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By Eric Yoder

Federal civilian and military personnel will be able to direct donations to a wider range of charities through the����now underway.

Office of Personnel Management officials said that under a new “universal giving” feature, donors can give to local charities in other areas, as well as national charities and local ones in their own areas — supporting, for example, a charity where they lived previously.

That change, which had been tested in pilot programs, now is available throughout the drive’s 151 regional campaigns nationwide. There are about 24,000 participating charities altogether. A new��allows searches by name, keywords or code number.

The CFC is the nation’s largest workplace charity drive, raising some $209 million from 800,000 donors last year. The current campaign started Sept. 1 and runs through Dec. 15.

“In lean times, our employees continue to give and I’m so proud,” OPM Director Katherine Archuleta said in a conference call with media members Wednesday.