The CFC’s Uncertain Future, $1B Milestone, and Emergency Assistance Funds

riverside_jim_& george magic episode _ mar 05, 2026_using_whole whale p

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Speaker: This week on the podcast, an old friend and amazing leader of America’s charities, charities.org. I have Jim Starr, the president, CEO of America’s Charities. Also, full disclosure, I used to be on the board of America’s charities for more years than I think I should have been, and I learned so much being in that room and and watching this organization grow.

Speaker: Jim, great to have you on the podcast.

Speaker 2: George, it’s great to see you. It’s, it’s been a while. We missed you at America’s charities. You know, you’re always welcome back.

Speaker: I appreciate that. And you know, obviously it was an honor to serve, but [00:01:00] maybe we start with what does America’s charities do? What is your, your role in the philanthropic world?

Speaker 2: Yeah, so our mission is a pretty broadly stated mission. It is to mobilize the power of giving. And we do that predominantly by partnering with other organizations, corporations, government agencies. To really kind of raise funds for nonprofits for the entire nonprofit community. And so that’s kind of the bulk of what we do.

Speaker 2: So we run employee giving programs. We help manage volunteering programs for companies. And a few years ago we launched our, our new service line for emergency assistance funds for organizations to be able to, uh, raise funds that help their employees that are experiencing a personal financial hardship due to an emergency situation.

Speaker: And I know the, when I came into the organization, the, uh, the universe revolved around a thing I had [00:02:00] never heard of. Called the CFC, the combined Federal Campaign, the CFC. And honestly, as I understand it, the history here is that that is really where this America’s Charities was, was born and they had a catalog.

Speaker: And I remember that like it was critical that every year, wherever you happen to get placed in this catalog. Which was options of places to give for federal employees. Just that was the beginning, middle, and end of like, how is this year gonna be? Depends on where we got in this catalog. And I was like, I didn’t have words for it then.

Speaker: And I struggle now. But can you describe, I guess, not the catalog, but rather the combined Federal campaign Yeah. And and America’s Charities role in and alongside that.

Speaker 2: Yeah. So, no, you’re right. We are, America’s Charities was actually founded by a group of charities. That were looking to get access into workplace giving programs, [00:03:00] including the CFC.

Speaker 2: Um, and at that time, the only way through there was the United Way. And so these charities were looking for another vehicle. They came together, they formed America’s charities. And so that really was our founding. And in fact, when you were there and when I started there, this service line around the CFC and other state and local.

Speaker 2: Given campaigns was the bulk of our activity and was the predominant source of, you know, our, our donations. It’s a lot different today, as you mentioned, it’s no longer a paper catalog where you had to get listed into that. And where you placed was kind of dictated how much you might be able to raise, which is a little crazy.

Speaker 2: Um, it moved to an online platform, but basically some highlights of what the CFC is. It is, again, it’s the federal government’s workplace giving program. And at its peak, it was actually established in 1961 by JFK. Um, so it’s been around for a very long time [00:04:00] and at its peak in 2009, it raised over $280 million from over a million donors.

Speaker 2: So it was a huge, big thing. It was raising all kinds of money for charities. Um, but since that time, it’s just been declining year over year for a variety of different reasons. And, um, the latest year that we have figures for is 2024. We don’t have the final figures for 25, but in 24 it raised $68 million, um, from about 70,000 plus donors.

Speaker 2: Um, and there’s been a variety of different things that have contributed to that. You know, there’s been changes in the fee structures that are charged to charities because this campaign is not paid with taxpayer dollars. It’s actually funded by the charities, but they introduced new like listing fees.

Speaker 2: So a lot of charities that weren’t raising a lot of money were like, you know what? I’m out. I’m not raising money. Why should I pay a fee to be into this? So that reduced a lot, uh, a large number of charities. And then things like government shutdowns the longest one last year [00:05:00] are 45 days. Those things declining morale in the workforce have just kind of contributed to its overall decline.

Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, it is still generating a large number of money for the nonprofits that are participating. $70 million is not chump change, and it is making a difference in the charities that do participate.

Speaker: Yeah, and I, I feel like you can check me on this, but one of the bright spots in this is actually retiree giving because retirees are also included inside of there, and it seems like that is up decently, what about 6 million in 2024?

