Info on the United Way

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My company strongly urges its employees to give to the United Way as a direct deduction from our paychecks.
Of the 1,129 UW chapters in the US, 62 give to Planned Parenthood. My company gives to the UW of Summit County (Ohio) chapter, which is the 5th largest donor to Planned Parenthood of these 62 UW chapters.

I hung some flyers up simply stating this fact with the following text:

“For those of you who do not wish to fund groups like Planned Parenthood via the United Way but still choose to donate to the United Way, you may want designate what groups you wish to support with your donation.”

I was told today to take them down because someone was offended. Anyone have similar experiences?
 
Alternative strategies:
Point out…
"Brian Gallagher is the President and Chief Executive Officer of United Way Worldwide

Brian Gallagher’s total compensation in 2015 was $1,236,611. This includes $532,028 in base compensation, $175,000 in bonus and incentive compensation (approved by the Executive Compensation Committee and Board of Trustees based on his successful performance of specific objectives), $142,553 in other reportable compensation, and $387,030 in health insurance and retirement benefits."

Also

Designating your money to a specific charity does not mean they will receive one cent more than they would have otherwise from the United Way…All contributions are fungible.

The United Way supports “charities” that many find very offensive, remember your contribution does not truly support a specific charity even if you “designate” your money.
The United Way charities receive and distribute donations on a regional basis. They tell donors they can “designate” which charity they want to receive their donation. But the distribution to the various charities is based on “budgets” developed independently from “designated” contributions. Since so few donors name a particular charity, the United Way decreases their funding from the un-designated funds…The result is that the charity receives the amount the local board budgeted, regardless of your designation. So it is more accurate to say that you contributed to all the charities the United Way supports.

Say the local board budgets $10,000 to Catholic Charities. Say only you designate your $1,000 to Catholic Charities… They will receive $9,000 in general contributions and $1.000 from your designated contribution. The net effect will be that Catholic Charities gets the same amount. Then the United way has $1,000 more in general contributions that they can give to Planned Parenthood or whoever they choose.

In addition, charities which apply for United Way funding incur additional administrative costs to justify their need to the United Way.

Say you contribute $100
United way takes $12.50 to $15 for fundraising, paying outrageous salaries, and distributing your money.
Individual charities incur approximately 3% additional administrative costs to justify their need to the United Way

So the $100 you gave becomes $82 and is distributed to whoever the local United Way board (made up of corporate executives) deems worthy. Some examples are the Shakespeare Theater, wealthy Preparatory Schools, Planned Parenthood, the United Nations Association etc. etc. You may very well agree with funding these specific organizations, but there are likely some you would not.
 
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good to know this! my job does the same thing and was thinking about it. not anymore!
 
No, I didn’t. I’m not surprised that I was asked to take the flyers down, I was just surprised that it was because someone was offended. The flyer only stated facts on how much the UW chapter donated to PP.

Apparently the company doesn’t care that some employees are offended that the company pressures donations to an organization that supports abortion. Seems like a double standard to me.
 
I_trust said:
Designating your money to a specific charity does not mean they will receive one cent more than they would have otherwise from the United Way…All contributions are fungible.
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Thank I_trust. I suspected this was the case, but I wasn’t sure. I’m interested in any sources you may have for the information in your post. I may want to quote them in the future.
 
I wouldn’t give a dime to the United Way. Years ago during that great Tsunami that happened out in Asia that killed hundreds of thousands of people they used some of the money we donated to pay off some legal bills. Not one thin dime to them ever again!
 
Give to specific organizations like your parish, your diocese Catholic Charities, or some religious order that really needs it. The umbrella of United Way is like a big black hole. Look at the combined Federal campaign which has many of these organizations such as the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA which does not have its own parishes so it is autonomous in partnering with other diocese to get priests in the military. I shared a similar experience in the Army, but kept the flyer with a few cautions on my office door.
 
Did you know that UA is required to have a Catholic representative on the board which approves/denies grant applications? Find out who that is, have a talk with them.
 
I never understood the purpose of the United Way. They seem like an unnecessary middle man to me. If you want to give to a designated charity, just give directly to that charity. Why give it to United Way first?

