Without wishing to piss off the moderators, all I can say is that the United Way disgusts me.
Time after time, I have had to read headlines about flagrant violations involving expense account abuses or nepotistic hiring practices within the United Way totalling in the millions of dollars. When I think of how much of the donation money goes towards overhead (~50%+ IIRC, anyone got a cite?) it makes me want to vomit.
I too, went through the “Big Push” at a company that I worked for many years ago. Hell, they could have just made a flat donation of all of the paid employee time that was wasted sitting in their fund drive presentations and it would probably have been more money.
The main reason for the “Big Push” is that once an individual donates there is a huge chance that they will continue to donate automatically from then on. That sort of mindless charity is exactly what these blood sucking organizations are all about.
When I donate, I like to give to my local Vietnam vets chapter. They have an overhead rate of only a couple of percent. That gets my respect on the spot. More preferable to me is to donate my time cooking at the children’s homeless shelter or at the local homeless shelter on the holidays. That way I know where my efforts are going.
There really needs to be a “separation of church and state” law about workplace charity fundraising. It should have a way of being totally anonymous or it just shouldn’t be at all. Anthracite, you bet there’s a “corporate culture” about this activity and it is so questionable of a practice that I had to add this final line out of respect for you. This sh!t’s gotta end!
Several years ago, I briefly dated a woman who had spent years working for charitable organizations. As I was asking her about her background, one of the first things she did was spend almost an hour ranting about the United Way. She described several of their not-well-known practices (such as bizerta’s reallocation tidbit), and spent at least ten minutes detailing why UW’s administrative costs take such a big bite of the money they receive.
Thereafter, whenever I’ve been confronted with United Way requests, and somebody asks me why I don’t want to do it, I simply say the following: “It’s well-known in the nonprofit field that giving to the United Way is one of the worst things you can do with your charitable dollar.” Knocks people flat, let me tell you.
Oh, and as far as the OP, it sounds like the combination of public relations value plus the fact that the money isn’t actually coming out of the company bank account makes the United Way a nice, obvious, no-brain solution for corporations to paint themselves in altrustic camoflage.
I used to temp at a nationwide charity based in Minneapolis (American Refugee Committee), and they hated the United Way, too. Apparently the UW is like the 800 lb. gorilla of charities, beating off all the smaller ones and hogging all the corporate sponsorship. My wife chooses to give a buck a week or something at her employer, with the token reward that she’s allowed to wear jeans on Friday. I refuse to get involved with them.
Now, now, Zenster, rants don’t piss off the mods at all… as long as they’re in the right place. Since that place is not GQ, and since this thread has very little other than rants, it’s getting moved there now. All you folks who have been holding back until now, thank you, and have fun.
Heh. My department in the library has sonething called the Grants Resource Center, which is essentially a collection devoted to nonprofits and philanthropy. When my manager came around to try and bully me into donating this year, I reminded her of the fact that I at least skim most everything we get, and she should know as well as I do that it’s probably more effective to give a buck directly to a homeless guy so he can go buy a bottle of Thunderbird than to give any amount to the United Way. Not to mention the fact that, in my area at least, they continue to fund the Boy Scouts, who I no longer wish to support, even indirectly. Or the fact that, because of her refusal to give me my merit raises, I’m living paycheck to paycheck myself. Well, not that last one.
One thing that pisses me off about Kmart is that twice a year, we cashiers are recquired to ask customers if they would like to donate a dollar to charity-either Give Kids the World, or the March of Dimes. My manager always gets pissed when I refuse to do it. I mean, can they force us to solicit charity like that?
My boss came to me the first year I was here and “asked” that I make my donation to the United Way. I asked to see a list of the organizations that would benefit. She was somewhat startled but gave me one. I looked it over and told her that there were a lot of religious organizations on it, and that I do not give money to religious organizations.
She hasn’t asked me again—I might note that I have also not gotten a raise or a promotion since then . . .
