The Wellness Community
One of the most frustrating things in life is wanting to help and feeling like you can't. Serious illnesses puncuate that frustration like few other things can. Donating to a worthy cause is one way to quell the feelings of helpnesses that often accompany the loss of a loved one, or the inability to help a particular person as much as we wish we could. This is because it allows us to help someone, even though we don't know whom that someone is. We just know that someone needed help, and we helped them.
It feels good to do good. The Combined Federal Campaign takes place in December each year. It's never too early to check out the charities of the CFC to see if there are any you'd be interested in supporting.
