NARFE-FEEA Fact Sheet - Federal Employee Education and

NARFE and FEEA – Partners in Public Service
With a smile on her face, Lily hung up her phone at the Federal
Employee Education and Assistance Fund. After four days on
the phone bank, she was tired, but callers like the one she just
talked to reminded her why it was so important to volunteer.
The caller, a fed from the Social Security Administration, was
a single mom who had been tasked to Philadelphia prior to
Hurricane Gustav. Lily arranged for FEEA to purchase a
plane ticket for her seven-year-old son, so he could be with
his mother throughout the crisis. The woman burst into tears
as she thanked Lily for returning her baby to her side.
A member of the National Active and Retired Federal
Employees Association, Lily had heard about FEEA’s efforts to
help federal employees affected by Gustav and Ike at a recent NARFE convention.
An organization with one full-time employee devoted to emergency assistance, and
an average caseload of 60 per month, FEEA was now managing 60 cases a day. Lily
was one of a handful of retirees who joined the charity’s staff members at the rows of
folding tables they had set up as a temporary phone bank. As the phones jangled
throughout the day, the volunteers and staff joked with one another that they might
have second careers on a home shopping channel.
NARFE-FEEA Partnership
First year of
partnership
NARFE
members and
family members
helped
1995
1,340
Scholarship aid
$676,000
Emergency aid
$367,240
Total aid
$1,006,797
Source: FEEA databases
Since first partnering in 1995,
NARFE and FEEA
have given out more than
$1,000,000
to NARFE members and
their families.
In the shadow of the financial collapse and 2008 elections, the media would largely
ignore the storms of 2008, but their toll would be devastating. When all the
damages were totaled, the 2008 Atlantic season would add up to be the fourth
costliest season on record. Reaching out to help those caught in the wreckage, from
their makeshift phone bank in Lakewood, Colorado, Lily and her NARFE
colleagues would give out nearly a million dollars in relief aid to federal employees,
retirees and families.
History
The relationship between NARFE and FEEA started long before the 2008
hurricane season. Following Timothy McVeigh’s heartbreaking attack on the
Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995,
NARFE chapters, federations and individual members donated $100,000 to
FEEA’s Oklahoma City Fund. This sizable contribution was one of the largest
consolidated donations FEEA had ever received. With this gift and many
more, FEEA was able to fund full-tuition scholarships for all 200 children
who lost a federal employee parent in the Oklahoma City tragedy.
In 1996, NARFE board members set up a NARFE-FEEA Disaster Fund
supported by tax-deductible donations from NARFE members, so that FEEA
could provide emergency disaster assistance to NARFE members. NARFE
became a member of FEEA’s board of directors in 1997, and the following
year NARFE’s executive board authorized the creation of a scholarship fund
open to the children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and stepchildren of
NARFE members.
Now, after more than a decade of formal partnership, FEEA and NARFE have
provided more than $1,000,000 in scholarship and emergency aid to NARFE
members and their families.
www.FEEA.org z CFC # 11185
Disaster Assistance
How to Apply
Disaster Aid
After a declared natural disaster, NARFE
members may request a grant
application by:
• Contacting FEEA Headquarters by
phone at 800-338-0755;
• Sending an e-mail message to
fedshelpingfeds@feea.org;
• Writing to the address below; or
• Downloading an application form from
www.narfe.org.
Documentation will be required to show
loss or destruction of property as a result of
a natural disaster.
Grant checks are payable directly to the
applicant or a specific creditor.
Applications should be sent to:
NARFE-FEEA Disaster Fund
3333 S. Wadsworth Blvd.
Suite 300
Lakewood, CO 80227
Scholarships
The NARFE-FEEA application is
available for download by members only
from NARFE’s Web site from February
through April each year. Copies of the
application are also printed in the
February through April issues of the
Retirement Life magazine, which is
mailed to NARFE members monthly.
NARFE disaster funds in the form of cash grants are available to all NARFE
members in good standing who have suffered injury or incurred property damage
during or after a declared natural disaster. The grant maximum is $500.
Scholarships
Established in 1997, the NARFE-FEEA scholarship program is funded by
NARFE members and administered by FEEA. The program is open to all high
school seniors who are children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren or
stepchildren of NARFE members. Each year, NARFE awards 60 $1,000
scholarships, six in each of NARFE’s 10 regions, to students who demonstrate
outstanding achievement in academics and community service.
Funding
Just as FEEA counts on small donations from federal employees to help
active employees, the charity relies on donations from NARFE’s members
to finance its relief and scholarship funds. Contributions to the NARFE funds
are kept separate from FEEA’s monies.
To make a tax-deductible donation to FEEA, call 800-338-0755 or go to
www.FEEA.org and click on the “Give Now” link at the top of the page. To
designate your gift to the NARFE-FEEA fund, select “NARFE-FEEA”
from the pull-down list in the giving designation window, and select either
the relief or the scholarship option. NARFE members may also make
donations using the coupon that appears each month in the NARFE
magazine or by sending a check to FEEA Headquarters at the address
below.
Some retirees also choose to incorporate FEEA in their estate plans. For
information, call 303-933-7580 or write to FEEA at the address below.
FEEA Headquarters
3333 S. Wadsworth Blvd.
Suite 300
Lakewood, CO 80227
FEEA also sponsors a general
scholarship contest for active civilian
federal employees and their dependents.
Students who are eligible for both
contests must submit separate
applications to each organization.
More at NARFE Web site
More information about scholarships and
disaster aid, including brochures and
members-only information, is available at
www.NARFE.org.
www.FEEA.org z CFC # 11185