Speaker 2: Yeah, it’s been, so they started allowing retirees to participate a few years ago, so it’s still relatively new in the whole, you know, timeline, C, F, C. And each year it’s just gotten more and more. And so retirees have been a growing source of donations and participation.

Speaker: So ultimately, we could talk about like why the CFC still matters, but why does that not matter?[00:06:00]

Speaker 2: Well, unfortunately, we’re not sure that the CFC is actually going to continue. It’s unfortunate. Last year before the campaign got launched, OPM paused. The CFC.

Speaker: Sorry, what is OPM?

Speaker 2: Oh, office of Personnel Management. So that is the Agency

Speaker: Office of Personnel Management, OPM.

Speaker 2: Yep. That is, thanks for checking me on the acronym.

Speaker 2: That is the, uh.

Speaker: I legit forgot. I was like, I could guess, but this is mainly me as a derelict export member being like, finally I get to know what it means.

Speaker 2: Yeah. So they, so they, they’re the responsible agency for basically administering the, the program. Uh, and, and last year, prior to the campaign start, they put a pause on it.

Speaker: Hmm.

Speaker 2: And we started to get signals that maybe they’re gonna cancel the program in 25. And so there was a large advocacy effort that we participated in along with a lot of other nonprofits, and we’re basically able to [00:07:00] convince the administration that, you know, look, charities have paid their fees to participate in this, and so funds have been collected and you need to, you know, move forward with the campaign.

Speaker 2: So it moved forward. And then of course, the day that it launched, the government shut down for a month and a half. And then we received notice just a few weeks ago from OPM that they were going to. Turn off the reporting portal, basically, where charities can log in, get their donation information, find out information about donors that have elected to share that, those kinds of things.

Speaker 2: They’re basically shutting that down and that’s not a good indicator for, um, continued, continued program. They have not opened up. Applications. So charities are not able to apply for a 26 campaign. Usually by this time of year, that process has started and that has not started. So while we haven’t received any official notice that the campaign is not gonna run in 26, all of the indications that we’re [00:08:00] seeing seem to be pointing in that direction.

Speaker: Yeah. All we have are these like vague statements from OPM about like, Hey, whether we’re gonna continue the program or not, is there an official date of like this if it doesn’t happen? The CFC is done. Like what is the, we’re holding our breath date right now.

Speaker 2: Well, we still have a little bit of time. It all depends if they’re going to run it, how they’re gonna run it.

Speaker 2: And so there’s an online platform that, you know, they’ve been using in the past. The contract for that, basically not been renewed. So they would have to get that in place. I don’t think it’d take a great deal of effort to get it back up. So that’s not like the long pole in the tent. And then there’s other contracts that they let to support the campaign.

Speaker 2: Nothing’s been done with that. The campaign typically starts in October-ish timeframe. And so there’s still time for, you know, a decision to run it to happen, but I believe there’d be a lot of scrambling that’ll have to take [00:09:00] place to get it, to get it going.

Speaker: When is the dues, like you mentioned, like, oh, it would’ve been unfair in 25 5 ’cause they paid their dues.

Speaker: Like when does, like, how does that work for 2026?

Speaker 2: Uh, well, there are no dues because they haven’t. Opened up the site to accept applications. And so there’s an application fee that you pay when you make application to participate in the, in the CFC, uh, that typically happens in the spring. Uh, you know, it starts now.

Speaker 2: Uh, and then if you are accepted, there’s a listing fee. So you have to pay to be listed into the platform. And that happens, you know, uh,

Speaker: what does that fee cost? Like? What is that?

Speaker 2: Oh geez. I don’t know the numbers off the top of my head, but it depends upon the size of your size of your charity. It can be a thousand dollars.

Speaker 2: Um, okay. You know, a couple hundred dollars. It’s not like super large, but you have to be able to raise enough money from the CFC to cover it, to make it worthwhile.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Um, I have a way to save it, Jim. You’re not gonna [00:10:00] like it, but I have a way.

Speaker 2: Alright. I’m open,

Speaker: so here. Hear me out. Yeah. Um, we already know that the Kennedy Senator, Senate, the Kennedy Center, is called the Trump Kennedy Center.

Speaker: Yeah. As you mentioned in 61. Yes. Kennedy created this, follow me down, this sad little game. We now play the Trump, Kennedy, CFC or some therein Trump giving program for government employees. Pitched properly would save this program. I humbly submit to you the Invest America or Trump accounts. Invest America at its core is going to be wonderful for the young people of this country.

