Another reason not to give to United Way

[eisely]

There was a similar scandal here in the San Francisco Bay area, although no criminal charges have yet been filed.

 

If I recall correctly there was a kerfuffle about the Ann Arbor United Way and BSA over a year ago. I don't recall if the Lansing United Way was involved in that.

_________________

 

After embezzlement, Capital Area United Way beats expectations

 

The Associated Press

11/21/03 12:13 PM

 

 

LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- The Capital Area United Way expects to have raised more than $6.3 million during its annual campaign, a success especially considering the charity's recent embezzlement scandal.

 

Jacquelyn Allen-MacGregor was sentenced to four years in prison earlier this year after being convicted of stealing more than $2 million while she was the finance chief of the East Lansing-based charity.

 

This year's United Way fund-raising effort, which is in the final stages, is expected to generate about 9 percent less than the $6.9 million pledged last year, officials told the Lansing State Journal for a story Friday.

 

Although that figure is down from last year, it is far better than the larger declines reported by charities faced with financial scandal in other communities.

 

"We were tested this year, and this community rose to the challenge," John Zaworski, volunteer chairman of this year's United Way campaign said during a recent campaign breakfast, which drew a record 500 people.

 

The relative success of this year's fundraising drive is good news for more than 1,000 agencies and 120,000 people who rely on United Way money each year in Clinton, Ingham and Eaton counties. The weak economy has left many of those service agencies short on cash.

 

 

[NJCubScouter]

First of all: Kerfuffle? It is clear what it means in context, but I've never seen it before. Is that of your own coinage? It sounds like it could be from the language of some of my recent ancestors (Yiddish), but it isn't.

 

Second, I'm not sure why the fact that an organization was the victim of a crime is necessarily a reason not to donate to it. I suspect they had insurance for this sort of thing. Plus, businesses and organizations, including ones that you would figure would be able to prevent it, get embezzled from every day. Two million is a lot to steal, but I've seen and heard of cases involving more. It appears to be surprisingly (and disturbingly)easy to embezzle money; while almost everybody who does so gets caught eventually, the really "good" ones (meaning the really bad ones) manage to be beyond the bounds of U.S. criminal jurisdiction when that happens. On a smaller and less sophisticated scale, I once worked in an office where for about five years, an employee whose desk was about 20 feet from mine was giving herself "bonuses" on a regular basis, and nobody had a clue -- she got about $40,000 over five years. She probably could have gone on even longer but got a little too greedy and left the account in question short of money to make a payment that someone was expecting, and when the erstwhile employee took it up with this woman's boss, the books got examined a little more closely and the jig was up, as they used to say. She ended up having her retirement fund grabbed to repay the money, plus spending a few months in a "halfway house."

 

But I digress...

[eisely]

From the New "shorter" Oxford English dictionary:

 

kerfuffle: fuss, commotion, disorder, agitation

 

RE: United Way

 

It is certainly true that businesses get embezzled every day. However, non profits seem particularly susceptible to this. And the bigger the non profit, the greater the opportunity. Giving directly to Friends of Scouting at least puts the money into the hands of people who are openly dedicated to the organization, its programs and goals. Do you find the same levels of commitment in an amorphous thing like United Way? United Way is essentially a large collection agency and would not exist but for the desire of employers to avoid having multiple charities seeking payroll deductions.

[cjmiam]

I dont personally see much use for a middleman, in this case the United Way. To be thrifty I usually try to buy directly from manufacturers. Yes, I realize this could put my local computer dealer out of business, but that really is not my problem. Some organizations might not have the capability to raise funds, but I have to question why. Especially in todays world with paypal Granted, the UW has a great avenue and a lot of knowledge in the fundraising arena. I just think that its better to give directly to the organization rather than have a committee determine percentages based on their own biases. The more hands on the money the more chance there is for mischief. Plus, the UW must have some overhead for administration. To me it just doesnt seem to make sense to give my money to someone else so they can figure out where they will donate it.

 

However, Im sure this could really befuddle some non-profit organizations and might even put them out of business. But once again I wonder if that is necessarily a bad thing. A legitimate needed organization should be able to persist on its own merit. If they cannot one has to wonder whether the community really needs or wants the organization in the first place.

 

[cheffy]

The Ann Arbor United way issue had several things going on.

First there was the pressure by the Gay groups at the University of Michigan to get the University to stop its donations to UW as long as UW supported the Boy Scouts. Since UW didn't want to lose the University money they took Boy Scouts off the list. This just made FOS a bigger contribution for some people and less for UW.

Then there is the embezzlment thing which took them for a ride and lessened the confidience of alot of people in UW.

Then the economy takes a dive and now UW contributions are way down.

[cheffy]

The Ann Arbor United way issue had several things going on.

First there was the pressure by the Gay groups at the University of Michigan to get the University to stop its donations to UW as long as UW supported the Boy Scouts. Since UW didn't want to lose the University money they took Boy Scouts off the list. This just made FOS a bigger contribution for some people and less for UW.

Then there is the embezzlment thing which took them for a ride and lessened the confidience of alot of people in UW.

Then the economy takes a dive and now UW contributions are way down.