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Mecklenburg County commissioners Tuesday could vote to allow more charities to solicit donations from county employees, six weeks after some members criticized an earlier version of the proposal.
The new guidelines were endorsed last month by a board committee, and some commissioners think the full board will approve the changes.
“I think it gives the employees the choice of where they want to send their charitable dollars,” said Commissioner Neil Cooksey, “and it addresses a lot of the concerns that brought this issue to the forefront in the first place.”
Commissioner Dumont Clarke said he expects the policy to “sail through” the board's regular meeting on Tuesday.
Currently, the county has strict rules on who is allowed to raise money from county workers through payroll deductions: only the United Way of Central Carolinas and the Arts & Science Council are allowed to hold fundraising drives.
However, other charities have asked to be included over the years, such as the American Cancer Society.
The broader county policy would open the doors for more groups to participate by loosening some of the old rules.
Also, all of the charity campaigns will be held at the same time each year starting in September 2010. The county is scheduled to hold its United Way campaign this fall.
In considering the policy change, the county joins other local companies rethinking how they let workers contribute to nonprofits or other organizations.
Carolinas HealthCare System plans to hold a single fundraising drive for some of its employees this fall, while Wells Fargo said in May it was looking at changes.
Commissioners first took up the expanded charity policy in May. But the board delayed the vote because of worries that, even with changes that had been made already, the plan would exclude some organizations not based in the Charlotte area.
The revised policy appears to address the concerns raised at that meeting, including getting rid of a requirement that all charities maintain a local office and agree to spend 95 percent of all money raised in a county campaign in Mecklenburg or six nearby counties.
Under the new proposal, organizations that are part of a large organization, such as the cancer society, would not be bound by that rule. In a memo to commissioners, Human Resources Director Chris Peek said the changes would allow county workers to donate to groups that conduct research or do other work outside of the region.
But any independent charity not affiliated with a larger national or statewide group would still have to invest 95 percent of money raised in the region.
Peek's memo wrote that rule “is responsive to the strong preference expressed by employees that the campaign charities invest their donations locally.”
Other changes in the charity policy include requiring any federation that wants to solicit workers to meet standards set by the Better Business Bureau, and dropping a $1,000 fee that charities must pay to participate in a campaign.
The county may hire a third-party company to manage the county's campaign, which Cooksey said would take some of the burden off county staff.
It is unclear how many new charities would sign up to solicit county workers. But staff has said that any group meeting requirements must be allowed to participate, or else attorneys said the county faces legal exposure.