Speaker: It’s actually gonna be wonderful and it’s gonna survive far beyond. Here’s what I say, lead the charge in a rebranding effort so that you can unlock the, you know, the extra 70 million that would make its way to deserving nonprofits. And

Speaker 2: that’s based on the fact that [00:11:00] Trump has been really good with nonprofits.

Speaker: Some in nonprofits is a class. It’s a status of class tax classification, I’d say. I’d say the Heritage Foundation has been very, very beneficial

Speaker 2: uhhuh

Speaker: to them. And as you know and have seen, there are folks on both sides of the aisle inside of that ecosystem. So. Here’s a random question though. Uh, that was only a half joke.

Speaker: Like, ’cause that will actually work and you know, it would work. And part of you is like, oh, I don’t like that. Anyway. What, so there’s 70 million in giving like this opportunistic, if you don’t ask, you don’t get type of thing. Would, wouldn’t that money find another avenue?

Speaker 2: Yeah.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker 2: That’s a great question.

Speaker 2: And so, uh, it’s difficult to give a precise answer on that. I think there is some of that might, but the bulk of it probably will not. And the reason for that is because the CFC is predominantly driven [00:12:00] by payroll giving. So you sign up and you have $10 taken out of each paycheck, kind of set it and forget it, and then at the end of the year you wind up with, you know, an annual gift of.

Speaker 2: X amount of dollars. That annual gift that’s done through payroll giving because you, it’s a small amount that you don’t even really miss every paycheck. Winds up being larger than if you were to make a one-time annual gift at the end of the year to a charity. And so I’m pretty confident that if the CFC were to go away, that 70 million that has been donated last year in the program will not find its way to charities if the program does not.

Speaker: Yeah, just the sort of, when we talk about friction and we also talk about what happens and the number one reason somebody gives is because they were asked. It always struck me that this is a moment where everyone collectively asks, sets an expectation of philanthropy and reduces the friction all at once in October in DC [00:13:00]

Speaker 2: Yep.

Speaker 2: Well, around the country, not just in dc. So

Speaker: I think it’s important that there are federal employees all across the country. Yes.

Speaker 2: Yeah. In fact, most federal employees do not work in DC

Speaker: although it always seemed like we put a lot of effort in the, the backyard of DC with our like advertisements and, and pushes.

Speaker 2: That’s because the largest concentration of federal employees are in DC and so if you want bang for your buck, that’s where you get

Speaker: fishing. Here we go. Here we go. And you were getting an insight into like me being so annoying on every single board meeting. Welcome to Why I’m not on any boards. Actually, I am, but I should not be Jim.

Speaker: There was something when we had those conversations, speaking about being in that boardroom and setting big, huge audacious goals that you know at the time, and this is, I. Dare say what? 10 years ago? 10 years ago. A good number, a healthy number of years ago. You set a big, huge goal. And I would like to just sort of have you narrate the recent [00:14:00] milestone that America’s charities just crossed.

Speaker 2: Sure. So we will, uh, we’ll wander back in history a little bit, and so, uh, yeah, 10 years ago, two 16 moved into this role as president and CEO, you were the board chair at that time, and, uh, you and the board. Basically asked me, so Jim, you’re moving into this, you know, important leadership role for America’s Charities.

Speaker 2: What is your big audacious goal for, for the company? What do you want to have, see accomplished? And so I gave that a lot of, a lot of thought, and um, basically set the goal to have the organization reach its billion dollar milestone within 10 years. So not raising a billion dollars in 10 years, but over the course of the organization’s history, hit the billion dollars.

Speaker 2: I saw that as a nice North star that could organize a lot of our activity and our efforts and our innovation around trying to achieve that goal.

Speaker: Yeah. So having processed $1 billion [00:15:00] delivered two the nonprofits that were members and as you mentioned, even helping non-members.

Speaker 2: Yeah, we, yeah, we, we, uh, the funds we raise, go to, we’ve probably helped maybe.

Speaker 2: 50,000 charities over the course of our, of our lifetime, and then thousands of individuals as well through our emergency assistance funds.

Speaker: Yeah, yeah. And then the, the individual thing, and I do wanna get back to that, but a tremendous moment of, you know, accomplishment. ’cause it seemed like at the time, we were like halfway there and it was like, oh my gosh, this is gonna take a long time.

