October 26, 2006 - US Coast Guard & CFC

Federal Government employees have the opportunity to contribute to charities of their choice through the annual Combined Federal Campaign (CFC). While in the Coast Guard, I served as the CFC Officer for my ship, getting more than 98% of the ship to contribute. The CFC was an easy way to give and nearly everyone did it. In Ward 6, we have numerous charities working to better our community. They are to be commended for their outstanding effort and results.

However, there is no clearing house that facilitates easy and routing giving to provide many of our important charities with the dollars they need to sustain operations. Wouldn't it be nice if we were to add community giving measurements to the performance measures that we built into the Ward 6 Strategic Plan that we will use to guide our ward in the important years ahead? We could measure annual dollars along with the number of contributions, providing increased visibility to encourage others to contribute while allowing us to measure our success in lifting others from year to year.

While there are clear lines of demarcation between city government and charitable organizations, successful charities ease the demand for city services and can lessen city financial demands and obligations. Setting up a local charity clearinghouse could pay big dividends on a number of fronts; increased charity awareness, increased local giving, increased local involvement. This could be another way that Ward 6 could lead the way!