# The United Way. It works for no one. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 10, 2010, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-united-way-it-works-for-no-one/542643 "2010-06-10T13:31:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-united-way-it-works-for-no-one/542643/21 "2010-06-10T19:31:50Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > You’re my hero! I’d love to hear more details about the legal part of this if you’d care to share them. Not much to tell, the commander was charged with abusing his position and rank, he got a slap on the wrist, moved to another company and probably held up his next promotion and word got around not to fuck with that big Sgt, he pushes back. Apparently there was never an “official” policy of 100%, it just turned into a race and no one considered the poor privates who had to support the commanders egos. It did not affect my next promotion negatively as it was 3 years ahead of schedule. ---
**Author:** ![Dread\_Pirate\_Jimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dread_pirate_jimbo/32/3897_2.png) [@Dread\_Pirate\_Jimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dread_Pirate_Jimbo)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-united-way-it-works-for-no-one/542643/22 "2010-06-10T19:51:06Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > I don’t know how it works everywhere, but at the companies I’ve been at, there’s always an option to contribute to another charity through the same mechanism. I filled out the UW form and in small print near the bottom there’s a check box and blank space for an alternate charity. I always check that box and put in a charity I like. UW never sees a dime of my money and a charity I like gets a steady donation. Cat Whisperer’s husband chiming in… That’s actually incorrect and one of the many reasons I hate UW. In fact, the United Way takes a processing fee out of your contribution (up here, it’s $18 – I’m not sure if that’s standard or varies from place-to-place). Then, they allocate what’s left of your funds to the charity of your choice. HOWEVER, if this is a charity they already contribute to and they have a budget allocated to that charity, your money is included in that allocation and is not given over and above that allocation. So it essentially your contribution does nothing to your charity of choice anyway. Take me, for example. I’m typically willing to chip as much as $20 into a company fund raiser. If I give that money as part of the annual United Way shakedown and ask that the money be allocated to, say, the local Boys and Girls Club, the UW keeps $18 and counts a whopping $2 towards the several thousand dollars they were going to give to the Boys and Girls Club anyway. My charity of choice would be much better served if I dealt with them directly, as they would then recieve $20 they would otherwise never see and the goddamn UW would get nothing. Fuckers. We get the hard sell UW campaign once a year as well in my company. I’ve flatly refused to contribute, but have gotten steadily increasing pressure from my bosses and suggestions of how I’m not being a “team player,” which is not-so-subtle corporate double-speak for “this will probably affect your bonuses and the possibility of you being promoted in the future.” I don’t generally have much bad to say about this company, but last year I came very, very close to lodging a formal complaint to the corporate offices for the UW campaign being a violation of my rights under the local labour laws, the company harassment policy, and the company ethics policy. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-united-way-it-works-for-no-one/542643/23 "2010-06-10T19:57:05Z")
**Captain Midnight**! Please tell me you’re the real Captain Midnight! Man, that HBO jamming was the greatest thing ever… Anyway, yeah, UW. It’s not a charity, and I hope that everyone who reads that would be quickly disabused of that notion. It’s rather what we in the fundraising biz call a “fundraising consortium”, or, in layman’s terms, “middleman.” Now, what UW does in collecting money from large numbers of individual donors to give to selected charities is actually not that unusual. There have been a few other consortia around, and nowadays it’s a popular way of raising money on the internet. Send us donations, and we’ll give to these worthy charities in a selected field; I’ve seen ones set up for mothering non-profits, animal rescue organizations, things like that. What makes UW a little different from the rest of the crowd is that they take a significant chunk of change out of the donations they receive, and give it to such worthy charities as “UW’s executive payroll” or “UW’s travel fund” or who knows what else. Most of the other fundraising consortia I’ve referred to above send 100%, or at least darn close to it, of their donations on. UW not only doesn’t, they don’t even bother to suggest that they do. So, in closing, I’d like to jam this UW broadcast: GOODEVENING UNITED WAY FROM CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT 10-20% OVERHEAD ? NO WAY ! (OVERPAID “CHARITY” EXECUTIVES BEWARE ! ) ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-united-way-it-works-for-no-one/542643/24 "2010-06-10T20:58:44Z")
…“UW’s Executive Bonuses” 1. Donate directly to any charity you feel does a good job or needs your help or touches you in some meaningful way. Get a receipt from the charity themselves to apply towards your taxes. Simple. 2. Solidarity in resisting the high-pressure, extremely distasteful if not outright illegal tactics of United Way campaigns. If everyone stops contributing, maybe they’ll finally go away. ---
