What will the 1SGs do?
Seems the Trump team is debating ending one of the longest running charitable contribution campaigns around. WaPo is quoted from The Independent:
A note, which the Post reported was on the Combined Federal Campaign website, says that the Office of Personnel Management issued a “Stop Work Order” on August 26, affecting the organization’s upcoming website launch which was set for September.
A spokesperson for the Office of Personnel Management told the Post that the administration has not made a decision on whether or not they will continue with the charity drive this year.
However, the administration has taken a harsh stance on the government supporting organizations that do not align with President Donald Trump’s policies – including by charitable means.
This past year, administration officials revoked funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development and essentially gutted the federal agency for supporting charitable endeavors that it did not agree with.
Some of the major charities that federal workers have donated the most to include Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which has had Medicaid funding revoked as part of Trump’s signature legislation; National Public Radio Inc., which Trump has railed against and signed an executive order to revoke funding for; and the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, the charitable arm of the organization that has filed countless lawsuits against the administration.
The Combined Federal Campaign, which falls under the Office of Personnel Management, has raised more than $9 billion for charitable organizations since the early 1960s, including St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Doctors Without Borders USA, Feeding America, the Wounded Warrior Project, and more.
Not sure this is the right call if true. After all, the charitable organizations get the money from individuals, not the government, and if CFC is shut down, people that want to contribute can still do so directly – and if you look at the folks cited above, there are some in there like St. Jude and WWP who do more good than most nowadays.
“Frankly, I don’t understand or know why the government wouldn’t run the campaign,” Jim Starr, the president and CEO of America’s Charities, which supports charities in the Combined Federal Campaign, told the Post.
“No taxpayer dollars are used to fund it, all the costs of the campaign are absorbed by the participating charities, and it’s a great way for government employees to support charitable causes that they care about in their community and across the country,” Starr added. The Independent
Maybe it’s in the name of military efficiency – seemed every first sergeant in the Army spent about a month every year on CFC and “trying to get the numbers up”. Maybe that’s it.
Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work"
I remember as a new Pvt having a gun put to my head and told we would not go home until we were 100% on CFC donations. Someone told me the NRA was listed in the CFC book, so I gave my $2 a month to the NRA.
Yeah. I would scour that booklet looking for conservative charities to donate to.
Had a guy in my first unit tell me there was some group in the CFC book that was dedicated to ending the human race through I guess self sterilization and education and that was the group he donated to. I was shocked that 1. there actually was a group like that and 2. they were a tax exempt group. Ah, 1993, before we had the internet and things like that could shock me.
My entire estate will go to the NRA upon my death so I expect
to live forever.
Mine went to Ducks Unlimited.
Be carefull of Ducks Unlimited, they sound like Quaks..
Or Loons…
They’re a bit daffy if you ask me..
“No taxpayer dollars are used to fund it,”
Not entirely true if people in government posts are running the program recruitment for donations…or the government is using HR personnel to setup automatic withdrawals from paychecks..
The government is already inefficient, using resources such as managers or military personnel to shake down fellow employees or worse, subordinates, smells off from here.
If the charities want to get together to run a central office that solicits donations let them fund it together and leave automatic payroll withholding out of the equation…it’s not the government’s job to manage automatic payments from wages to non-government entities…let the people who want to donate have it withdrawn from their bank accounts like the rest of the nation for fuck’s sake.
I know the government already withholds wages to pay for all manner of non-military items, a practice that should have ended long ago as well…with modern banking there’s no need for an employer to withhold monies for paying non employer entities beyond the federal and state government’s mandatory withholdings.
VOV – agreed. I understand the concept behind central clearinghouses for charities is to help charities receive donations with lower PR, marketing, etc., costs. However, it also allows charities with minimal interest to the majority of people receive more donations than their appeal warrants. I strongly believe in finding, giving to, and supporting local charities making a tangible difference in my community. Which also means I don’t tithe but instead donate food stuffs to my local church pantries, volunteer to collect donations at the grocery stores, etc.
