Donations the way it SHOULD be

[sctmom]

I just signed up via online to have a donation taken from my paycheck. It is the United Way drive but the best part is the choices. I can choose to give to United Way, or I can choose specific organizations to give to (and their are a lot, including BSA), or I can choose certain organizations to EXCLUDE.

 

You don't want to give to BSA? Fine, don't give to them. If you want ALL of your donation or some part of it to go to BSA, then make that choice.

 

Isn't that what a free country is about? Isn't that truly "diversity"?

 

[Weekender]

Hi sctmom,

 

A couple years ago I asked our council exec what happens if I designate a BSA donation to our council or to a specific troop. I was surprised by the answer. Our council received (i think) $144k from the United Way. If I specify that I want my $36 to go to my council they still get the same amount. Until more than $144k worth of donations are specifically earmarked the United Way puts your money in a big pot and dishes it out as they see fit. If I designated my donation to a specific troop the council would have to take that money out of their $144k and give it to the troop. In the mean time, the United Way is funding dozens of Pro-gay, pro-abortion, pro-animals should have more rights than humans type organizations. My recomendation is that if you want to give money to the BSA, or any other specific organization, give it directly to them. Otherwise your money is helping to support groups you may disagree with.

 

 

[andrews]

That is why I stopped giving anything to the United Way years ago. I now give directly to the organizations I support.

 

Brad

[eisely]

Weekender's information is interesting. I don't know if that is the nationwide United Way practice for designated gifts. In some areas, such as where I live, the scouts are cut out of the general allocation, but one can still designate different councils as recipients. I don't know for sure if they actually get the money.

 

In some parts of the country, where United Way has cut the scouts out of the general allocation, the designated gifts for scouts have gone up and exceeded the expected allocation, at the same time that the other United Way beneficiaries get less. This does not seem consistent with weekender's information.

 

For some time now I have minimized my United Way donations and given more to FOS. That way I know where the money is going.

[Bob Russell]

Being self-employed, I don't get hit up by United Way. My wife is a federal employee and does contribute to the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC). She splits her contribution between Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts. Even though we give directly to both organizations, giving a small amount through CFC or United Way shows these groups that there is community support. If people quit direct giving through United Way, the spin placed on this would be that the public no longer supports scouting. So we give to CFC to keep the groups in the campaign and to make a public statement.

[andrews]

You do have a point, but even reducing your giving to a "token" amount will be spun to say something it doesn't mean. The attack has been on for some time.

 

Brad

[slontwovvy]

Ah, how great to be in America, where you can give your money to everyone except who you want to when the ACLU is around. There was a case in Wisconsin a few years ago where campus fees were used to fund a homosexual activist group. We're lucky that at least some place is staying sane.

[slontwovvy]

Going back to one of the first posts: Yes, that is truly diversity, but not the diversity that activists want you to portray. It is sad that so many people want it yet so few people know what it is.

 

Diversity is not destroying all opposition and forcing each other to take your way, rather it is allowing freedom to like or dislike something on its own merits as it pertains to you. Respect for diversity, though it has become mutilated and cheapened due to constant mention by liberal activists, is something we all should strive for, not the way its presented to us, but the way it was originally intended to be.

[slontwovvy]

Oops, keep forgetting this. Congratulations to jmcquillan, sctmom, Dedicated Dad, and the rest of our new Senior Members.

[jmcquillan]

My practice, ever since I can remember donating to charity or anyone, has been to donate DIRECTLY to that organization that I wanted to give to, not to some clearing-house for donations. And I guess that's how I view the United Way...as nothing more than a clearing-house. They have administration and other costs that I don't want to support. If I give a dollar, I want all 100 cents of that dollar to go to the recipient for the purpose intended. The United Way has, therefore, never been an issue for me. I give DIRECTLY to Scouting. I give DIRECTLY to cancer research, I give DIRECTLY to a lot of organizations. And, outside of Scouting, I only participate and work in those volunteer charity organizations where I know with absolute certainty that 100 cents of my donated dollar is going DIRECTLY to the purpose. (I.E., I'm a member of my local Lions Club, where the main focus is eye research. And 100 cents of every donated or raised dollar we get goes DIRECTLY to the purpose...not to a middleman who has expenses that must be covered by part of the donated dollar.)

 

Aside from the present political debate regarding the United Way andt their view on Scouting, I think it's always better to give DIRECTLY, not indirectly, as is the case with the UW.

[scamp]

I agree with those posters who recommend giving their gift directly to their council and not through the United Way. In our area one United Way said they would not accept donations for Boy Scouts because the council refused to sign the non-discrimination agreement. So, lo and behold, that United Way's total donations DROPPED because people reacted by donating directly to the council. I also heard that even if you designate your United Way donation to Boy Scouts, all monies will be put in one big pot and distributed. So keep giving to United Way if you want to support a broad range of organizations, but if you want to make sure that BSA gets your gift, give it directly to them (or do both -- some to United Way and some to BSA -- in amounts that are comfortable for you).

[eisely]

One of the primary arguments in favor of United Way (disregarding the disputes about alleged discrimination) is that United Way is a very efficient way of raising funds for charities generally. An important criterion for deciding how much to give an organization is how much of every dollar is devoted to fund raising versus the programs the organization allegedly supports. I don't know the figures for Boy Scouts, but I suspect the scouts are pretty efficient in this regard. It is sad but true that there are many charities that are essentially scams. At least United Way does perform some due diligence regarding the legitimacy of the participating organizations.

 

United Way was also a good deal for employers. Employers could agree to participate in the payroll deduction program and turn other supplicants away. The real tragedy of United Way is that activists have seized it in various parts of the country and used it as a means to further their parochial agendas.

[sctmom]

I live in an area where a few years ago it was discovered that the head of the local United Way was embezzling lots of monies. Makes me leary of them.

 

Oh, wow, I'm a SENIOR member! My birthday is coming up soon, but I didn't think it was a milestone one!

 

[eisely]

Embezzlement is a crime that can and does occur when money is being handled, goods and services purchased, etc. The only reason we don't hear more about it happening in the for-profit sector of society is that most companies prefer to hush it up and don't press criminal charges.

 

No non-profit is immune, although I have never heard of any boy scout council being ripped off. In volunteeer organizations in particular, everybody is there because they want to be there and the level of trust is very high. Simple safeguards and internal controls should still be enforced, if only to remove temptation. Human beings are capable of great good, but also capable of sin.

[scomman]

The way I understand it from asking a United Way employee. Yes I called them and asked. Is that when a donation is designated to a certain group it goes to that group minus a percentage used to pay costs of fundraising.