January 15th closed out the 2020 National Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) period and by the close of business, the MMAC had exceeded the $230,000 goal by raising $235,003.94. This number is expected to go up once all paper pledges have been processed. The Center’s campaign ran from October 5th and was extended through January 8th of 2021. According to Center campaign co-chair Debbie Uglean, "The virtual environment made it easy to extend the Center’s campaign and continue with virtual events."
This year’s campaign was unprecedented in many ways, as it incorporated not only virtual team meetings and virtual tools that many of us had never used before, but also featured virtual fund-raising events, was run primarily from employees in telework status, and exceeded the usual campaign time frame. The Center’s 2020 CFC team consisted of three chairpersons and fifty Center employees serving in coordinator and keyworker roles.
The team had several learning opportunities, including an online 5-week Emerging Leaders Civic Advancement Training Program. The leadership program was attended by CFC team members from various agencies across the United States and consisted of speakers, breakout sessions, videos, self-discovery and crucial conversation activities, charity presentations and information sharing activities.
Maguire and Maguire held the first ever CFC "Santa Claus is ZOOMING to Town" event on December 22, 2020. Employees were able to share with their children what CFC was all about and the children were thrilled to speak with Santa. Kudo’s went to Santa as he stayed online throughout and even beyond the event, and spoke with every child. This event was a big success.
Another new part of the campaign was the joining of forces with the local Federal Executive Board (FEB) and other Federal agencies across the United States to host and/or attend virtual charity fairs and fundraising events. This enabled the sharing of ideas and efforts, and the forging of new friendships across agencies and state lines. Co-chair Debbie Uglean reflects, "Not only were we able to help our communities through the CFC campaign, but we were also able to help each other through a new virtual environment that we were all forced into by the global health crisis. This was truly a large-scale collaborative effort!"
The virtual campaign was a success because of the high attendance and funds raised at the first and only CFC telethon, in addition to attendance numbers in other virtual events that were held during the campaign. Uglean went on to say that, "We are looking at ways to incorporate what lessons we have learned and what kind of virtual events to conduct going forward - even after we are able to move back to an in-person campaign. We will also be working on ways to increase employee participation in the campaign." Watch for a CFC survey that will be sent out via e-mail in the coming weeks. It will be designed to capture what worked and what didn’t in this campaign (and past campaigns) and will include questions regarding CFC charities.
