Florida suspends state employees' charity program
TALLAHASSEE — Florida officials suspended their state worker annual charitable campaign after its most dismal year on record, leaving its future in serious doubt.
This year’s Florida State Employees’ Charitable Campaign raised only $282,092, its lowest amount in its 36-year history. And once again, the New Jersey vendor serving as the campaign’s fiscal agent, Solix Inc., was poised to get most of the money, some 63%.
But the state’s decision to put the charitable campaign on ice means neither Solix nor the charities across Florida that the campaign serves will see any money from the fall drive, which ended Nov. 10.
Chad Poppell, secretary of the Department of Management Services, notified state agencies Dec. 5 that he was suspending next year’s campaign and ending the state’s contract with Solix by mutual agreement. He also said all pledges from state employees during the most recent drive would go unprocessed.
“Employees who pledged to the campaign will be notified of the status of the campaign,” Poppell said in a memo. “And we are asking those who pledged to consider giving directly to the charity of their choice.”
Former Sen. Bob Graham, who was governor when the giving campaign was created by the state Cabinet in 1980, said he hopes its work can be salvaged. The Democrat said efforts like the campaign not only help charities but also build bonds between government and communities.
“I’m disappointed that this experiment with using a private vendor has ended up in the train wreck of the whole program being suspended for at least a year,” Graham said in an interview. “And I’m hoping that year will be used to lick our wounds, learn the lessons and reestablish the program as it was (when) it functioned so effectively.”
Lawmakers will have to decide what to do with the campaign; state statutes require the Department of Management Services to “establish and maintain” the Florida State Employees’ Charitable Campaign.
State Rep. Loranne Ausley, a Tallahassee Democrat, also wants to see the campaign continue. She said she’s looking into how other states run theirs to find a possible fix.
• The Kentucky Employees Charitable Campaign, which raised $1.1 million as of the end of November, maintains that 100% of donations to its eight partner charities are passed along quarterly. Charities that are not official partners receive 90% of a state worker's donation, according to the campaign's website.
• The Michigan State Employees Charitable Campaign, which raised more than $800,000 this year, allows state workers to choose to funnel money among 1,200 charities but does not readily make available how much of those donations go to the nonprofits.
• The Arizona State Employees Charitable Campaign, which raised more than $700,000 last year, supports more than 400 charities. It sets aside 10% of the gifts for administrative expenses for the next year and if all of that money is not used, it also goes to the charities.
“I think it would be really a mistake and a travesty for our community if we just completely abandon the idea,” Ausley said. “This charitable campaign at one point was a very significant source of donations for our local nonprofits.”
But Ted Granger, president of the United Way of Florida, suggested it might be time to pull the plug. His organization used to run the campaign.
“I think given where the campaign is now and has been for the last couple of years, probably the best thing to do is just to kill it,” he said. “It’s a shame because for so many years, it worked so well.”
During the giving campaign's peak in the mid-2000s, when the United Way ran it, the Florida State Employees’ Charitable Campaign raised nearly $5 million a year, with much of the money going directly into the Tallahassee area.
But donations began to slide in 2006, and by 2010 the Florida campaign saw double-digit declines. After legal challenges, accusations of over-aggressive fundraising and other issues, the state opted to change vendors, dumping the United Way and bringing the private contractor Solix on board in 2012.
The campaign saw steeper declines under Solix, which processed pledges but didn’t take part in traditional office fundraising. And in its contract with the state, the company’s fees went up even as donations dropped.
By 2014, Solix was getting more than half of all the proceeds.
During the fall 2015 campaign, the Tallahassee Democrat broke news that Solix was getting more money from the Florida State Employees’ Charitable Campaign than the charities it was supposed to help. The controversy prompted hundreds of state workers to rescind their donations, and the campaign finished with only $546,000, its lowest amount since 1981.
Solix was set to get about two-thirds of the money from the fall campaign. But in talks with Florida's Management Services Department, it agreed earlier this year to lower its fee to $180,000. However, the company refused to lower its fees further following this year’s disastrous campaign.
In a Nov. 15 letter to Solix, Poppell asked the company to reduce its fee to less than 25% “to allow more of the pledged dollars to go directly to charities.” He said that statutes generally prohibit charities from participating in the Florida State Employees’ Charitable Campaign if their overhead exceeds 25%.
Solix declined, recommending instead to terminate the contract. Poppell agreed.
“This is a situation I cannot in good conscience allow,” he said in a Dec. 2 letter to the company.
Last year, Poppell suggested the state end the campaign altogether, saying a middleman wasn’t needed between state workers and charity anymore. During a meeting before lawmakers, he noted that employees can give directly through the Internet or cellphones.
Kelly Otte, executive director of the PACE Center for Girls, said she’s happy to see Solix bow out. But she wants to see the Florida State Employees’ Charitable Campaign go on.
“Here in Leon County, human service nonprofits have all suffered because of the loss of FSECC dollars over the years,” she said. “What needs to happen is that we need to recognize the value of providing that giving tool to our state employee neighbors.”
Follow Jeff Burlew on Twitter: @JeffBurlew
Charity campaign crash
Florida State Employees Charitable Campaign totals through the years:
• 1980. $388,915, first year of the campaign
• 1986. $1,181,971, first year the campaign raised more than $1 million.
• 2005. $4,963,346, highest amount ever raised
• 2012. $1,762,031, the year Solix was hired
• 2015. $546,000, the year the Tallahassee Democrat reported on the Solix contract
• 2016. $282,092, lowest total ever; state cancels all pledges
Source: Florida State Employees Charitable Campaign