Combined Charities Coordinator Guide

l MINNeSOTA COMBINED CHARITIES

Coordinator Guide

2018-2019

Welcome to the Campaign

Thank you for your willingness to act as a Combined Charities Coordinator for your agency or campus. We appreciate your willingness to help make a difference! The Combined Charities Campaign offers all state employees the opportunity to donate to over 1,400 charities through the convenience of payroll deduction. The campaign begins on October 1 and runs the entire month of October. Established in Minnesota statute, the campaign has raised over $20 million for Minnesota charities over the years! As a coordinator, we need you to be an ambassador for the campaign and to help ensure other state employees understand how they can participate. This Guide is meant to be a resource to help you plan a campaign that is fun, successful, and manageable. Please know that all members of the Combined Charities Board of Directors as well as your fellow coordinators, are happy to support you in this effort ? you just need to reach out! Utilize the other resources that are available to you as well, such as the New Coordinator Training, the Resource Fair, and the Combined Charities Website. Thanks again for your willingness to step up and help make this campaign a success!

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Table of Contents

Welcome to the Campaign ......................................................................................................................... 2 Coordinator Roles and Responsibilities ...................................................................................................... 5

You play a very important role! .............................................................................................................. 5 Coordinator Responsibilities................................................................................................................... 5 Planning .................................................................................................................................................. 5 Publicize .................................................................................................................................................. 6 Promote Pledging ................................................................................................................................... 6 Campaign Coordinator Check List:.......................................................................................................... 6 Combined Charities Campaign Overview ................................................................................................... 7 The Federations ...................................................................................................................................... 7 Charitable Federations in the State of Minnesota Combined Charities Campaign (CCC)...................... 8 Benefits of payroll deduction ................................................................................................................. 9 Summary of Payroll Deduction Benefits................................................................................................. 9 Making a Donation.................................................................................................................................. 9 The Role and Value of Charitable Federations ......................................................................................... 10 Federations are focused on three primary goals: ................................................................................ 10 What is a designation?.......................................................................................................................... 11 Administrative fees ............................................................................................................................... 11 How to Get Your Agency or Campus Involved.......................................................................................... 12 This is YOUR campaign and your participation makes a difference!.................................................... 12 Why have a team? ................................................................................................................................ 12 Leadership and Management support ................................................................................................. 13 Employee involvement ......................................................................................................................... 13 Event Planning .......................................................................................................................................... 14 Select Date, Time, and Location ........................................................................................................... 14 Advertising the Promotional Event....................................................................................................... 15 Event Money......................................................................................................................................... 15 Details ................................................................................................................................................... 15 Event Idea Starters.................................................................................................................................... 16 FEDERATION SUPPORT ......................................................................................................................... 16 CONTESTS.............................................................................................................................................. 16 FOOD..................................................................................................................................................... 17 MISCELLANEOUS................................................................................................................................... 19 AUCTIONS ............................................................................................................................................. 21 VIRTUAL SCAVENGER HUNT ................................................................................................................. 21 Handling Event Money.............................................................................................................................. 23 Personal Check donations..................................................................................................................... 23 Cash Donations ..................................................................................................................................... 23 Forms .................................................................................................................................................... 24 Making a Communications Plan ............................................................................................................... 25 Why you need a plan ............................................................................................................................ 25 When to communicate ......................................................................................................................... 25 What to communicate .......................................................................................................................... 26 Ways to communicate .......................................................................................................................... 27 Goal Setting............................................................................................................................................... 28

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Why set a goal?..................................................................................................................................... 28 What kind of goal to set?...................................................................................................................... 28 Setting a goal ........................................................................................................................................ 28 Monitoring progress toward a goal ...................................................................................................... 29 Publicizing your progress ...................................................................................................................... 29 Frequently Asked Questions ..................................................................................................................... 30

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Coordinator Roles and Responsibilities

You play a very important role!

You have a very important role in the campaign and we want to thank you for your willingness to take on this important job. Our mission is to provide employees with an opportunity to donate to the charities of their choice through the convenience of payroll deduction. By doing so, they are helping those who may be less fortunate and improving Minnesota's social infrastructure. Your mission is to motivate and encourage employees to participate in the Combined Charities Campaign, promote awareness and understanding of the Campaign, and to be available to answer questions. The Campaign does not work and cannot be successful without you! There are more than 150 coordinators statewide, just like you, helping to make the Campaign a success.

The Campaign does not work without you and the effort you invest makes a difference!

Coordinator Responsibilities

As a coordinator, your primary responsibilities are to organize and plan October's Campaign, publicize Campaign information, and to promote employee pledging through the convenience of payroll deduction.

Just remember the 3 P's: Plan, Publicize, and Promote Pledging.

Planning

Having a well-planned campaign is the first step to a successful one. You'll need to: ? Familiarize yourself with the Campaign. ? Involve leadership from your agency or campus to ensure support. ? Create a team to help you coordinate the Campaign activities, set goals and create a plan.

Consider meeting with last year's coordinator or reviewing last year's plan and its results to determine what worked well and what could go better. Visit the Combined Charities Campaign website for tools and resources to enhance your Campaign. The best methods of preparing are by carefully reading this document, familiarizing yourself with the website, encouraging your team to do the same, and networking with other agency and campus coordinators to learn what has been successful for their campaigns. You might also contact campaign coordinators in nearby agencies or campuses and you can always send questions to the Campaign Board.

Planning includes setting a goal. Consider how many employees participated last year and set a reasonable goal that will motivate employees to participate. Consider if your agency will be more motivated by the amount of money raised or by the percent of employees participating. The overall goal of the Campaign is to reach 5% statewide participation. If your agency and campus already exceeds the 5% level, so you will need to set a goal that continues your high level of participation. Also consider how you can use your goal to motivate. How will you publicize and track progress towards that goal?

