CFC Kick Off Events: Why Are They So Hard To Sign Up For??

Dear Charity Executive:

I'm writing in my capacity as business agent for Local Independent Charities (LICA), the federated group that certifies (Local Charity) for participation in various workplace fund drives in the greater National Capital area, including the CFC and the United Way of the National Capital Area. I gather (Local Charity) has some dissatisfaction with the number of CFC events to which it has been invited. If that is indeed the case, I can assure you that yours is not the only organization to be dissatisfied with how the events invitations are being accomplished this year. We are hearing complaints not only from our own member charities but from all the federated groups participating in the campaign.

Here is what is going on: The National Capital Area CFC is not publicizing as many events as in the past. There is a new procedure this year designed to allocate the scarce invitations evenly among the charities that have signed up for events, but we're not sure how well it is working. I am meeting directly with the CFC campaign manager next Tuesday to express that our concern and discuss how the procedure can be improved.

The reality, however, is this: The CFC is at the point where there are more charities that want to participate in events than there are event slots to accommodate them. Because of ongoing security concerns, federal offices are scheduling fewer events (a trend that has been going on for several years and is accelerating) and/or scheduling smaller events, with fewer charities invited. At the same time, many local campaign coordinators (the people who actually conduct the campaign in their respective federal agencies) are choosing to implement their events without going through the CFC campaign headquarters; that is, the coordinators themselves choose which charities to invite based on their previous experience or on what they think will be the most interesting to their colleagues and then invite those charities directly. Thus, they bypass the organized, official system. Another popular alternative is for coordinators to ask their colleagues at work if anyone who has a personal connection with a CFC charity would be willing to speak at the "kickoff." (One of the techniques we encourage LICA member charities to use is to write the CFC givers who have released their names and addresses and ask those givers to serve as "ambassadors" in the subsequent campaign. Many givers are pleased to do so.)

To its credit, the CFC has addressed this trend proactively. For example, the campaign publishes an insert in the Washington Post tabloid "Express" which contains the "get out the vote" type messages that CFC campaign speakers would normally deliver at live events. (An aside: Sometimes charities fail to realize that, from the campaign's point of view, charities are ancillaries to CFC events, not the main purpose for the events. The main purpose for the events is to generate employee enthusiasm for the campaign itself. The charities are invited, if at all, for "color"). The campaign also encourages greater use of the internet. All participating charities have their internet addresses prominently displayed in the campaign donors brochure listings. (BTW: I was happy to see that (Local Charity’s) web site has the CFC and UWNCA logos and code number on its front page; that's smart).

LICA also has programs to help prospective CFC givers discover LICA members online. Please visit www.bestcfc.org. to see what I mean. About 32,000 CFC givers will visit the site this year. That presents a far greater opportunity for contact than CFC events do.

I see, however, that ((Local Charity) is not taking full advantage of other LICA marketing services. I suggest you go to your LICA online portfolio (www.lic.org, password XXXXX) and do these three things:

1. Add keywords for the web search engines.

2. Add a "human interest" story that illustrates your work. When you do that the story automatically pops up with your listing on both the LIC web site and the bestcfc.org web site.

3. Download and execute the "Best In America" seal of excellence license and then post the seal on your web site next to the CFC and UW logos.

These services are designed to help you stand out from the competition, and they are free.

Right now the most effective thing you can do to encourage gifts to (Local Charity) in the present Fall 2006 campaign is to implement suggestions 1-2-3 above.

Regards,

Patrick Maguire

Comments

[Susan]

What do you mean 'human interest'? Is there a word limitation? I am an animal rescue org....what would work with us?

[Anonymous]

We posted our human interest story and saw hits to our web site go up a lot compared to previous years.