An annual charity drive by federal employees is bringing in 40 percent fewer donations this year after the Trump administration decimated the federal workforce and started the drive late after considering scrapping the yearly event.
Office of Personnel Management officials said last week that this year’s Combined Federal Campaign for charities would be extended through January, but according to The Washington Post, charities that usually rely on the annual effort for fundraising are concerned that the extension won’t be effective because OPM is not extending contracts for workers who help run the project each year.
As of last weekend, the Post found that the annual campaign has taken a massive hit from the Trump administration’s effort to slash the federal workforce — firing almost 300,000 people since taking office in January — as well as the knock-on effects of the 43-day government shutdown that ended last month.
Fundraising data showed that federal workers only donated $23 million as of last weekend — a steep drop from the more than $40 million the last three years’ campaigns had brought in by the same point.
The annual campaign for government workers brings in needed revenue for thousands of charities, including many in the Washington, D.C. area and Mid-Atlantic region.
The Combined Federal Campaign has raised over $9 billion for charities from federal workers since the 1960s.
Ann Hollingsworth, vice president of government affairs at the Nonprofit Alliance, told the Post that the decision not to extend the contracts of organizers could make a big difference in how much money the campaign brings in, even with the four-week extension.
“If the contractors in the final four weeks in January are not allowed to do their work, it’s a question of how successful can we make the CFC campaign after we’ve already been hit with a delay because of the shutdown and are dealing with other constraints in the nonprofit community,” she said.
A spokesperson for OPM, McLaurine Pinover, said the agency is looking at establishing “ “more cost-effective ways for federal employees to donate to charities than the current CFC.”
“We are not paying them additional monies for the extension period because we do not believe that is a good use of donor dollars,” she added.
OPM delayed starting the annual campaign because of the government shutdown and considered scrapping it entirely, but officials later decided to host it because participating charities had already paid the required fees to participate.
Scott Kupor, the wealthy venture capitalist who serves as the agency’s director, complained about the annual drive’s $22 million estimated cost in a post on the OPM blog where he said he was also “evaluating changes to the CFC for 2026 (including whether to continue the program).”