Speaker: And to put in the context, the entirety as I understand it. C, FC total amount ever processed through there hovers around 9 billion. So it’s like a significant portion of that. But beyond that saying like, no, there’s also a lot of money that you have figured out to route to nonprofits, and that’s the sort of what a great like number to hang your hat on.

Speaker: So I, I hope you all had, uh, [00:16:00] the sort of office cake, like three layers, proper frosting and one bi and 1 billion candles.

Speaker 2: We did a, you know, we did our little celebration

Speaker: golf clap.

Speaker 2: Yep. We did the golf clap. Said we got it. It’s uh, you know, that’s done. Now we gotta move on.

Speaker: Yeah. You know, I think just to dwell on it for a second, we don’t celebrate our wins long enough for the amount of effort that goes in there.

Speaker: Also acknowledging that, you know, the journey is the destination. However, it’s important to like, take a breath and really acknowledge when we achieve one of these large goals

Speaker 2: well, and takes

Speaker: a lot of work.

Speaker 2: And think about the context. So America’s Charities was a formed in 1980, and between that time period and 2016 when we set the goal, we had raised about 600 million.

Speaker: Yeah,

Speaker 2: yeah. And so in the past 10 years, we raised another 400 million and got to the billion dollars.

Speaker: Yeah. And it’s a good North Star to have too, because all of the. Programs that you did, we can point to like, did we bring more [00:17:00] money to the cause, the people, the routing and maybe this is a, a good place to move into the emergency assistance funds and what that looks like for organizations and what that product looks like.

Speaker 2: Yeah. Um, lemme set the stage a little bit with that and talk a little bit about why and how we got into emergency assistance funds. ’cause that was not a service offering of ours until 2019. And one of the things that I think is imperative for organizations and particularly nonprofits, is to seek out innovative ways that you can continue to accomplish your mission.

Speaker 2: Don’t just kind of rest on what you’ve always done, even if you’ve always done it extremely well. And so, you know, for us, that meant looking beyond the CFC and looking even beyond our other service lines for corporations around employee giving and volunteering. And I had a couple of our clients ask about emergency assistance funds.

Speaker 2: So let me pause. What is an emergency assistance [00:18:00] fund?

Speaker: What is an emergency assistance fund? Jim?

Speaker 2: That is, it is a fund that’s established, that’s managed by a public charity typically that has this as part of the charitable purpose. It’s an important facet where a fund is established for what’s called a charitable class, a group of people where if they experience a, an emergency situation, let’s say it’s a disaster, or they had to go to the emergency room.

Speaker 2: Or a loved one died and they have to pay a funeral bill, or they were a victim of crime. A whole host of these types of unexpected sudden events that create a personal financial hardship. And so a fund is established that allows that person to make an application and seek a grant tax-free grant that will help alleviate their financial hardship.

Speaker 2: It may not eliminate it, but it goes a long way towards helping alleviate it. So that’s in a nutshell what an emergency assistance fund is.

Speaker: Without an emergency assistance fund, let’s say there was that funeral that came up, [00:19:00] that unexpected tragedy that happened, should the company just directly distribute funds to that individual?

Speaker: That is taxed at X rate, depending on your state, depending on the pathway of payment. But you know, taking 30% away from that and putting that and muddying the waters of the established salary contract and benefits, this actually gives you that charitable avenue and also a service to employees and communities.

Speaker 2: Exactly. Exactly. So if it’s done through the public charity, it is a tax fee grant. If the company’s paying out a grant that’s taxable, it’s treated as income. And there are other other parameters that a company needs to make sure they’re compliant with if they’re doing a program as well. Mm-hmm. You know, using a partner, we take care of all of that.

Speaker 2: The other benefit is that it provides the applicant a degree of confidentiality. They’re not having to share their personal situation with their employer. And so it allows them to use a independent third party, [00:20:00] and they don’t have to worry about their employer knowing about the fact that they don’t have $400 in savings to help pay for a funeral bill.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker 2: Or that they had to go to the er. You know, not everybody wants their employers to know their medical issue.

Speaker: Yeah, which is a weird gray area. ’cause we all have to choose the medical coverage and setup of that option. But then you’re like, I don’t wanna be a healthcare provider. I don’t wanna be involved in this, nor should I.