Personally, if I’m interested in saving the nocturnal three-toed yellow throated semiaquatic wombats of the Gobi, I’ll donate directly to those brave souls searching the night desert for their habitat. Let someone else take care of the two-toed variety.
How big do the nocturnal three-toed yellow throated semiaquatic wombats of the Gobi get? Do they look anything like Hillary?
Nah, probably not, Hillary does not have a reflection.
“Nobody go’s home until we get 100% voluntary donations.”
I rember that shit.
Used to do it on the beginning of a three-day. Donate and you were out the door.
Extortion by any other name is still extortion….
Fucksticks….
Back in ’66-67 we were paid in cash.Get in line, sign for your pay, the Co. Commander counts out and gives you your pay, move on down the line to various stations, and then you get face-to-face with the 1st Sergeant who “asks” you how much you will “donate” to some charity (Old Soldiers Home was an automatic deduction) and how big a Savings Bond you “want” to buy.
Personally, I much prefer that method to direct deposit or checks, but it’s probably not practical these days with much larger paychecks.
I understand what Reagan was trying to do there by encouraging charity and charitable works but can’t help but feel the Gipper would be disappointed in what it has morphed into.
I think he would be disappointed in a lot of things nowadays.
The Combined Federal Campaign (CFC), like the United Way appeal, is a form of genteel extortion.
“Donate to us during our campaign, and we won’t hit you up for donations for the rest of the year” they promise.
Or, at least theoretically: “Donate to the CFC and we (your chain of command) won’t ask you to make any other donations.”
But of course, there’s still Army Emergency Relief, and the Savings Bond program, and AUSA / AAAA / SF Association, etc. etc. and the Boy Scouts, …
At least when the Girl Scouts come knocking, you can walk away with cookies.
I just give the Scouts cash and tell them to keep whatever they are selling.
I just fucking HATE what has become of Scouting. It was so totally legitimate back in the 60s. All of the leaders were WWII vets and can-do guys who seemed to really enjoy the camping trips and setting up the equipment.
I did scouts with my boys as a scout leader up till just before the great schism. Scouting is dead to me now. Of all the nice things that wokeness destroyed it was among the nicest and will be the most missed, if the kids only knew what they were missing.
My waist tells me the same thing when the Girl Scouts are at Publix and I throw in a Fiv…
It is down right un-fucking American to not buy Girl Scout cookies!
Does GSA still heavily support planned parenthood? That doesn’t sound very American to me.
Haven’t for years. Can’t penalize the new generation based upon the actions of the old. Or at least I do not.
But it is generally the first thing brought up.
And as to Planned Parenthood, its not my fight.
I’ve heard that beyond the expected issues with GS cookies (fat / sugar) that there are a lot of other chemicals / issues that have been found int hem recently.. don’t know the accuracy of it, but might want to check for yourself.
If you want to eat a box of assholes, go for it.
I will stick with Girl Scout cookies.
Also, of COURSE they have that stuff in it. Ain’t rocket science. That’s why they are so GD good! Did not realize this went from Planned Parenthood to a nutritional argument.
Cannot remember a dude in the old IN Platoon not gobbling up a few boxes – particular when PLT dude’s little girl was selling them.
So be it.
Now, if they decide to bring Savannahs back IN THEIR ORIGINALRECIPE, they might find an answer at my door.
Today? I will buy Girl Scout cookies, when a boy sells them to me…
I bought a box of Thin Mints once, and ate the whole thing. I didn’t get any thinner.
I don’t think they work.
I have been a federal employee for 7 years this month. I haven’t been hit up for any charitable organization in those 7 years.
As it should be.
Only a matter of time until some GS-5 overachiever comes along and shows initiative while carving out a career path 🙂
We’re a very small shop under Army Materiel Command, and we’re a hell of a long way from Aberdeen Proving Grounds. Our perimeter is secure from brownnosing GS-5 do-gooders.
been retired for 8 years….still have nightmares about CFC “100% contact!!” As a young Cpl I was assigned as a POC to reach out and touch someone (I&I Duty). Myself and another Cpl spent the better part of 2 weeks driving all over creation trying to get those stupid fucking forms filled out. After it was done, we dropped them off with the 1stSgt. He drove over from the office to the local Naval Base to drop them off (He lived in Base Housing)….
