When the time came to recruit and engage new federal donors  for the 2012 Combined Federal Campaign of the National Capital Area (CFCNCA), the Emerging Leadership Council (ELC) stepped up to the challenge.

The ELC, formerly known as the Young Donors Advisory Council (YDAC) began as a simple research project in 2011 when its creator decided to establish focus groups, which aimed to determine how to engage first-time CFCNCA participants.

Grose notes, “the CFCNCA wanted fresh brand ambassadors, not test subjects.”

In the spring of 2012, Grose passed the reigns to Judy Christian, Campaign Director for the CFCNCA. Christian and Russell Maltempo, current Acting ELC Chair, along with several founding members and a number of new members, have given the group a makeover by creating a brand new charter, establishing committees, and planning activities. With 12 members already, Maltempo says the ELC hopes to spread its mission by inspiring and enabling the next generation of donors in the federal workforce.

According to Maltempo, ELC members will be able to increase their own business acumen by building on core competencies that the federal government sees as attractive and necessary for the development of future senior executives.  ELC involvement encourages creativity, innovation, strategic thinking, public service motivation, continued learning, integrity, and honesty. The CFCNCA is committed to helping young federal employees hone and develop these attributes through campaign participation.

In addition, Maltempo and Christian are confident that individual agencies will want to enlist the help of the ELC in creating in-house ELC chapters or to engage existing young or new federal employee group in campaign activities.

“The ELC is attempting to forge a new kind of relationship between the campaign and federal agencies,” Maltempo said. “We want to add value by creating a groundswell from within the agencies in increasing awareness of the good the CFCNCA does every year. We have the ability to engage the next generation of CFCNCA participants.”

For more information, please visit the new ELC website or contact elc@cfcnca.org.