Speaker: It still boggles my mind that every year we literally choose the healthcare plans for employees. I don’t know if you notice, but that’s not a domain of expertise of a digital analytics firm. Not a thing. But here we are. So, uh, I’m, I’m curious what is, and this is, uh, more just like sort of point of discovery, like what is the, you must be this tall to ride the ride.

Speaker: Like where is it, you know, the, the sweet spot or where are organizations of x number of people being like, this is a, a benefit we should unlock.

Speaker 2: Yeah, that’s a [00:21:00] great question. So our client portfolio, we’ve got about 200 companies that are using our emergency assistance fund services. They range anywhere in size from a couple hundred employees to over 300,000.

Speaker 2: Um, so a wide range of companies can benefit from a program. What we found is companies that are typically maybe a thousand plus employees, have the most benefit from it because they’re able to actually fund it better. Um, mm-hmm. Things of that nature. And so, but we do have some smaller firms that are doing well, and so they’ve established a program to help their employees.

Speaker: Yeah. That’s awesome. Yeah. And also from like a probabilistic standpoint of a thousand people. Like, sorry, the law of,

Speaker 2: you

Speaker: know, bad things happening in the world. Like someone needs some help at some point.

Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I mean, we set one up for our own employees, so, and we’re 50 people.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2: It’s been used.

Speaker 2: There

Speaker: you go. Yeah, I think this is like a [00:22:00] wildly underutilized sort of benefit, but also like showing that you care. I dunno if you have any stats on like, oh, it helps retention, or things like that. Or it’s just like, look, how do you calculate the ROI of your mom? Like, it’s just nice when someone is nice, like, relax George with the numbers.

Speaker 2: Yeah. So there’s a, there’s, there’s a, there’s a, a, a few benefits, um, one we know that, that people are, that are experiencing financial stress.

Speaker: Hmm.

Speaker 2: They don’t leave that at home. It comes into the workplace and affects productivity. And if you as an employer can help alleviate some of that stress through this kind of a program, you’re gonna have better productivity.

Speaker 2: We also know that employees truly do appreciate working for companies that care about them, and this is a program that you know. Demonstrates that that pet compassion. Um, you know, with that, the other benefit of the program, not only to the employee of helping them get back, you know, on their feet [00:23:00] into the company by helping ’em be more productive, is that it also, it has a kind of a trickle down effect into the community.

Speaker 2: And so if your organization has a program that’s helping your employees, those individuals may not have to access other resources in the community. Those resources are now available to others in the community. So you’re actually impacting your community as well.

Speaker: Yeah. So I’ll play put on my other hat of the, wait a minute, isn’t this routing money away from the classic nonprofit?

Speaker: And how does that align with the original mission of the organization? How do you narrate that? Or is that not a factor?

Speaker 2: It’s not much of a factor. So, you know, our mission is to mobilize the power of giving. Our founding has been, uh, supporting charitable causes or other nonprofits. In essence, what we’re doing with this program is we’re, we’re the nonprofit that’s providing the service and uh, [00:24:00] and this, and we’re helping provide direct, individual assistance, you know, through that.

Speaker 2: So it’s, it’s just another avenue to do good.

Speaker: I see it probably as unlocking money that wouldn’t have otherwise been deployed for these purposes. Yes, there’s corporate giving and like go buy the charitable table at the chicken dinner kind of thing, and one off, Hey, let’s do Toys for Tots. So it doesn’t look like we’re about to fire a bunch of employees narratives, but this is actually operationalizing philanthropy.

Speaker 2: And it’s doing it in a way where you are having a direct impact on the people you know that are part of your community. And so, I mean, it’s a, it’s a, it’s, it’s a great way to, you know, focus your philanthropy, uh, on audience that is part of your family, uh, that has demonstrated a need.

Speaker: Yeah, it’s interesting ’cause on the other side I do see this rise [00:25:00] of disintermediation of nonprofits in philanthropy looking at.

Speaker: The rise of tools like GoFundMe, right? Where it’s the individual and finally I can just give directly to the individual, completely taking out the social layer safety scrutiny, uh,

Speaker 2: well we’re providing, right? And so, you know, with this program there, it’s an application process. You have to be able to demonstrate and document need and everything so that you know those dollars are going to somebody that truly does have a need.

Speaker 2: It’s not something that. Well, there might be something there that this guy needs.

Speaker: It’s not how many likes they got or how wealthy their network is, you mean? Yeah. Or how good the picture is. They put on their GoFundMe, uh, design page, which by the way, there’s many, many tutorials inside of GoFundMe about how to make sure your story really pops.

