United Way Donations

[Basementdweller]

Well, we are required to make a united way donation at work this year.....Yes I said required.....

 

On the list is the Local Council........I don't see anything else on the list I wish to support....Lets just leave it at that.....

 

Now if I check that box.......Does it go to Learning for Life or the traditional program??????

 

If it goes to LFL I will donate to Lesbian Cat Owners Education fund or something stupid like that.

[Papadaddy]

If I were "required" to make a donation, it would be $1...cash.

[Pack212Scouter]

We have the same thing. Just keep in mind that because you check that donate to box, all the United Way does is reshuffle funds. If you say you want $100 to go to BSA, then they take $100 of the planned amount and move it to other funds. All it does is tell them that you want to support that program, but the bottom line is that you are supporting every program the the United Way contributes to.

[IM_Kathy]

here we are able to mark our united way donations when it comes to friends of scouting time. So since my husband makes a donation that is matched by company he sends to council and troop gets that credit with fos

[camilam42]

Personally, I believe that this is one of the biggest scams in all of business. I was literally threatened with being fired if I didn't give money to the United Way, several years ago.

 

I told my employer that I was unable to give to United Way, due to a moral opposition and that if they terminated me for this I would be bringing a lawsuit for extortion and breach of contract.

 

My earned monies are my earned monies. There was nothing stated in my contract that I was required to give to United Way. I have an uncle who is an attorney and he drafted the letter for me, which was sent to local, regional, and corporate HR. At that point, they did back down.

 

As a matter of transparency, I am opposed to the $$ given to Planned Parenthood. Regardless of whether my $$ go directly there or not, I will not support a company which gives monies directly to an organization such as this.

 

If you don't want to give monies to United Way, legally there is nothing they can do to force you to give your monies to an organization you are opposed to. Your wage is your wage.

 

To Extort -- to obtain from a person by force, intimidation, or undue or illegal power : wring; also : to gain especially by ingenuity or compelling argument (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/extorting)

 

[Basementdweller]

cami....Nice thought.....

 

But next years evaluation..bad marks...lower or no raise.

 

Promotion, better qualified but yet passed over because file says not a team player......

 

 

So cami.....you understand your donation to the Boy Scouts of America also supports Learning for life which allow gays, lesbians, and Atheist to enjoy a scout like program.

 

This is not the reason for my refusing to support LFL. My reason is the membership numbers games.....

 

 

Guess I will just find something to support on the list........

[shortridge]

I've given to the United Way, but not as part of a campaign at work. I find those efforts to be pushy and obnoxious at best, coercive at worst. IMHO, they have no place in the workplace.

[airborneveteran]

I genuinely despise the United Way for the pressures that the "100% participation goals" of the employer put on people with differing principles and priorities. And, yes, job reviews often are impacted by the lack of bowing to the pressure to give generally to charity because the CEO's (and their wives) are too stupid or lazy to know how to identify some quality charities and give to them specifically.

 

My wife is pressured to do this in her job. She usually designates $10 to the least objectionable United Way organization every year expecting that they reshuffle the money so that the abortionists get the same amount they were going to get from United Way in either event. This time of year serves as an additional reminder to give an additional donation to a local pro-life group.

 

We give generously to specific charities that we care about and we prefer to skip the middle man and their skim off the top so that 100% of our donation goes to the charity. I thoroughly hate the United Way and the soulless corporate "100% participation types" they suck in to their web.(This message has been edited by airborneveteran)

[camilam42]

@ Basementdweller;

 

I completely understand your position. Like I said, I was in it several years ago. I had to make the decision as to what was more important to me, my moral convictions and beliefs or my career. I chose the former. I also am very well aware that not everyone is in that position and I don't begrudge you or anyone for your views, they are your own.

 

But, for me, I couldn't acquiesce. It was there that I made my stand. Was I ostracized for it, yes. Was my evaluation docked for it? No, but that is because there was a letter from an attorney in there. However, I did choose to abandon that job (2007) for a different one.

 

As far as the LFL issue, I have made it clear to my Council and to National that I think that it is inappropriate to allow them to continue to use the BSA tax exempt number. However, I do know where my direct $$ go with regard to the BSA, so I feel more comfortable in holding the position I do regarding the BSA.

 

All of that being said, I clearly understand and can empathize with your conundrum. I've been in your shoes. You know yourself best and you know your tolerances, just like I know mine. I offered my experience to show one possible version. You will, undoubtedly, have your own. One of the important aspects of the BSA law is loyal. You have my support.

[Twocubdad]

Ask your local UW capo if they heard about what happened to the UW over in Charlotte. Several years ago there was a scandal regarding the executive director's salary and benefits. But once that crack developed and the emperor was revealed to have no clothes, the house of cards came down. There were a number of news stories about the overall dissatisfaction with the UW and, in particular, the sort of strong-arm tactics and intimidation BD is talking about. There were other stories pointing out the the shell game played with designated donations that Pack212 mentioned.