**Author:** ![Fir\_na\_tine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fir\_na\_tine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fir_na_tine)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-united-way-it-works-for-no-one/542643/25 "2010-06-10T20:58:51Z")
> [@Duke](#): > > What makes UW a little different from the rest of the crowd is that they take a significant chunk of change out of the donations they receive, and give it to such worthy charities as “UW’s executive payroll” or “UW’s travel fund” or who knows what else. Most of the other fundraising consortia I’ve referred to above send 100%, or at least darn close to it, of their donations on. UW not only doesn’t, they don’t even bother to suggest that they do. Do you have a cite for this claim? Most UW campaigns are extremely well managed and the overhead cost is nominal. Fund raising for any organizations sucks and can easily be abused. At least in my area, UW does it efficiently and without pain. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-united-way-it-works-for-no-one/542643/26 "2010-06-10T21:24:39Z")
According to the [United Way’s own website](http://www.unitedwayoprffp.org/), the local campaigns typically charge between 10% and 20% for administration and costs. Here is a [Charlotte Observer story](http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2008/10/26/279680/united-way-paid-some-salaries.html) from a couple of years back that says the local campaign’s overhead was claimed tgo be 15%, but because of “dubious” accounting practices was closer to 25%. United Way Chicago claims 17%. Dayton says 19%. Here’s a [Pittsburgh site](http://www.unitedway.pitt.edu/about/faq.php) that boasts about 12%, claiming that is only one third of what the Better Business Bureau has determined to be reasonable , which is 35%. This may be true, but if so IMO the BBB is blowing smoke out its ass, as 35% is outrageous. What is your area? We can look it up and find the number. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-united-way-it-works-for-no-one/542643/27 "2010-06-10T21:40:57Z")
> [@Captain\_Midnight](#): > > For instance, if your boss was the father of a girl scout, and brought cookies to the workplace to sell, and not buying the cookies will be seen as bad for one’s own advancement or career… Believe me - this already happens. All the time. Or “Hey, my son’s Cub Scout Den (you know, the East Haverbrook Homophobes) is selling leaf bags. How many can I put you down for. None? Oh…that’s too bad…what with the economy being so bad, and unemployment above 10%…[sub]having to let some people go soon…[/sub] What’s that? You say 100 bags! That’s great! [sub]Although Bob did buy 200…and you know he’s the same level as you…but really, that’s OK, I’m sure you can land on your feet no matter what life throws at you…[/sub]” ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-united-way-it-works-for-no-one/542643/28 "2010-06-10T22:17:33Z")
Perhaps someone can post cites, but the final nail in UW’s coffin for me was the fact that they view their client charities as fundraising competition, forbidding them from doing their own fundraising during blackout periods around the holidays. There was a doper who’s dad ran a homeless shelter (??) and found he was able to obtain more funding by turning down UW’s money. ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-united-way-it-works-for-no-one/542643/29 "2010-06-10T22:38:42Z")
Besides being employed by 4 different employers that pushed UW contributions (which I always refused), I don’t like their distribution of funds. Back in 1986, my roommate and I were tired of all the NFL players hawking UW during games, so we did a little research. At least at that time, some dismal amount (15-25%) of the funds they raised actually made it to charities; i.e., they had a 75-85% overhead. That to me says ineptness if not corruption. Unfortunately, my wife’s company had a heavy-handed UW campaign, and she signed up for automatic contributions. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-united-way-it-works-for-no-one/542643/30 "2010-06-10T22:40:02Z")
Back in 1991 my company was shooting for 100% “participation” too. I was the only hold-out in a department of roughly 100 people. I got daily visits from different managers asking, cajoling, damn near threatening me to get me to comply. I refused. Last ditch, I always suggested that they could contribute in my name to show 100%, but strangely, they always turned that down. I do think it hurt my career there, but I left soon afterwards for other reasons. The United Way will never get another penny of my money. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-united-way-it-works-for-no-one/542643/31 "2010-06-10T22:50:56Z")
Man, I can’t believe some of these stories. I’ve never experienced an employer pushing UW or anything else like that on us, let alone with the heavyhanded tactics people are talking about here. I would absolutely refuse to participate. That’s exactly the kind of thing that gets my back up and makes me ornery. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-united-way-it-works-for-no-one/542643/32 "2010-06-10T22:56:58Z")
> [@Una\_Persson](#): > > Believe me - this already happens. All the time. Or "Hey, my son’s Cub Scout Den (you know, the East Haverbrook Homophobes)… FWIW, not all Boy Scouts are homophobes, and I’ve never encountered a local volunteer leader who has denigrated gays and lesbians. It’s the religious fundamentalists at the national leadership level who have taken this hard-line stance against homosexuality (and atheists, for that matter). I’ve always treated the official policy like I did the similar policy of the U.S. military–not one I agree with, but not anything I have much control over, and hopefully one that will change as society’s attitudes evolve over time. And despite my personal disagreement with the BSA’s official national policy on homosexuality, the Boy Scouts are the only game in town if you want your son to be able to camp with an organization on a regular basis, earn merit badges in various diverse subjects, do community service, and earn a widely recognized honor (Eagle Scout). Oh, and I think that the United Way sucks. When I was in the military, the equivalent group was the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC), conveniently run by the United Way in most areas. They didn’t required 100% of personnel to contribute, but they did require 100% of personnel to be _personally contacted_ by the CFC Coordinator to “encourage” them to fill out a contribution slip. ---