I recently left a job in the non-profit sector to work at a big financial institution. (I know, I know, I sold out. It pays the rent.) At my old job, we didn’t give through the United Way. In fact, we were a beneficiary of the UW, so I’ve always had a positive opinion of them. I was in fundraising, and it seemed like many of our donors, including a number at the $1,000 level, wouldn’t have given if not for the convenience of the UW.
At my new job, we have been given the opportunity to donate through the UW. So far, the pressure hasn’t seemed too great, but for all I know, it will increase to the annoying levels many of you have mentioned. Barring that irritation, what I find appealing about the UW is that I can direct my gift to one of literally hundreds of charities. Do the folks who dislike the UW not have this choice? Because I certainly wouldn’t give if I didn’t think my money was directed toward organizations I support.
Once upon a time, when I was young and naive, I gave to the U.W. via payroll deductions. No more.
A company I used to work for put a lot of pressure on us to give to UW. UW would sponsor a lot of employee parties, complete with top drawer food. Invariably on a Friday, and I’m Byzantine Catholic, the Eastern church still holds to abstaining from meat on Friday (as do a lot of old-school Latin Rite Catholics, btw) so my meal would consists of some pasta with parmesan cheese on it.
I refused to give. I figure if they can afford to throw catered parties for casino employees, they must be doing OK. Plus, I’ve heard that up to 80% of the money never actually gets to the charites they’re supposed to be helping. It goes to pay outrageously high salaries to UW exec types, as well as the aforementioned parties.
A few days after one such party, as I was coming off the game to go on break, my pit boss called me over to the podium to hustle a donation out of me. I told him I don’t give to the UW, they’re a sleazebag organization, and if I feel moved to give, I give to Catholic Charities. He just put zero for my donation amount, and after that, when the UW would come around, he only asked me to observe the formality of filling the form out with the zero amount.
Supervisors were under considerably more pressure. One of the boxmen told me he would just give five bucks per “event” to keep management off his back. He had better charities to give to as well.
BTW, I have heard rumors to the effect that the UW gives kickbacks to corporate execs who manage to extract large sums from their employees in the form of expensive gifts such as sports cars. If anyone can substantiate, please provide a cite and, if possible, a link to a website.
vix, see bizerta’s earlier post on this issue. Basically it is a shellgame- every dollar of yours that is directed towards your charity beyond the UW’s predetermined allocation means a corresponding reduction in donations to that charity from everybody else’s contributions. Let’s say the UW agreed before the campaign’s start that 10% of all donations will go to the organizations which you support. If you give $100 and direct it to go specifically to those organizations, the UW will send your money there, but deduct $90 dollars from the other, non-directed, donations it would have sent.
I think this is moot. After all, the money YOU donated to YOUR charity is still going there. How much more your charity gets above and beyond your personal donation is not really important, or at the very least nothing worth worrying about.
This is certainly a matter of opinion, but my own feeling is that if UW is going to give my favorite charity a fixed amount, regardless of whether I donate or not, then I would prefer to not donate thru UW, let them give the $$$$ to the charity, and then donate my money directly to said charity, thereby increasing the effective contribution. Further, since I suspect I am not the only one who would feel this way it is a little disingenuous of them to not make the setup known to potential donors when they are pitching the “directed donation” option.
What I believe is a lot disingenuous of them is not making this setup known when they pitch the “excluded charity” option. Every dollar you put in the pot increases the take for all participating charities, even if you have been assured that none of your money will support an organization with which you disagree.
Wow, I’m really shocked! We don’t get any kind of hustle or pressure to donate here. I mean, a reminder e-mail and some posters, but that’s it. The only pressure I’ve gotten to donate is from my own conscience since I don’t really make an effort to seek out charities to donate to. I thought it was all very convenient and low pressure, and I’m very surprised and deeply disappointed to hear about the behind-the-scenes sleaziness of the company and the aggravation they’ve caused everyone here.