Speaker: Yeah. Got a pop, man. It’s got a pop. If you, if you, honestly, for a second like. About disasters. If you really wanna say something that’ll churn your stomach, I want you to look at the next hurricane or disaster that comes in, and I want you [00:26:00] to go on GoFundMe search for the name of that. You’ll be surprised about the premonitions of people who are able to predict the disaster that’s gonna happen to them and getting their funding up.

Speaker 2: Wow.

Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2: Crazy. I haven’t done that. I don’t know if I do that.

Speaker: I’m surprised with that level of premonition. They don’t use it to, you know, play the market or something. But, you know, that’s just a gambler in me.

Speaker 2: Well,

Speaker: maybe I digress.

Speaker 2: Get on poll market,

Speaker: get on that insider trading. I, um, I want to ask, it feels like something like donor-advised funds or other philanthropic pieces may take up the mantle because the c ffc still, albeit not.

Speaker: The slice it used to be, was a part of your play like, like you’re a leader. Is everyone looking at you being like, Hey, hey. Question in the front it seems like, yeah, if this goes away, we have a problem. How are you adjusting to this?

Speaker 2: Well, so one of the things that we’re having some discussions around [00:27:00] internally and may involve some others if we need to move down that pathway is if the CFC does go away, there is still this large workforce.

Speaker 2: That has demonstrated a commitment to nonprofits and philanthropy that no longer will have this vehicle. Right? So is there something that we can do to, we’ll never replace the CFC, but is there something that we can do to provide a pathway for those individuals to support causes they care about, ones that they trust and do it through kind of a trusted source and and process as well?

Speaker 2: And so, you know, we’ve got a platform, we’ve got the capability to maybe put something into the marketplace for federal employees. Now we won’t be able to do payroll giving, which, you know, would be unfortunate. But we’ve got other, and

Speaker: that’s like just to, the payroll giving is like, oh, that’s like what, what I would say like a monthly donor.

Speaker: Right, but it comes directly from your paycheck, right?

Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah. In in nonprofit language. It’s, you know, being a subscription donor, it’s a subscription program. Yeah. [00:28:00] But it’s coming right outta the paycheck. So it never even hits the individual’s bank account.

Speaker: Yeah. Um, clearly frictionless and also a way of committing to, uh, a cause you care about, you know, I personally switched like, pretty much all of my giving to like the monthly giving, but it comes outta my credit card and I’m like, ah, man.

Speaker 2: And you

Speaker: always, it should be better. I never got the money at all.

Speaker 2: Exactly.

Speaker: Go do it and like, make sure it’s like, because when it’s in your payroll, it’s like, oh, that can be deducted properly and accounted in your actual statement. Well, that’s nice and I know there’s like changes about giving over and under a thousand dollars.

Speaker: I don’t envy you, but if anyone can figure this out, I think you all can. Are there any other ACEs up your sleeve or can you not talk about those ACEs

Speaker 2: regarding the CFC or other types of things we may be doing?

Speaker: It’s a larger mission, right?

Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.

Speaker: What’s the next bha? What’s like, how do we get more money into more nonprofits hands into more communities pockets.

Speaker: And I think this is like the wedge that you all do so well is here are companies, here are governments, here’s a bunch of pool of money. [00:29:00] Let’s go, let’s get some of that to these folks.

Speaker 2: So one of the things that, you know, we’re taking a look at is what are the ways that corporate philanthropy supports the sector?

Speaker 2: And you know, they do it through a variety of ways, right? You know, they do grants to nonprofits, they run employee giving and matching programs, which we, we do. We can support grants management as well, the volunteering pieces. Those are all pieces that we’ve got. A foothold in, but there are other ways that companies and organizations are supporting good.

Speaker 2: You know, the emergency assistance funds is an example of that. But we have also launched a scholarship program, so where we now can administer scholarship programs and, uh, we’ve got a, got a, something that we’ve launched fairly recently, but have gotten a few, few clients and organizations with respect to that.

Speaker 2: And we’re seeing growing interest. That as well. And so, so

Speaker: that’s just to be clear, a scholarship provision system, because it is very complicated to be like, Hey, I wanna give this kid money. And you’re like, hold on, [00:30:00] wait a minute.