Lastly, planning includes considering how you will utilize events during your campaign. There is a section in this manual specific to events. Events should be used to raise awareness and generate

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enthusiasm about the campaign. They may or make not generate funds but generating awareness and providing information is critical.

Publicize

Marketing the Campaign in your agency or on campus will generate awareness and raise excitement. Your role is to familiarize employees with the Campaign, address misinformation about the Campaign, and to effectively spread the word that the Combined Charities Campaign has begun.

To support you in this effort, review the area `What Every Employee Should Know' and `Making a Communications Plan' in this guide. As a brief overview, consider what resources are available to you in your Agency (Intranet news, bulletin boards, email, displays, etc.) and then consider what people will notice or pay attention to. Utilizing multiple communication methods is the most effective means of reaching the most people.

Promote Pledging

Pledging is the ultimate goal of the Campaign. Your role is to encourage employees to pledge through the convenience of payroll deduction using the Employee Self Service Website. Being available to answer questions or assist with the pledging process can make the difference between employees making a pledge or not.

Pledging through payroll deduction allows the Federations and Charities to be able to budget and plan. Payroll deduction has a number of benefits for you including that you tend to be able to contribute more than if you were to give at one time. It also allows giving to come right out of your paycheck automatically ? so you set it up one time and it "just happens"! Helping employees understand the benefits of pledging through payroll deduction is critical.

Campaign Coordinator Check List:

Discuss Campaign with senior management, get their support and participation Reserve rooms for events Secure or raise funds for campaign events if you need prizes or supplies Become familiar with the Campaign website Train yourself on the payroll deduction system so that you can answer common questions Plan campaign opening event or announcement Make sure people know that you are the coordinator and can ask you questions Plan distribution of campaign postcards Repeat number seven Plan distribution of campaign postcards Put up posters announcing campaign Keep employees aware of campaign progress Send in event money within 10 days of the event

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 Complete the coordinator survey sent by the Board

Combined Charities Campaign Overview

There is a lot of information that you, as a Coordinator, can share with employees, yet you don't want, or need, to overwhelm them.

The Minnesota State Employees' Combined Charities Campaign is a unique opportunity for Minnesota State Employees to donate to the charity or charities of their choice through the convenience of payroll deduction.

The Campaign is planned and run each year by state employees and is held during the month of October. This Campaign established in statute, Minnesota Statues, sections 16A. 134, 43A.04 and 43A.50. The Campaign has raised over $20 million dollars for Minnesota charities over the years.

Combined Charities Campaign provides a cost effective means to raise money for Minnesota charities and has made a tremendous difference in the lives of Minnesotans. The Campaign is guided by a Board of Directors which is made up of volunteer representatives from a number of State agencies and college campuses.

The Federations

Minnesota State Statutes require that charities that wish to participate in the Campaign do so through federated funding organizations, which are called Federations. These federations must have at least 14 member charities and must go through an application and approval process each year to be included in the campaign.

A federation is an umbrella organization for charities so that they can share and extend their resources to reduce administrative costs. Workplace giving federations or charitable federations are nonprofit organizations that provide fundraising services and workplace campaign coordination. Federations distribute donations to specific programs or organizations that are doing the work they support. A key role of charitable federations is evaluating member charities annually to ensure they meet high standards of performance and financial integrity.

Some federations are associations of charities with similar missions. Other federations are associations that serve a particular geographic area. By pooling fundraising resources, charities can delegate most of their fundraising tasks to specialists that serve multiple charities. This reduces administrative costs for each charity so most of your donation is used directly by the programs.

The federations represent hundreds of charities throughout Minnesota. These charities are active in every county of the state and address a variety of issues such as the environment, health, education, arts, and social services. There are usually about 40 federations to choose from.

This Campaign allows state employees the freedom to donate to any Minnesota 501 (c) 3 charity. You can explore the connections between charities and Federations on the Combined Charities website.

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Charitable Federations in the State of Minnesota Combined Charities Campaign (CCC)

? Community Health Charities ? support chronic health-focused charities ? Community Shares of Minnesota ? supports charities focused on social change and the arts ? Greater Twin Cities United Way ? funds a wide variety of basic needs and other initiatives ? Local Independent Charities ? supports a wide variety of charities ? Minnesota Environmental Fund ? supports charities focused on the environment ? Open Your Heart to the Hungry and Homeless ? supports homeless and domestic abuse

shelters and food shelves ? PeaceMaker Minnesota ? supports bullying prevention and anti-violence work in K-12 schools ? UNCF (United Negro College Fund) ? supports college scholarships for low-income students ? United Ways throughout Greater Minnesota ? fund basic needs throughout Minnesota ? Women's Foundation of Minnesota ? fund programs that supports women and girls The choice is yours. You can give to the charity you support. Many of the charitable federations allow you to designate to a specific charity. There are three types of ways the money is distributed: 1. Federations that do not accept designations. All the money you donate to this federation will

be put into a general fund and will be spent in accordance with the programming and/or granting of money that this federation is focused on. 2. Federations that accept designations to their affiliated agencies only. With these federations you can choose to donate to their general fund or designate your donation to one or more of their affiliated agencies ? nonprofit organizations that they have vetted and work with. 3. Federations that accept designations to their affiliated agencies or any 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. These federations accept donations to their general fund, designations to their affiliated agencies or a designation to any 501(c) 3 nonprofit. On the Combined Charities Campaign (CCC) website, you will find a list of the affiliated agencies for each federation. All combined there are more than 800 individual member charities represented in the CCC. Check out the charitable federations and the members who they support!

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