The Coast Guard Chief Petty Officers Association has issued some clarification for people wanting to donate assistance to USCG personnel. There are strict limitations and extreme ethics rules around “gifts” to federal employees. Following is a determination from Coast Guard Legal:
“There is an exception in the federal ethics regulations that allows federal employees to accept gifts such as gift cards/cash as you describe below (this is also the analysis we use for things like the CGF Fallen Hero’s Fund). 5 CFR 2635.204(c)(2)(iii) provides that a federal employee can accept a gift from a non-federal entity provided that the non-federal entity is not a prohibited source and that the non-federal entity does not define the class of eligible recipients of the gift based on official responsibility or in a manner that favors those of higher rank. The CPOA is not a prohibited source. Thus, so long as the CPOA has not defined the class of eligible recipients of the gift cards/cash in a way that discriminated based on official responsibility or in a manner that favors those of higher rank, which from the below it is clear the CPOA has not, then I would advise that CG members may accept such gifts from the CPOA”.
This applies to CPOA, CGEA, and CWOA.
If you’re looking to help and coordinate your efforts, please reach out to CPOA Chapters here: https://www.uscgcpoa.org/organization/cpoa/cpoa-chapters/
Our CGEA Branches can be reached here https://www.uscgcpoa.org/organization/cgea/cgea-branches/
The Chief Warrant Officers Association (CWOA) can be found here https://cwoauscg.org/