About 2 months later he gets called up in front of formation to receive a NAM…for his “tireless efforts to ensure the command’s objectives were met during the CFC campagin…” I get yelled at about 45 minutes later for walking out to my car in PT gear/shower shoes….
Fucking asshole….karma got his ass eventually….he was relieved as Battalion SgtMaj for ‘loss of confidence…’
‘loss of confidence…’
Diddled his driver?
Multiple DUIs.
Diddling under the influence?
The Dry Cleaner washed out the Teflon on his cammies.
My chief complaint and indictment of these “campaign” arrangements is seeing how much goes to the executive directors and administrative expenses.
Back when Bob Dole’s wife, Libby, was running the Red Cross, IIRC, she was getting about $600,000 a year for her expertise and management fees.
She was cute and also a Harvard Law graduate but $600,000 a year was more than a wee bit excessive–to my view.
And that doesn’t even mention the benefits like private jets, luxurious hotels and travel costs.
Ah well, for now I’ll settle to find out just how Ilhan has come up with a net worth of $23M! Faith Tradition doesn’t usually pay that much, so they say.
I used to fill mine out 0.00 and turn it back in. I’d get gladhanded by the 1stsausage, “What the hell, you cant spare 2.00 a month?”
“I CAN, but I don’t WANT too…”
Sarcasm aside, back in the day we (LEs) did not make shit.
Things add up…..
After I came up with over a months pay to bail out the wife of a squad mate, no one criticized my donation or not choices.
I had a history of face-to-face discussions over matters I do not wish to discuss with my 1st Sgt., so when he smiled at me in the pay line and asked me if I wanted to ‘donate’ a little something, I just couldn’t say no. He could be very persuasive.
I believe your memory is correct on all counts, but I will disagree on the worth of the wages. The ARC, at that time had over 400,000 employees and volunteers. This was a huge organization by any standard with a variety of complex missions.
Eventually they spiraled into a failure due to their bureaucratic processes during the 1990s. By 2005, they could barely muster for Katrina and have been in steep decline since.
Did a chunk of my Army career in the NG and when we did hurricane response missions, the ARC would come into the shelters as soon as the storm had passed to put up their flyers claiming credit for the work WE did during the storm.
The Salvation Army however, would be up, running and helping everyone they could well before the ARC even came near! The SA folks helped everyone that came to them, no questions asked.
Ya know who is usually first on the scene? Chick-fil-a. Even on Sunday.
Another lost bullet for evals/fitreps.
Hack Stone donates 20% of his annual salary as Director of Media Relations to help the mentally disadvantaged who lost their jobs, homes, life savings and reputations defending Phil Monkress when questioned about his time as a US Navy SEAL. So, let’s see, 20% of $0 works out to…
The CFC is just another scam to fund left-wing “charities” like (as mentioned in the article) Planned Parenthood, NPR, etc. They know very few people will donate to them over rather than true charitable organizations like St. Jude’s, so they form a charitable “commune”. That’s also why they make it difficult to find out exactly how much money goes to each individual charity. That’s also why it is not quite as “voluntary” as they claim.
One of my buddies was looking over the brochure, 1SG says “Finding anything good, SGT F?” F says “I’m looking for the Jewish conservative Republican gun owners association, I can’t find it, Top!” Stopped the 1SG dead in his tracks, wasn’t sure if F was fucking with him. He was.
There are tens of thousands of contributable organizations in the CFC book. The book also lists the percentage of monies that go toward administration and the actual charity.
While most would happily donate to the Red Cross, because…..Red Cross, right? Until they see that a HUGE amount goes to admin costs (up to $1.7 BILLION), and much less actually buying bandages and coffee.
When I explained this to my unit, to a man, they changed their contribution to the USO and the Boy Scouts (back when the Boy Scouts were, you know, “boys”). Then, the USO admin cost was about 6%, and the Boy Scouts were less than 4%.
Nothing wrong with the CFC. What’s wrong are the “charities” involved.