As we dive further and further into the CFC’s operation, we want to be sure that everyone has a basic grounding in its administrative structure. So, for those relatively new to our little world, we focus now on organizations that allow it to work. Naturally, if you know all this, skip this post, have a cup of coffee and wait for our next essay.
As we noted in an earlier post, the CFC is administered in zones. There are about 200 of them. Here is a map.
Each CFC zone has two administrative entities: a PCFO and an LFCC.
Government regulation assigns the day-to-day responsibility of running each CFC zone to a community-based organization called a PCFO – Principal Combined Fund Organization. As you can see on the map, some PCFOs manage extensive portions of the country involving more than one state. Others manage more densely populated areas that cover a part of only one state. There is also a PCFO assigned to run the CFC overseas, reaching the many employees who are working in other countries.
Each PCFO screens the applications of local charities that wish to participate in its CFC zone. It also organizes federal volunteers who represent the Campaign in the local offices of government agencies, mounts kick-off events to promote the Campaign, prints the CFC directory for distribution to federal employees in its zone, distributes and collects pledge cards, tabulates pledge results, and helps to transfer donated funds from employee paychecks to the benefiting organizations.
Each PCFO is itself 501(c)(3) tax exempt. The PCFO must be audited annually and be governed by a board of directors.
Local federal volunteers oversee the PCFO in each zone of the CFC. These volunteers are organized as a local committee – the formal name is the Local Federal Coordinating Committee, or LFCC. The LFCC chooses the organization that will serve as PCFO, signs an agreement that authorizes the PCFO to operate within the CFC, approves an annual PCFO budget, and determines which local charity applicants meet CFC eligibility criteria.
Regulating all of this from Washington DC is the Office of CFC Operations (OCFCO) within the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
There, you’re an expert.
Government regulation assigns the day-to-day responsibility of running each CFC zone to a community-based organization called a PCFO – Principal Combined Fund Organization. As you can see on the map, some PCFOs manage extensive portions of the country involving more than one state. Others manage more densely populated areas that cover a part of only one state. There is also a PCFO assigned to run the CFC overseas, reaching the many employees who are working in other countries.
Each PCFO screens the applications of local charities that wish to participate in its CFC zone. It also organizes federal volunteers who represent the Campaign in the local offices of government agencies, mounts kick-off events to promote the Campaign, prints the CFC directory for distribution to federal employees in its zone, distributes and collects pledge cards, tabulates pledge results, and helps to transfer donated funds from employee paychecks to the benefiting organizations.
Each PCFO is itself 501(c)(3) tax exempt. The PCFO must be audited annually and be governed by a board of directors.
Local federal volunteers oversee the PCFO in each zone of the CFC. These volunteers are organized as a local committee – the formal name is the Local Federal Coordinating Committee, or LFCC. The LFCC chooses the organization that will serve as PCFO, signs an agreement that authorizes the PCFO to operate within the CFC, approves an annual PCFO budget, and determines which local charity applicants meet CFC eligibility criteria.
Regulating all of this from Washington DC is the Office of CFC Operations (OCFCO) within the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
There, you’re an expert.
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