For the price of a cup of coffee per week, you could help a child learn to read. If you brown-bagged it twice a month, you could help a working family discover tax deductions that would save them thousands of dollars. Skip one restaurant dessert and you could even help a senior citizen recover from isolation and neglect. It sounds implausible, but through the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Employees Charitable Campaign (COMECC), you can.
“The COMECC campaign is really a campaign of small contributions making a big difference,” said James Leary, JD, vice chancellor for community and government relations. “By participating in this annual campaign, state employees can choose an amount to contribute—even $2 a month—to the charity of their choice, and really change someone’s life. It doesn’t take a million dollars or even a hundred.”
With more than 1,000 organizations to choose from, COMECC offers something for everyone to support: from small local non-profits to broad national organizations. If you are undecided about an agency to support, you might consider your local United Way chapter, each of which works with area agencies to advance the common good. The United Way of Central Massachusetts (COMECC code: 459588), for example, crafted a strategic plan based upon a far-reaching study of the most pressing local needs and works with volunteers and other agencies to generate solutions to those problems in a coordinated, comprehensive fashion. Likewise, the UMass Memorial Foundation (COMECC code: 111254), supports a broad range of research and education initiatives at UMass Medical School and UMass Memorial Health Care.
“Through larger organizations like the United Way of Central Massachusetts and the UMass Memorial Foundation, which harness the power of many, every contribution, no matter how small, is maximized,” said Leary.
In 2011, COMECC raised more than $1.7 million, which was used to fund literacy programs, community clinics, animal rights organizations, violence prevention, medical research, land conservation, adoption services, and hundreds of other initiatives from the more than 1,000 prescreened non-profits registered with COMECC.
The 2012 COMECC campaign runs from Nov. 5 through Nov. 26. For more information, contact your department administrator or visit the COMECC website.
