2007 Grants Announced
State and Local Workplace Giving
Overview
Over the years, more and more states and localities have come to follow the lead of the U.S. government's Combined Federal Campaign by offering their employees the opportunity to donate to not-for-profit organizations through workplace giving campaigns. The revenue generated by these campaigns is relatively small when compared to the CFC’s $260 million, but for some eligible organizations, state and local campaigns offer an important source of new revenue.
Mental Health, Addiction and Retardation Organizations of America has joined with four other CFC federations – Arts Federation, Human & Civil Rights Organizations of America, Israel Fund, and Latin America Fund – to create the Campaign Calendar. Our goal is simple: to offer our members the information they need to understand, evaluate, and enter state and local campaigns.
State and local campaigns are not for everyone, of course. The application effort may not be worth the small return your organization might receive. Still, not-for-profit organizations should consider this path as a means to attract new donors.
MHAROA is exploring how we can enter state and local campaigns as a thematic federation – a group of related charities in the mental health field in the same way we have entered the CFC. Whenever we decide to apply in this manner, we will invite our members to join us as you have for the CFC.
In the meantime, we offer information to help you evaluate and apply on your own for state and local campaigns that are relevant to your organization. This information is presented in the form of a Campaign Calendar.
As we move forward, MHAROA will continue to explore new opportunities for our members, like state and local campaigns, with the goal of finding new unrestricted funds for your organization.
How the Campaign Calendar Works
State and local campaigns are similar to the U.S. government’s Combined Federal Campaign. Not-for-profit organizations must submit material that is reviewed in advance of the campaign. A directory is published listing eligible groups. Employees get to select the groups they wish to support and specify how much they wish to donate. Money is usually withheld from paychecks and forwarded to the designated groups over the year that follows.
Our Campaign Calendar will list these campaigns in the order of their deadlines. We regularly update the information here and add new Campaigns as details become available.
For each state and local campaign, we summarize the campaign, tell you what you need to do to qualify, tell you where to send your application material, and specify the deadline. Although each campaign has different eligibility requirements, most campaigns have these three major requirements in common:
- An organization must meet fiscal accountability and governance standards similar to those found in the requirements for admission to the CFC.
- An organization must be registered to solicit funds in the state where the campaign is taking place. We tell you the approximate cost for registering.
- An organization must have programs and services relevant to the campaign area which generally means the services must offer something to people and organizations in that region.
For each campaign, we advise you to contact the administrator to make sure the rules have not changed. We provide the contact information.