Our federation provides an array of services associated with the Combined Federal Campaign. CFC applicants are not required to affiliate with a federation to enter the CFC, but most do – for three good reasons.

• Admissions support. The CFC application and admissions process can be hard to understand, and about half of first-time applications fail without expert guidance. We help applicants make sense of the requirements and advise early in the process if improvements to an application are needed. If an organization does not qualify initially for the CFC, we sometimes can offer suggestions that will lead to success in later years.
• Increased visibility. Federations with thematic names, like ours, make it far easier for donors to navigate the printed CFC directory to find groups that interest them. The directory runs 100 pages or more, and listings are not in alphabetical order. However, a table of contents at the front of these directories lists federations, so donors interested in a particular kind of work can quickly find a list of relevant organizations.
• Fiscal services. The CFC operates in over 200 administrative zones. Each one reports pledges and forwards donated funds separately – potentially creating a mountain of correspondence and thousands of checks for each charity. For federation members, correspondence and payments are first sent to the federation. We consolidate data, track pledges and payments, and make regular, lump-sum distributions to members.

All CFC federations are required to provide admission support and fiscal services. All those with thematic names offer increased visibility. However, like every federation in the Workplace Giving Alliance, we do some things a little differently:

• Virtually every new organization we present to the CFC is admitted. Overall, more than 98% of applications from federations in the Workplace Giving Alliance are accepted.
• Our fees are low – quite low – and we spell them out in writing.
• When we tell our members how much has been pledged to them, we also project how much of that amount they are likely to receive. We explain what local CFC administrators typically withhold to cover their operating costs, and what percentage of pledges usually are not fulfilled. We base our fee on our members’ net donations, not gross pledge amounts.
• We do not sell advertising. We do help our members craft 25-word statements – and may even suggest DBAs – for the CFC directory that are likely to improve performance.
• We publish information about CFC promotional events and allow anyone to subscribe for e-mail or RSS notifications when new content is posted.
• We organize and publish information about fund drives sponsored by states, municipalities and other public-sector entities. Our Campaign Calendar helps charities understand the costs, potential benefits and processes associated with these campaigns. The federations of the Workplace Giving Alliance make this information available for all charities, whether they work with us or not.
• We notify our members when we believe they may qualify for a campaign other than the CFC (see Other Campaigns). Then we help members understand how to apply, either on their own or through our sister federation, Partners for a Better World.
• The Inspector General of the Office of Personnel Management periodically audits federations and local CFC administrators. In 2007, one of our sister federations, which uses the same management systems we do, received a clean audit from the IG. To our knowledge, no other federation can make this claim.