Here are some lessons learned from this year’s record-breaking Combined Federal Campaign of the National Capital Area (CFCNCA) to advance your planning for the 2010 CFCNCA:
1. Schedule a post-campaign debrief with your department and agency leaders.
Learn what sparks their enthusiasm. Take the opportunity to tell them how much their efforts affect the success of your work and thank them for their involvement.
2. Create a department-or-agency-wide email blast to recognize volunteers and thank donors.
Encourage new levels of engagement in 2010 with a sincere thank you to all. Participation is the foundation of the campaign’s success in delivering help to people and communities everywhere.
3. Uncover inspirational stories in your department or agency.
Interview donors about the charitable causes that mean the most to them. Individual stories demonstrate the powerful impact that donations to more than 4,000 charities can make and is a valuable tool to inspire giving.
4. Plan 2010 kick-off events early.
Learn from the departments and agencies that held successful events and set up a realistic timeline now. Talent shows, county fairs and sports-themed events drew big crowds in 2009 but required careful planning.
5. Talk to the winners
Identify the departments and agencies that won awards for campaign work you would like to model. Talk with the campaign managers and learn from their success. You can start by reviewing the 2009 CFCNCA Campaign Contest winners.
All great ideas. I would share them with someone from my agency, but the people in charge change each year. I hope you’ll share these with the “loaned executives” who sometimes can influence the process.
I would also recommend using social media to reach employees, with more of the heart-wrenching videos of charities in action.
There needs to be more continuity between years and maybe have a nation-wide kickoff using virtual media – web conferencing. Maybe have a federal version of the popular “we are the world” montage featuring federal employees from all agencies and regions.
Sorry, I got carried away a little there. I’m a big fan of CFC and always give as much as I can. I just don’t understand why 50% of my co-workers don’t give.
Mr. Hill,
Thanks so much for your comments, but more importantly, thanks for your support of the campaign.
We value this kind of input and will certainly share it with our team.
I’m now doing CFC fundraising consulting, but during my Federal career I was a keyworker, communications chair, charity fair organizer, and loaned executive, all of which were great experiences.
As the communications chair the single best e-mail I ever did was to ask the Eagle donors why they gave. I then compiled their answers (3-4) at a time in a series of several e-mails and sent that out to all employee e-mail right after the kickoff events. With colleagues saying why the CFC was important to them and how the agencies it funds had helped them in some way, either directly, family member, or a cause they cared about, it helped generate a record breaking year, and the funds came in earlier than prior years.
Regards,
Bill Huddleston
http://www.cfcfundraising.com
P.S. If anyone would like my spreadsheet that shows how the different CFC positions correlate to the ECQ (Executive Core Qualifications), please send me an e-mail at BillHuddleston AT verizon dot net with “ECQ CFC” in the subject line and I’ll be glad to send it to you.
Thanks and congratulations on all your great work!