The Commonwealth of Virginia Campaign at the University of Virginia is set to close Dec. 13. As of Monday, nearly $550,000 had been donated in support of area charities – generous, but well behind the 2012 campaign, when U.Va. employees set a new record by donating $1,072,000.

“Clearly, this year’s CVC is off the pace of prior record-setting years,” said Jim Fitzgerald, associate director in U.Va.’s Community Relations Office and the campaign chair. “But it’s not too late.”

The CVC at U.Va. is administered by Community Relations, which works closely with a group of volunteers from across Grounds. In mulling the decline in participation from previous years, the group theorizes that the continued weak economy, highlighted by the federal government shutdown earlier in the fall, may be a factor, as well as the realization that many donors may have chosen to give directly to agencies serving the Philippines in the wake of the deadly typhoon there, Fitzgerald said.

Though the CVC set up a link on its website to donate directly to typhoon relief, those donations are not included in the campaign’s total. The benefit of giving directly to the typhoon-relief efforts is that the support goes immediately to agencies currently serving those areas. CVC gifts are allocated to the charities in early 2014.

“Numerous employees have given in support of immediate relief efforts in the Philippines,” Fitzgerald said. “Without question, we support giving in this way. We know the CVC is only one of numerous ways that University employees give back to their local and global communities.”  

The CVC is a workplace-giving program that allows state employees to designate a financial gift to any of 1,400 participating charities. Types of charities include health and human services, animal welfare, environmental conservation and medical research.

Employees may designate gifts to their favorite charities. Undesignated gifts are dispersed proportionally among participating charities, said Fitzgerald, who emphasized that all designated gifts go directly to the charities themselves, with nothing deducted for the campaign’s administrative costs.

The CVC at U.Va. officially runs through Dec. 13. Donations can be made with pledge cards after this date, with every effort made to have them processed by year’s end, he said. Employees may also give online.

For information about the CVC or to give online, click here.