August 23, 2007 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Pressured by a court ruling, the government agency that oversees the annual charity drive for federal workers has reversed itself and now will allow a Tennessee organization — the Stuttering Foundation of America — to again solicit.
What’s more, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management said that, in light of the judge’s opinion, it will allow other private foundations to participate in the Combined Federal Campaign, as long as the organizations meet the workplace drive’s overall eligibility requirements.
The government’s decision affects the Stuttering Foundation of America and three private foundations that recently had been denied permission to solicit federal workers nationwide, according to a spokesman for the Office of Personnel Management. The spokesman identified the three organizations as the Impact Movement, the National Black United Front Educational Fund, and the Roger L. Von Amelunxen Foundation.
Decision ‘Reconsidered’
The Office of Personnel Management sent a letter to the Stuttering Foundation of America and its lawyer, Noland MacKenzie Canter III, saying it would admit the organization to the fund-raising campaign. “I have reconsidered my decision” in light of the court ruling, wrote Tricia Hollis, chief of staff in the director’s office.
The Stuttering Foundation of America, which was established in 1947, provides information and assistance to prevent stuttering in young children, and treatment for youths and adults who stutter. The organization was included in the Combined Federal Campaign from 1992 to 2006, and received more than $30,000 in pledges in each of the past two years.
Last month, U.S. District Judge John D. Bates ruled that the Office of Personnel Management improperly denied the Stuttering Foundation of America the opportunity to solicit (The Chronicle, August 9). Mr. Bates said that a new rule the government used to decide whether the organization was eligible violates federal law and he ordered the personnel office to re-evaluate the application of the Tennessee group using its old rule.
The Stuttering Foundation of America’s application for the fall 2007 drive had been rejected by the government because the agency said the group did not qualify under the new rule, adopted by the personnel office last year, that said that participating groups must be public charities, “not private foundations or exclusively government units or instrumentalities thereof.”
The Stuttering Foundation of America is classified under tax law as a private operating foundation. Such entities are endowed groups that use most of their resources to directly operate their own charitable programs. By contrast, private foundations do not provide direct services themselves and they make grants to other organizations.
