About The Incentive Federation
The Incentive Federation Inc. is quite possibly the best-kept secret in the incentive marketplace. It is the umbrella organization founded to promote, protect and research the incentive field, encompassing recognition, promotional products and related promotions.
Much of the work conducted by The Incentive Federation consists of behind-the-scenes support for its better-known entities. The Federation is primarily known for the work it performs to monitor federal and state legislation that could adversely affect the use of incentive and related promotion programs. On many occasions, the Federation works proactively to change or modify proposed laws or regulations that may hinder the use of incentive and promotion programs. For example, with the direction of Incentive Federation executive director George Delta, the Federation was successful in having negative language regarding the efficacy of safety incentive programs removed from OSHA regulations. The Federation has also been instrumental in ensuring that financial institutions would be permitted to use premiums and incentives in their businesses and has helped modify proposed and existing state legislation that would have greatly reduced the use of sweepstakes. On another positive note, the Incentive Federation was instrumental in adding elements to the Tax Reform Act of 1986, favoring the use of noncash rewards and incentives in qualified safety and length-of-service recognition programs.
In addition to being our industry's primary lobbying entity, it is less well known that The Incentive Federation provides the infrastructure for industry-wide corporate outreach efforts spearheaded by the Incentive Performance Center, as well as for the research developed by the Forum for People Performance Management and Measurement at Northwestern University. Plus, the Incentive Federation commissions the industry's only benchmark studies on the use of incentives by U.S. organizations. All suppliers and customers in the incentive and promotion marketplace benefit from these initiatives.
In this era of strategic alliances, The Incentive Federation is the only organization whose membership and leadership includes all of the industry's national trade associations, as well as individual companies. It is under The Incentive Federation umbrella that the collective interests of the Incentive Marketing Association (IMA), the Promotion Marketing Association (PMA), the Promotional Products Association International (PPAI), The Incentive Research Foundation (IRF), and International SITE Foundation (ISITE) are discussed, nurtured, and advanced. Each of these organizations utilizes resources developed by The Incentive Federation to benefit it.