July 13, 2000 | Read Time: 1 minute
The federal government’s employee charity drive raised $217.8-million last year, a 5.5-percent rise over 1998.
The money from the annual Combined Federal Campaign went to 1,200 organizations nationwide. Last year’s drive was the fourth campaign in a row in which giving increased.
Even though the dollars going to charity are rising, the percentage of workers giving to the campaign has been in decline.
The average amount donated by federal workers rose from $136 to $145 last year, but the number of people who gave remained the same, with 39 percent of the nation’s 3.9 million federal employees making a gift. In 1992, 49 percent of workers gave.
Federal officials say the drop-off in participation could be a sign that newer federal workers are not as knowledgeable about or interested in the campaign as employees who have left the government.
To reach older donors, the United States Office of Personnel Management, which runs the campaign, announced a new pilot project for this year: Nearly 400,000 retired government employees who receive federal annuity payments will be asked to give through automatic deduction from their payments. Currently, government retirees can make a gift once a year, but cannot have their gifts deducted automatically.
Such deductions typically result in a higher campaign gift than a one-time donation. The average size of donations made by federal employees who had money deducted from their paychecks last year was $170.35, versus $54.68 for those who made a single gift.
