You guys can argue all you want, but I will still never donate to a “charity” that tries to coerce participation like United Way does (or, rather, companies do on behalf of United Way, which is no better).
We’re not arguing, and I’m not defending the UW’s third-party strong-arming tactics.
But I’m not fully convinced it has completely gone away. And IMO it’s hard to defend an organization that has been historically known for Bad Thing X, when the mentality that led to Bad Thing X (in UW’s case, “extremely high participation rates are still to be lauded”) guides much of its decision making.
Last night I got a call from my credit card company.
They had put a “Fraud Alert” on my credit card because of a suspicious transaction that recently occurred. They said an online contribution to a charity was made using my card. But I had not made a contribution, nor ever gone onto their web site. So because of that, we cancelled that transaction, cancelled my card, and I will get a new one in a few days. I also need to contact a couple of places that do an automatic monthly charge to my card, to get my account info changed.
The charity involved: United Way of Essex
… And? What, you think United Way stole your CC information and donated to itself?
Just a well-known tactic for scammers to test if the card is good. They make a small donation to a charity, which can slip past most fraud detection systems (small amount, not a purchase of anything) and will let them know if the account is still active. Google “credit card scam charity donation” and lots of articles will pop up.