Though the Combined Federal Campaign has ended, the funds people have donated will keep on giving.

This year’s campaign at Hill Air Force Base reached more than $529,968 in donations.

The donated funds are the lifeblood of a charity and its ability to do good work in the world, according to Intermountain CFC Executive Director Bruce Jacobs.

“They depend on these campaigns because there are no strings attached with CFC contributions,” Jacobs said, explaining that many grants charities receive are contingent on usage for a particular program. “When charities have these unrestricted funds, they can really focus on their mission and what they know their needs are so they have the freedom to apply those funds in the way that meets the greatest need.”

The donations from Hill AFB this year are slightly higher than last year, but only 78 percent of the goal to reach $658,560. Jacobs wonders if the baby-boomer generation moving into the work force as a large number of older generation federal government employees retire is a possible reason for a lack of higher numbers.

“Research shows they like to give in different ways than the older generation. They like to be very hands on and aren’t as prone to work place giving types of programs,” Jacobs said. “Also, when the younger generation employers come in, they have student loans and haven’t reached the level of some of their more seasoned peers, but they are just as interested in giving. Our job then is to try and meet them where they are at and explain the benefits of CFC donations with only a little bit from each paycheck so it’s not such a hit to their budget.”

However, seeing such a large number of people give donations to a host of CFC charities makes Jacobs job worthwhile. “It’s a wonderful experience for me personally to just see the overall generosity of federal employees. They are public servants and they spend each and every day serving and defending our nation, and on top of that, they are incredibly generous individuals. Though we have seen a decline in recent years, we are still talking about over a half a million dollars to charity, which will go a long ways to changing lives for the better.”

The CFC wouldn’t happen without the dedication of their nearly 300 CFC campaign volunteers who helped contact everyone on base. “With everyone operating together, we were able to receive so many donations as a result of that team effort,” said Team Hill CFC Co-chair Robert Hall.

Hall said the numbers are only a part of the equation. Running such a large campaign is like running an election he says. “How I measure the success of a campaign is not in the dollar figure, but in keeping harmony amongst the team and showing love for what the volunteers are doing and knowing these funds are going to help people in different charities,” Hall said.

Because of the continued need, and though the campaign solicitation period closed in November, those interested can still pledge until Dec. 31 by visiting http://www.intermountaincfc.org.

Hill AFB employees can donate using forms handed out by key workers, or online by visiting https://www.cfcnexus.org/intermountaincfc/ or going into myPay and selecting CFC.