People of all ages and backgrounds seeking a variety of health and human services as well as preservation of cultural, historical and environmental resources right within your own communities are helped through SEFA. Hundreds of SEFA supported organizations and programs serve a diverse population throughout your region. Your contribution may even go beyond your immediate community, however, because SEFA lets you designate your gift to ANY county, or specific SEFA supported services.
Even a modest payroll deduction can help provide vital services to care for children, protect the elderly, shelter abused women, support disaster and crisis services, and much, much more. And giving through payroll deduction makes your contribution even easier because you can spread it over the entire year.
You've probably been helped by a SEFA-supported service provider without even knowing it. Besides helping people in crisis situations, SEFA also funds social and community development programs that enhance the quality of life for all of us.
Have you or anyone in your family every participated in a community recreation activity? Do you have a child in day care? How about a summer camp or after school program? Do you know anyone who has needed home care? Senior citizen support? Do you know anyone whose life has been touched by cancer? Alzheimer's? Diabetes? Heart disease? These types of problems, shared by all, are helped through SEFA-supported service providers.
Each person's contribution should be based on his or her ability to give. You may both want to give a portion of your income to help others, and you may each have specific, different agencies you personally support.
Absolutely! SEFA encourages participants to make their contribution a personal and meaningful decision. You may have your gift sent to one, two, three or more specific organizations - the choice is yours. If you decide not to designate your gift to a specific charity, your contribution will be distributed in accordance with state regulations.
No problem! Many people work in one county, but live or want to support a program in an entirely different county - a list is on the back of every pledge card. You may designate your gift to support any SEFA-supported organization. Your campaign coordinator has a directory of these organizations and can help you obtain their code number to use on your pledge card.
- SEFA is the most efficient way to give. Your contribution helps fund a multitude of programs and services. With SEFA, you don't have to write multiple checks to multiple organizations throughout the year. You don't have to remember when to give or to whom.
- SEFA raises money for service providers at a far lower cost than if providers did this themselves.
- SEFA offers the advantage of payroll deduction which enables people to support charities more generously than they could in a one-time effort.
- SEFA offers the best way to help not only your favorite service provider, but your entire community.
SEFA is the solicitation of State employees in their workplaces on behalf of approved charities, authorized through NY State Law and Regulations and supported by labor and management. Through SEFA, state employees can support charities of their choice through a single pledge, easily paid through payroll deduction or by check.
SEFA is made up of four regions. In those regions, there are 13 local area campaigns managers (FCCM's) that organize the annual fund raising effort in their respective areas within NYS workplaces. Each local campaign has a Local Committee, composed of NYS employees and representatives of labor unions. They are responsible for the oversight of their local SEFA campaign. Each Region appoints two Local Committee members to the Statewide Council which provides guidance and support to the Local Committees. The Office of General Services (OGS) regulates SEFA and provides guidance and oversight.
The Charity Book is a document or web-based display of charities that have met SEFA eligibility requirements. A sample charity listing is shown below with key elements including the charities name, SEFA code, a 25-word statement of purpose, and its administrative and fundraising expense rate (AFR).
The information below is included to help you identify charities that meet your interests and performance standards:
Sample Charity Listing
ABC Charity
Code: 50-00567 (Region)
(charity website)
EIN# 12-3456789 Phone # 800-555-5555
We attack the causes of hunger and poverty by promoting effective and innovative community-based solutions that create self-reliance, economic justice, and food security. 15.8%
The Administrative and Fundraising Rate (AFR) represents the percentage of dollars spent on administering the charity. It is calculated as a percentage of the charities total support and revenue. Donors concerned about an excessive AFR should contact the charity and/or review its IRS Form 990, which is available to the public, for a complete explanation. Each situation is unique. Donors may contact the charity directly in order to better understand the financial status, service delivery record and governance policies of the charity before donating.
Funds are required to print materials, train volunteers, audit contributions and other administrative duties. All local campaign costs are reviewed and approved by the Local Committee governing the local campaign. On average, this cost is low compared with other fundraising campaigns. Therefore, donating to a charity through SEFA ensures every dollar you pledge goes a very long way toward helping others.
Participation in SEFA is completely voluntary and can be done at any time during the year. If you would like to pledge, click here.
A Continuous gift is a donation without an end date. Your pledge will be a continuous gift until you change or discontinue it.
Simply complete the paper pledge form found in this book, then submit it to both your payroll department and your local area FCCM. The list of FCCM's is located here.
In general terms, ePledging is the online pledging tool that is available to all NYS employees. It is a safe and secure pledging system. This paperless process is one way SEFA is striving to go green and reduce administrative costs related to the processing of pledges. To donate, please visit our pledge page here.
Payroll deduction makes it convenient for you to give. Payments on payroll deduction pledges begin on the first pay period beginning in approximately one payroll cycle after you make your pledge. All pledges are considered Continuous Gifts and will not end until you change or discontinue your payroll deduction. There is no simpler way for you to make good things happen for so many people than to contribute using payroll deduction. Payroll deduction helps you care for your community and your world.
You should keep a copy of your pledge form, as well as your year-end pay stub (if you made a payroll deduction contribution), as a receipt of your pledge. A State employee who makes a one-time (check or money order) contribution must maintain a bank record and a copy of the pledge form to show the name of the charities contributed to, the date of the contribution, and the amount of the contribution. You should consult a tax adviser to determine if additional verification of the donation is required by the IRS.
Yes, SEFA is a donor-designated campaign. Simply designate the charity(s) of your choice on your pledge form by entering its charity code (found in this book) and the amount you wish to pledge. All contributions are distributed as designated unless the charity fails to meet SEFA requirements or your pledge is unfulfilled.
You may designate your gift to as many approved charities as you’d like and any dollar amount through SEFA. To give to more charities than can be added to the pledge form, please complete additional pledge forms with your name on them, stapling them together. The top pledge form must contain the sum of all pledges. You cannot designate to a charity that is not approved by SEFA.
Adding charities not listed, or write-ins, is prohibited and donations to such charities will be treated as undesignated funds. In addition, pledges made using anything other than the assigned codes cannot be honored and will be treated as undesignated funds. Any pledges without a valid SEFA code will be considered undesignated. Undesignated funds are distributed proportionally to all approved charities in your region.
A federation is a charitable organization that provides common fundraising, administrative and management services to its member charities. Member charities may pay dues or fees to that federation as a service charge. Unaffiliated charities are not members of a federation and participate in SEFA on their own.
Charities receive their designated donations quarterly after pledge dollars have been received by the FCCM.
SEFA will disburse funds to designated charities until it is notified that the charity is unable to accept any further funds due to closure or loss of SEFA eligibility. The FCCM will contact the donor to request new designation information. If the donor doesn't response, the designation to the charity in question will be disbursed as undesignated funds.