State Employee Charitable Campaign Overview

The State Employee Charitable Campaign (SECC) was created in 1993 by an act of the Texas legislature as the single approved charitable campaign to be conducted in the workplace of Texas state employees. The SECC was, and continues to be, intended to:

1. combine into a single campaign the growing number of charitable causes seeking access to the workplace;
2. establish a process to insure that applicant charities meet minimum criteria for inclusion; and
3. offer payroll deduction as a method of giving to those charities.

A local United Way community campaign is not permitted to solicit contributions in State of Texas workplaces; however, a local United Way and its affiliate charitable organizations may participate in the SECC.

The SECC is attached to the Office of the Comptroller of Public Accounts for administrative support but it is not a state agency. It is administered by the State Policy Committee (SPC), a body of ten state employees appointed collectively by the Governor, the Lt. Governor, and the Comptroller of Public Accounts. In addition to giving general oversight to the statewide campaign effort, the SPC reviews applications of charities with statewide scope that seek inclusion in the campaign. The SPC is assisted by the State Advisory Committee (SAC), a body of eight (drawn from local campaign managers and from statewide charity representatives), appointed by the Governor. State rules mandate the campaign period as September 1st to October 31st annually.

The state is divided into 21 campaign regions, each having an autonomous campaign. The local campaign region - The Permian Basin Campaign Region - includes the following twelve counties:

Andrews, Crane, Ector, Howard, Martin, Midland, Pecos, Reeves, Terrell, Upton, Ward, Winkler

Each campaign region is governed by a Local Employee Committee (LEC). The LEC is a body of five to ten state employees in the local area, all serving voluntarily. Any interested state employee may request consideration for membership by contacting the current LEC Chair:

• Ms. Julia Hinojos
  Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center
  701 West 5th Street
  Odessa, Texas 79763

The LEC develops the strategy and design of the campaign, hires (through a publicly advertised application process) a Local Campaign Manager (LCM), and solicits and reviews/approves applications from local health and human services charities wishing to be included in the respective local campaign. The Local Campaign Manager in the Midland-Odessa Campaign Region is, and has been since 1997, the United Way of Midland.

Charities approved locally join those approved (by the SPC) for statewide participation and are presented to employees in the annual fall campaign for consideration in their voluntary choice(s) of gift giving. The voluntary aspect of giving is emphasized; without fear of pressure, quotas, coercion, or even of disclosure except on a need to know basis.

Successes of the last ten campaigns are:

Year	Statewide	Midland-Odessa Region
1996	$3,392,330	$17,884
1997	4,053,411	25,781
1998	4,727,563	37,931
1999	5,491,901	61,755
2000	6,218,415	63,252
2001	7,486,527	79,019
2002	7,898,917	80,419
2003	7,725,282	69,507
2004	8,051,976	85,768
2005	8,656,839	80,358
2006	9,212,708	90,004

Additional information may be obtained from the 2006-2007 Local Campaign Manager:

• The United Way of Midland
  1209 W. Wall St.
  Midland, TX 79701
  Phone: 432/685-7700
  
  
• Or from the SECC web site