 

The employers in the area finally realized they really were on the hook for lawsuits like camiam threatened and pulled the plug. The first year after this all hit the fan I think donations were off by two-thirds. The campaign still struggles and raises about half what it did in its hayday. Good.

 

I won't give them a thin dime. Fortunately, being self-unemployed, I dont' have to put up with the junk BD does. UW is a shakedown racket. If you want to let other people decide which charities your money should go to, then UW is for you. Otherwise, send a check directly to the charity of you choice.

 

Let me add that I grew up supporting the UW. My dad held every possible position in UW here from rank-and-file campaign worker to campaign chairman to chairman of the board of directors. Early on, I always contributed at work and even volunteered to help with the campaign at one job. The con-job with directed contributions really ticked me off and later, when I learned how Scouting was being treated by the UW, I finally said no more.

[eaglescout1996]

I sat on a UW funding panel for about 6 years, first the Children and Familes panel (that included the local BSA council) and then the Social Services panel (Drug conseling, HIV/AIDS clinics, ect). If you are going to give money to the UW, make sure you direct designate to the organization you want to support. If you do not, it goes to the "general fund" and a portion will be taken out for Admin costs (5-10%).

 

There are a few different ways local UWs divy up the funds. Some, like the one I was involved with, would keep the amount of funds diretly designated to the organization a secret, each panel would make their funding recommendation to the UW board based on the ammount available to that group. We did site visits, looked their their applications, and books. This is the first time I actually saw how much the SE made, and was quite suprised. Now, the amount requested by all the organizations in the group was always about twice the amount of funding available. Once the UW board finalized the funding, they added the amount of the direct designated portion to the total.

 

Some UWs tell the panel how much was directly designated to the organization and told them to make their recommendations with that in mind.

 

Still, some others tell the panel, for example: the BSA has asked for x, they are recieving y, (x-y=z), so you can only give them a maximum of z dollars.

 

I always made sure I direct designated because I wanted my money (and my company's match) to go to the organization of my choosing. Once I left that company, I just including my previous UW contribution with my FOS.

 

Now, the applications we looked through would show what they were going to spend funds on. Salareis for paraprofessionals, Development Director, camp scholarships, capital improvements, ect. But we alway paid attention to the leverage. If it was for Development, and they said they would leverage $4 for every $1 of UW money, we would look through their performance measures for prevous years as well as their reporting documents for the UW.

 

This was in a large council, which was serviced by about 5 UWs, and even then, during our visits we sat down with the SE and DFS and directly asked them questions about their programing. It was actually nice as a volunteer to get some straight answers, espically since I had their audits and other financial reporting.

 

I too, dislike the "mandatory" participation in the UW campaingn. But remember, even if the organization isn't listed and you know it's UW organization, you can directly designate to it and the UW has to give them the money. Because of the "BSA's practices of discrimination" (not my words) a lot of UWs have taken the local council's name of the list. Although if you put them down, they have to give them the money. Same with if you're living in California and your old council as a youth is in Mississippi and you but them down, the UW in California will send them the money.

[skeptic]

My question would be how can I be shown "proof" that my designation "actually" went to the specified group? Getting a straight answer from them is like looking for the proverbial needle. But, I am retired and do not need to be concerned directly anymore.

[eaglescout1996]

The UW I worked with would give you a payment transmittal form if you asked, but it is probably rare.

 

I lived in a pretty "conservative" community, and the UW had no problems supporting the BSA and whose books were open to anyone, with nothing to hide. But I suppose those other UW which are switching dollars around and operating in the other two manners I mentioned might not be so open.

[CalicoPenn]

Different regional and state United Way's deal with Directed Contributions differently. Heck, there can be a difference between United Way's in the states. It's important to check out their rules.

 

Some United Ways will only let you direct your donation if you make a minimum donation - and you should be able to find out what that is. You might want to give only $10 and direct it to the Boy Scouts but you may have to give $50 in order to direct a contribution that way.

 

Don't assume that there is no processing fee if you direct funds. United Way isn't going to just take your $50, process it and send it on without covering their administrative costs to do so. If you want $50 to go to the Boy Scouts, donate directly. Each United Way determines their own fee. For example, last year, the fee was 11.34% in Central Iowa so they would lop $5.67 from your $50 as administrative costs. But wait, there's more! There's a minimum $10 admin cost so your $50 is now $40 with essentially a $10 donation to United Way. Oh, and if you have an employer match? Chances are the match won't go to the Boy Scouts, it will go, by policy, to the United Way unrestricted funds.

 

If faced with mandatory giving, and you don't want to make a fuss, give the smallest amount you can. If you want to direct funds, just donate directly to the organization - they'll get a better benefit out of it.

[eisely]

Clearly different UW chapters have a lot of latitude. I have cut out UW for years now. The last time I did make a minimum contribution to stay of trouble at my job, I don't think that my directed donation to BSA ever made it there. Here in the San Francisco Bay Area BSA gets no allocation of which I am aware.

 

One of the ironies is that BSA was one of the major nationally operating charitable organizations that helped organize UW in the first place many many years ago.