Speaker 2: There’s a few things that we need to take a look at and how you’re basing those, uh, you know, how do you want to, you know, give those funds?

Speaker 2: What are the criteria? Um, you just can’t give a kid money. So, uh, it needs to be, typically it’s gotta be a competitive process. Mm-hmm. Or something that’s based on financial need. And so there’s different ways to different ways to do it. Um, but you have to have,

Speaker: so I actually help run an organization and we are shopping potentially for a scholarship vehicle.

Speaker: What is the, like minimum size, and then this would be for poetry, right? Like, and we have young poets, they compete and then like a winner gets a scholarship. We have a competitive process as part of that, and I wanna give the winner like a thousand dollars.

Speaker 2: Yeah.

Speaker: What does that look like if we work with you guys?

Speaker 2: So

Speaker: close the deal, Jim, close the deal.

Speaker 2: Well, I need a lot more information from you, but one of the things that we take a look at, you know, for a competitive program, we [00:31:00] like to see at least if you’re gonna have one grant, if it’s, you know, for one grant award, at least four people competing for that one grant.

Speaker 2: You know, so about a 25% kind of acceptance rate, if you will. Or award rate, I should say.

Speaker: Yeah, we’ll have hundreds, probably thousands. Many thousands,

Speaker 2: yep. Okay. Then, then, uh, what are the other criteria? What are the,

Speaker: we’ll do like four a year-ish.

Speaker 2: Okay.

Speaker: Right. So it’s like ongoing. Do we, like, do you hold like a reserve of money or is it like, Hey, we write you the check.

Speaker: You do like the extra side of like, here’s the person, here’s their info, here’s the college. Go.

Speaker 2: Yep. That’s pretty much what we, what we do. So, you know, if you’ve got, let’s say that you’ve got $10,000 that you wanna award in scholarship grants, and so we’d have those funds, we’d work with you on kind of the review process.

Speaker 2: You know, it’d set up the application process, but then someone’s gotta be judging. The poems in this particular case, it sounds like maybe looking at, you know, [00:32:00] GPAs, um, you know, other service activities, whatever those criteria are. Uh, and then going through a, typically a multi-stage review process to where you get to your finalists and then your awards, and then we then send the money to the school.

Speaker 2: So we don’t provide the money directly to the individual.

Speaker: And you earmark that for the student and you send it to the, the financial board of given said school.

Speaker 2: Yep. Yep. Send it to the bursar’s office. So this a thousand dollars is for George Weiner. Um, apply it towards his tuition.

Speaker: Low key. There is no smarter way to get the attention of teenagers in this country.

Speaker: If you have like a social service, if you have a social program of any type or sort than saying the word scholarship and properly promoting.

Speaker 2: Yeah,

Speaker: is like, that was like the secret of do something back in the day. Like that was the insight. Like if we attach a scholarship to participation, it just gets shared more, participated more, and it just, so I think that may be something of interest as long as we still need [00:33:00] colleges and kids still need to pay for colleges and that number.

Speaker: Like honestly, like if I could invest in anything, it’d just be a, you know, the college betting on the college tuition market going up and up only like that is the number that only goes up. So. It is on the top of many young people’s minds of how to pay for it. So I think there’s something there and, uh, very interested, but I’m, I’m gonna have to squeeze you on, uh, on, on the rate, on how much you charge me at, can you share, like, how much, how much does that service cost?

Speaker 2: So, uh, there is, there is a, uh, an imp a setup fee, implementation fee, and that really depends on the complexity and size of the program. So it can be, you know, anywhere from $8,000 up. It’s a one-time fee. Mm-hmm. To get everything set up. We have to, we set up a, an online application site, all that kind of stuff, build out the application, make sure we’ve got all the, uh, the criteria and everything else kind of built out.

Speaker 2: And then there is a. A tiered, uh, tiered application pricing. And again, that’s based on volume. And so if you’ve got a high [00:34:00] volume, low number of awards, we need to go through a couple of screenings. And so there, and there’s a, a fee for each, for each of those screenings. So one screening might just simply be a completeness screening,

Speaker: could be a validation of like, is this a real person or is this a bot?

Speaker 2: Yeah. You know, is this, you know, do you, did you submit everything? You know, and then, ’cause it’s, it amazes me that people seeking assistance don’t read all the time and don’t maximize the effectiveness of their application. Um, so, so there’s a, you know, there’s a complete, and then there’s kind of the first review where there’s an initial review that’s done to get to a.

