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To become eligible for donations through the Combined Federal Campaign, you
must be a charity recognized by the IRS as tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3).
You must also meet a series of eligibility and accountability standards. We
have summarized these requirements under CFC's
10 Accountability Standards.
You must apply every year. If you are already a CFC
charity and you are part of a CFC federation, your federation should take care
of this for you. If you are not part of a federation, you must apply yourself.
National organizations (or international
organizations) apply through the CFC office in the Office of Personnel
Management in Washington DC. If you are accepted as a national or international
organization, you are listed in every CFC in the country (there are more than
300).
To be considered a national organization, you must provide services in at least
15 states (see below). To be considered an international organization, you must
provide services in at least one foreign country.
For your convenience, we have created a link to the national application:
http://www.opm.gov/cfc/
When sending the completed application, the CFC office urges you to send it by
private carrier, such as UPS. The office says that normal mail is still subject
to lengthy delays because of the radiation process. Please do not send them
to us at Charitable Choices!
Questions about applying should be directed to the Office of CFC Operations at
202-606-2564.
Local organizations must apply through the "Local Federal Coordinating
Committee" in their local CFC. There are more than 300 local CFCs. A list of
local CFCs organized by state is available at:
http://opm.gov/cfc/html/local-cfc-offices.doc
The deadline is set locally. It is normally in March or April.
For information about the National Capital Area CFC, please go to:
http://www.cfcnca.org/
Applying as a national or international organization:
You can find the regulations governing eligibility at the national CFC website:
http://www.opm.gov/cfc/html/cfc-regulations.pdf. Go to 950.201:
National List Eligibility.
You can find answers to frequently asked questions at
opm.gov/cfc/html/FAQ.htm.
Here are some basics. (Please keep in mind that nothing here is official: we
are trying to help you understand the rules and requirements. You must refer to
the regulations and the official CFC website for definitive answers to your
questions.)
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You must be recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) charity. If
you are in the process of applying for your c-3 status as a public charity, you
won't be accepted into the CFC.
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You must be able to submit a "detailed description" of the "real services,
benefits, assistance or program activities" that you have provided in at least
15 states over the past three years. You do not need to have an
office in all 15 states. But the CFC office has made it clear that simply
having a toll-free telephone number and/or a website with information on it is
not enough to qualify. OPM also states that "sending or mailing information or
literature to recipients" is not enough. This year's CFC application includes
detailed guidance about how national charities should demonstrate a presence in
15 states. It is called "Suggestions for Attachment "A."
An OPM memo (CFC Memorandum 2000-7, available on its website) specifically
addresses questions around providing services through a website. In essence it
says that you must be able to identify people that have gotten services through
your website. This means they must register when they come to your website.
Simply reporting the number of hits to your website is not enough. OPM also
requires that you have a feedback mechanism on your website.
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The language "real services, benefits, assistance or program activities" is
significant. It is the result of a conflict that lasted for many
years in the 1980s and was revived in 1995. Many wanted to limit the CFC to
charities that provide direct services. They wanted to exclude charities that
do advocacy or work to educate the public. They also wanted to limit the amount
of advocacy or public education that service-providing charities could do.
Ultimately Congress required that a broader range of charities be included in
the CFC. As a result, rejecting a charity because it doesn't provide direct
services (such as shelter for the homeless or a recreation program for
low-income children) is not allowable.
Also, rejecting a charity because it does lobby is also not allowable.
The application requires that you indicate either that you do no lobbying or
that the amount of your lobbying fits the limits stated in 26 U.S.C. 501(h).
This is commonly known as the 501(h) election. This part of the tax code lays
out exactly how much lobbying you can do. The limits are pretty broad.
Charities with budgets up to $500,000, for example, can spend up to 20% of
their budget on lobbying. The way this part of the CFC application is worded
suggests that you don't have to actually have to elect to be covered under
501(c). You just need to certify that your lobbying would not exceed its
limits. For more about those limits and lobbying by charities, go to clpi.org.
This is the website of Charity Lobbying in the Public Interest.
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You must have a recent audit. The regs explain what is
required.
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You must provide a copy of your IRS 990 report. It needs to
cover the same period as your audit. You also must provide a copy of an annual
report. However, if you publish a newsletter that also serves as an annual
report, that's okay. But it must describe your activities or services and it
must identify your directors and key staff.
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Your fund-raising and administrative costs should be 25% or less.
If they are more, you must explain why your costs are reasonable and submit a
plan for lowering these costs to 25%. A few organizations get in with higher
costs, but the CFC has kicked out charities whose higher costs have not been
reduced. The CFC does require that local CFCs look at a CFC charity's costs
over the past few years to see if it "has made progress" in lowering its costs.
Memo 2000-7 states: "Typically it can take several years to lower the rate to
the standards acceptable to the CFC...."
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You must get everything to OPM by the deadline. Rejecting
organizations because they haven't submitted everything they are required to
submit is a fairly easy way to limit the number of charities in the CFC. OPM is
very strict about this.
Applying as a local organization:
Local charities must meet all but one or two of the requirements for national
charities. Obviously local charities do not have to provide services or
benefits in 15 states. Local charities with annual revenue under $100,000 do
not have to have an audit. (There are also exceptions that apply very narrowly
to certain types of charities, such as those that provide family support and
youth activities on military bases.)
Local charities also apparently do not have to have provided services or
benefits for three years as national charities are. The 3-year requirement is
only in the section that requires national charities to serve at least 15
states.
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As a local charity, you must have a "substantial local presence" in the
geographic area covered by the local CFC (or by an adjacent CFC --
see below). A substantial local presence is "a staffed facility, office or
portion of a residence dedicated exclusively to that organization, available to
members of the public seeking its services or benefits." The facility must be
open at least 15 hours a week and have a dedicated phone line. The office may
be staffed by volunteers.
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Much of the discussion above (about national eligibility) also applies to local
charities, such as the somewhat flexible limit on your fund-raising and
administrative costs and the issue of how much lobbying you can do.
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You can apply as a local charity to more than one local CFC. You
can apply to a local CFC if you have a "substantial local presence" in an
adjacent campaign. The CFC calls this the "contiguous rule." It applies when a
charity "provides services in a geographical area which expands into two or
more CFC geographical boundaries." In the DC area for example, a charity may
have a facility in upper Montgomery County. That facility may be used by people
who live in Frederick County. That charity could apply to both the CFC of the
National Capital Area (which includes Montgomery County) and the CFC of Central
Maryland (which includes Frederick County).
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You can also apply as a statewide charity, but it isn't easy.
You must either provide benefits or services to at least 30% of a state's
population or in 30% of a state's geographic areas. OPM memo 2000-7 (on its
website) explains these 30% "tests." It states: "We recognize that statewide
presence can be hard to measure," particularly for environmental groups and
charities that serve distinct groups, such as AIDS organizations. In the latter
case, these charities must demonstrate that they serve 30% of their target
population. Apparently you need to apply as a statewide organization to each
local CFC in your state.
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