**Author:** ![SoulFrost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f07891/32.png) [@SoulFrost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SoulFrost)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-united-way-it-works-for-no-one/542643/33 "2010-06-10T22:59:01Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > …“UW’s Executive Bonuses” > > 1. Donate directly to any charity you feel does a good job or needs your help or touches you in some meaningful way. Get a receipt from the charity themselves to apply towards your taxes. Simple. > > 2. Solidarity in resisting the high-pressure, extremely distasteful if not outright illegal tactics of United Way campaigns. If everyone stops contributing, maybe they’ll finally go away. Except there are some charities now that will _only_ accept donations through United Way. I do not know if that’s UW’s doing or not. I have had a black permanent marker for a couple of years now. Its only function is to obliterate all of my personal information from their card. I write my employee number on the card (because turning in the card is our “proof of attendance” on UW day), then scrawl a great big **NEVER!** across whatever white space is left. I haven’t had any managers try to pressure me into contributing since I began doing that. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-united-way-it-works-for-no-one/542643/34 "2010-06-10T23:18:10Z")
Out of interest, I crunched the numbers on our local United Way for the city. The Canadian Revene Ageny makes all charities post their tax returns, and I frequently use this information before making a donation. The summary: Total Revenue: 7.4 million Expenses: Salaries 1.2 million Expenses: other: 0.8 million Given to other charities 5.4 milliion Total full time employees: 16 Employees making over 80K/year: 3 Overhead: 27% Overhead from salaries: 16% Then, since they do act as “middlemen”, you have to take into account the overheads of all the charities that they then support. Then you can come up with a figure of how much actually gets to the people that need it. You can guess about half. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-united-way-it-works-for-no-one/542643/35 "2010-06-10T23:27:06Z")
One of my main objections back in 1991 was that they had TWO branches for the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St.Paul), one for each side, and the executives of each made in the mid 100k range. Twenty years ago, that was a pretty nice salary, and for some reason they have to have TWO of these people making this money in our town? (Today there is only one branch) I would raise that as my objection and ask why this wasn’t a voluntary position or why it had to pay so much and I’d get back shit about how they had to party and mingle with other executives, so they had to be paid like it. Also the usual bit about having to pay that well in order to attract the right people - which said nothing against my “then why don’t they serve as an unpaid volunteer for a year as their own personal contribution to the United Way?” rebuttal. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-united-way-it-works-for-no-one/542643/36 "2010-06-11T00:32:19Z")
I used to get the push yearly, but it seems it’s been absent the last few years. One year, a co-worker/peer was put in charge of signing everyone up. She couldn’t believe her ears when I said, ‘No, thanks’. Her jaw actually dropped. As it turned out, I was the only one of 80+ people who declined. She took it as a personal offense and things were a bit cool between us from then on. How effin’ stupid is that? mmm ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-united-way-it-works-for-no-one/542643/37 "2010-06-11T00:55:56Z")
I read an expose about them in Mother Jones decades ago. Lots of money for the Girl Scouts, darn little money for community-based women’s clinics. I haven’t added a penny to their pile since. ---
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-united-way-it-works-for-no-one/542643/38 "2010-06-11T05:36:52Z")
> [@Captain\_Midnight](#): > > …I finally gave in and gave up $2.00 a month, the bare minimum. Of course, I had to fill out a form with my name and more or less “minimum” checked on the paper. In many workplaces, the person has to check “no contribution” and signed their names. … There’s not even a “no contribution” box on the forms they give us at work. The only way to not contribute is to put in an amount of $0.00. And yes, every employee has to fill out and turn in a form. Your supervisor will harangue you until you do and they have the option to write you up for noncompliance. I’ve never known anyone to actually test that out though and see if they really will do it. In addition, my workplace also attaches another sheet to the UW one so that you can contribute to the local funds. You have to fill it out and sign it as well. I thought the CFC was bad enough but they’ve got nothing on this particular Catholic corporate-run hospital. ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-united-way-it-works-for-no-one/542643/39 "2010-06-11T10:07:00Z")
I’ve seen this annoyance at several employers. I never give to UW simply because of their strongarm tactics to get me to donate money. It’s always been mandatory to fill out the form even if I’m not going to be donating any money. I don’t think I did last year because I couldn’t give less of a shit than to fill out their stupid form. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-united-way-it-works-for-no-one/542643/40 "2010-06-11T12:45:59Z")
> [@Kevbo](#): > > Perhaps someone can post cites, but the final nail in UW’s coffin for me was the fact that they view their client charities as fundraising competition, forbidding them from doing their own fundraising during blackout periods around the holidays. There was a doper who’s dad ran a homeless shelter (??) and found he was able to obtain more funding by turning down UW’s money. That’s (mostly) untrue. The vast majorities of UWs in the country have abandoned that model. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-united-way-it-works-for-no-one/542643.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-united-way-it-works-for-no-one/542643.md?page=3)