I do understand they generally make it easier for people to have charitable contributions auto-deducted from their paycheck where they don’t have to think about it or do any extra work. So I’m sure they are getting more money in donation than people would likely give if they had to give it more deliberate thought. I guess, I’ve always been of the mind to want to give it deliberate thought. So it’s not something I ever considered giving to.

I do understand why your place of employment would object to you putting up a sign like that. Probably a better course of action would be to ask permission to post a sign informing people of the option to designate where their money goes if there is a particular charity they would like to support or particular charities they want to avoid supporting.

As I_trust stated, though, I’m kind of skeptical that earmarking your donations has any net impact on who gets how much money. Probably the only time it would make a difference would be if there were such a large amount of people designating a particular charity that their total designated contributions actually exceeded how much United Way would ordinarily give to them. I’m not sure how common such an occurrence would be.
 
They no longer force us to give, but they used to. They now strongly urge us. In fact, if you don’t want to give, you have to tick the box on the pledge card marked “Refusal”; not “Decline” or “No thanks”. I personally don’t give any money to UW because of their support for several organizations and the reasons that I_trust stated.

I feel that I have a moral obligation to speak for the unborn who can’t speak for themselves. I completely agree with Joe_5859 when he said…
Joe_5859 said:
I do understand they generally make it easier for people to have charitable contributions auto-deducted from their paycheck where they don’t have to think about it or do any extra work. So I’m sure they are getting more money in donation than people would likely give if they had to give it more deliberate thought. I
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so my goal was to try and increase awareness of where their is money was going so they might put more thought into their donations. The flyers lasted a few days before they were taken down, and someone obviously read them, so I’m going to consider the mission accomplished. Wish I could have had a conversation with whomever was offended to find our why, but HR won’t say who it was.
 
The salary information for Brian Gallagher is on the United Way’s website. Link below…


My sister was in charge of a local United Way chapter for years, I can only tell you her experience. Each local United Way determines how they will distribute grants. Each charity applies for grants, and the local United Way board determines the “worthiness” of each organization, and what funding should be allocated. For authoritative quotations explaining the funding process you will have to do some Google research.

Mary Jo Copeland (founder of Sharing and Caring hands and Mary’s place) and I believe a living saint who attends 5 AM Mass everyday, explained in one of her talks that when she started out she accepted United Way contributions. But she would have to hire an additional paid office person just to do the paperwork to justify to the United Way why her organization deserved funding. She felt that that was money that was better spent feeding the poor.

Even if a local United Way chapter does not support Planned Parenthood, they often fund local woman’s clinics and organizations which refer/ send them to PP for abortions. In addition my local United way funds several gay advocacy groups which lobbied for same sex marriage and education initiatives trying to teach young students that the homosexual lifestyle is to be celebrated.

Am I willing to let the United Way take their 12-15% cut of my money just to give the rest to questionable organizations? I personally believe that is not being a good steward with the gifts God has given me.
 
mpower36 said:
They no longer force us to give, but they used to. They now strongly urge us. In fact, if you don’t want to give, you have to tick the box on the pledge card marked “Refusal”; not “Decline” or “No thanks”.
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Nobody should feel that sort of pressure or coercion to give to any charity.

Next to “refusal” write in “on grounds of conscience.”

Apart from that gesture, perhaps consider fighting your battle with a more positive and productive approach: “I’m conscientiously opposed to giving to UW. But how about we spend a day or half-day volunteering at the local food bank? They’re swamped during the holidays, and it would be a great team-building activity. I’d be happy to organize it.”

Copy lots of people on the email. People who are curious and ask about your objection will be better informed when you tell them. Plus you’ll come out looking like the good guy you really are. 😃
 
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I think at this point, it is enough to know you don’t have to contribute, so don’t. I actually don’t know how it was ever legal to make anyone do so.
 
They don’t force you. Just don’t sign the form that says you are giving. You don’t have to sign that.

They don’t give to the Salvation Army so we said the heck with them. We gave to other charities, including the Salvation Army.
 
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