Speaker 2: Set of finalists and then there’s the final review, uh, and selection, um, of the awardees. And then there’s the disbursement.

Speaker: Sounds like a lot of labor involved here, but it sounds like you coil the process with like, what is it and where is it that we fit into your journey?

Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. Exactly, and that’s the thing about these programs, scholarships, emergency assistance funds, another third program [00:35:00] we’re building out for financial as other financial assistance, we’re using automation to help streamline the process itself, but at the end of the day, it still requires humans to be involved to a large degree.

Speaker: Yeah. Well, you go so far as to like actually call people in person or,

Speaker 2: yep. So,

Speaker: yep. I feel like that type of vetting is becoming necessary.

Speaker 2: Yeah, we, uh, so we’ll call applicants to gain a little bit more information or knowledge, you know, about their particular application. You, we will call, we’ll call, like, let’s say that somebody submitted an application for, uh, you know, a tree fell in their house and now they’ve got damage.

Speaker 2: Um, and they give us a, an invoice or an estimate from a roofing company. Oftentimes we’ll call the roofing company. Is this your invoice?

Speaker: I gotta tell you. That’s a Chet GPT request. Please generate a local roofer. Invoice. Give me a picture. Here’s a picture of my house. Please put a tree in it.

Speaker 2: Yep.

Speaker: That is five minutes of work.

Speaker 2: [00:36:00] So we, we have, we do have fraud, fraud detection steps in place that, you know, requires a. Require, you know, we’ll Google Earth stuff, we’ll Google, you know, businesses to see if they’re legit. We’ll call the business.

Speaker: This is a service that is definitely, uh, clearly gonna be in demand. Um, curious just to like, because I’m now asking for a friend.

Speaker: What if it was like a club, like there’s like a college club or a high school club and I wanna distribute funds to them, but that’s like a nightmare. So, you know, you’re no longer married to the single person, but I have a whole club system and I wanna like, uh, you know. Right now it’s like, uh, here’s a gift card for a pizza party.

Speaker: Here’s a, you know, a random check for $500 to go do stuff. What does that layer look like? Because I wanna facilitate clubs as well.

Speaker 2: So giving money to clubs.

Speaker: Yeah, like their hair is a school, there’s a poetry club and I wanna like cover coffee. Well, coffee’s for adults too, according to Disney. But [00:37:00]

Speaker 2: yeah, that we don’t do.

Speaker: Not with that attitude, Jim. This is why it’s trouble. This is why it’s trouble.

Speaker 2: Yeah. Set up a GoFundMe page for that.

Speaker: Alright, I’ll, I’ll pull, I’m gonna push you on this. I wanna pull back again, congratulations on reaching a billion dollars. It’s amazing. Uh, and again, from firsthand I can tell you that like there’s a bunch of dedicated folks making sure more money makes it to more nonprofits and, you know, good luck with the CFC.

Speaker: Ultimately, it seems like the writing is on the wall, that in all likelihood, 2026 will be zero CFC.

Speaker 2: That’s what we have, that’s what we’re anticipating. It’s what I built out on our budget, you know, planning for no CFC, but one of the things that we all have seen is that a lot of times the administration makes decisions without fully understanding [00:38:00] the what they’re making a decision about and what the other implications and ramifications of that are.

Speaker 2: And then have to backtrack a bit.

Speaker: Jim, I’ve given, I’ve given you the playbook, it’s just a question of whether or not you wanna use the playbook.

Speaker 2: Yeah. I don’t know if charities with

Speaker: time or carefully take that clip of me saying it, not you.

Speaker 2: There you go. Oh, I

Speaker: didn’t say that. And spreading it like a seed in the air.

Speaker: Be like, this is an interesting thought that this random person with no association to me had. Isn’t that interesting? Plausible deniability, Jim, unless they look at this clip. Jim, thank you so much. Thank you for the, the work, the tireless work you’ve done, uh, at America’s charities. And again, well done A billion is, is no small feat.

Speaker 2: Appreciate that. Thank you. And thanks for your leadership while you were there. How about that?

Speaker: Yeah. A salute to all board members out there that do the work. It is, yeah. It is a lot of work.

Speaker 2: It’s, yeah, it is a lot of work. Uh, hopefully we, we make that worthwhile work for the board [00:39:00] and do it in a very engaging way as well.

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