The Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) is underway, and once again, Wounded Heroes of America (WHOA) is taking part. In Los Angeles County alone, there are approximately 2,000 charities that participate in CFC. The program was started by John F. Kennedy and is regulated by the federal government, and all charities are vetted by the Office of Personnel and Management (OPM), a governmental agency that sets the guidelines and the review process. In prior years, every charity had to submit an annual application approved by the local administrator, usually United Way, but final approval rested with OPM.
Every year, large and small non-profits take part. Los Angeles County has one of the largest campaigns in the country.
In 2013, 2014 and 2015, WHOA was in the top 50 charities chosen to support by LA County federal employees. In 2014,WHOA was in the top 25 of all participating non-profits. Many of the other charities in these designated groups have ample resources available to spend on marketing and to hire professional fund developers, grant writers and celebrities. We at WHOA don’t have deep pockets to hire a battery of professionals, but we do have the best advocates: the vets themselves.
In 2015, changes within CFC occurred that were both good and bad for us. In order to streamline the process, OPM decided to rely more heavily on online donations and to cutback the middleman (i.e., eliminating many campaign administrators). This move favored the larger, better-known charities. Another negative aspect was the bad press some of the larger Veteran organizations brought upon themselves. We believe these things negatively affected donations for 2015.
The good news is that with the increase on online donations, they’ve also made the application national rather than local; therefore, we now have more access to supporters throughout the country. We think this will help us make more friends since more people will learn about our foundation. We feel that the more people who hear about us and the work we do, the more support we’ll have from federal employees.
Our current administrative expenses are 11% of our total revenue, which means that 89% of what we bring in goes directly towards the programs we support. According to the formula established by OPN from our tax returns, and that which applies equally to all participating charities, our numbers are outstanding. We believe we’ve done well not only because our programs are so well-received but also because people recognize how hard we work to carry the message that we need to help our combat wounded.
The amount of funding we receive from CFC alone, while substantial, will not keep our doors open. It does, however, give us an opportunity to travel and speak to federal employees from a number of agencies, including border patrol, social security, military bases and numerous other agencies in Southern California. Education about what life is like for our combat wounded is a crucial first step.
On September 28, I left my home in LA near LAX at 5am so that I wouldn’t be late to speak at a CFC kickoff event at 8am at the naval base in San Diego. I spoke to 40 people for 10 minutes, and I spent five hours on the road.These kinds of speaking commitments happen quite often during the campaign season, and the trip to San Diego was the first of many to come until the end of the campaign in mid-December. It’s not unusual for us to travel great distances to speak for a few minutes to people who are willing to listen.
Readers, if you appreciate what we at WHOA do,please forward our information to friends or relatives who are federal employees, and please ask them to support our foundation. CFC’s changing policies of making it easier to reach more federal employees is definitely good news for us. Americans love their vets and are looking for hands-on foundations that have few layers between the donations and the vets.
Pleaselook through our webpage, www.woundedheroesofamerica.org, and pass this information on to your federal employee family members and friends.
Our CFC code is 99918
Respectfully,
Mike Talleda
President and founder
Wounded Heroes of America