United Way/Planned Parenthood

  • Thread starter Thread starter Lemuel
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It’s possible the wealthier people choose their own charities and contribute elsewhere, especially where they think they can get some advantage for their donation (social standing, tax deduction). Of course, it’s also possible they are cheap.

I’m frankly affronted when any charity just expects to see an increased donation from me. Donations should never be “expected”. I think the Catholic Church does very well in that regard of not placing expectations on people.
 
I just ignore the pressure to give to United Way at work. I have a fantasy where if someone asked me personally, I would say that I prefer to funnel all my charitable giving through the Catholic Church. That would really anger my very liberal administration…😅
 
Lemuel said:
I’m still not getting it. Why would you earmark it for a specific charity? Why not just skip all that nonsense and give it directly to the charity?
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My company puts a sign outside everyone’s office or cube so everyone on the floor knows who has donated and who hasn’t. Also everyone on the floor is given special privileges for 2 months if we meet the percentage requirement for the floor.

And the once the % requirement for our entire building is met, there are different privileges that are granted for 2 months.

When if the floor doesn’t meet the target, everyone on the floor knows exactly who is to blame for everyone missing out on the special privileges.

So the pressure is pretty strong.

Maybe I’m wrong, but at least I’m giving my donation to Catholic organizations.

Also, since I’m a Project Manager at a law firm, more than 1/2 the floor are my “internal customers” and plus there are a number of partners on my floor (including the 3 I work for).

Trust me, I wrestle with this every year…
 
Convert3 said:
But the higher ranking officers were cheap, only contributing $25-$50 annually.
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Here’s the problem I have with that. I’m not wealthy by any means, but I make six figures and I am comfortable. People around me probably think I’m a stingy cheapskate. But I really don’t care. The Bible tells us to give our alms in secret. Not to announce it with trumpets like the Pharisees do, but to do it quietly and without fanfare. Only my wife and I know what I give to others. That’s the way it is supposed to be. Just because my name doesn’t show up on a particular list or if it does, because it may look like a pittance, I don’t really care. I want to do it the way Jesus taught. I don’t need the approval of man. I don’t want it. I won’t judge others for how much they give, or especially for how much I think they give. The truth is, I don’t know what others give and it’s really none of my business.

If I worked at your office, you would be calling me cheap as well.
 
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I don’t know if this is still the case, but about 20 years ago there was a controversy locally about United Way and allowing people to designate their contributions to a particular charity. The local United Way allowed people to designate to a particular charity, but it did not change the amount the group received. For example, if the Humane Society was allocated $25,000 through the United Way application process, but people designated $40,000 toward them, they still only received the $25,000. So the designation rule was basically meaningless.

Big uproar ensued. I’m not sure how it was resolved…my company does not run a UW campaign so I’m out of the loop.

Edited to add: Planned Parenthood doesn’t get funds from our local UW. There is another competing drive that includes PP and other agencies UW doesn’t fund.
 
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JanetF said:
And I offer to show them my Annual Catholic Appeal pledge if they are so interested in knowing where I donate my money
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To me, that goes against the whole concept of giving your alms in secret. It’s nobody’s business what you pledge or what you give.
 
That’s why I say that my donations would be tainted. PP will get their money whether I earmark my donations or not. It all goes into the same pot. Earmarking is just a way of making a person feel better about their contribution. I think it’s a crock.
 
I used to work for a major municipality that made a big push every year for its employees to donate to United Way. Most people did. I told my boss, “I already have my own charities that I donate to. Is it okay if I don’t?” And he said, “You don’t have to worry about it.”

He was high-ranking enough where his lack of participation would have been noticed and commented upon unfavorably. And he might have gotten pushback if too much of his department didn’t participate.

But it never got brought up again, and I was much more comfortable saying “no thanks” in future years.
 
I agree with you. I didn’t make my point clear. I was under pressure from these higher ranking officers to meet the goal, yet they didn’t help.
 
Planned Parenthood is about much more than abortions. Only a very small bit of the money they have is used for that purpose. The big majority of the money collected by Planned Parenthood goes into things like mammograms and other things to aid women’s health.
Also, the United Way supports many other worthwhile programs in our communities.
Though I understand your feelings about abortion, I do not thing other worthwhile things should suffer a lack of funding just because part of the money collected goes to Planned Parenthood.
This is just food for thought. God bless one and all! 🙏🙏🙏
 
JoeShlabotnik said:
Planned Parenthood is about much more than abortions. Only a very small bit of the money they have is used for that purpose.
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So why would I participate in supporting someone who only kills a few babies? One is too many.
JoeShlabotnik said:
Though I understand your feelings about abortion, I do not thing other worthwhile things should suffer a lack of funding just because part of the money collected goes to Planned Parenthood.
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I disagree. Charities will get my money and people will be helped. I don’t need United Way to assure that will happen. Until they take a firm stance against any and all of their affiliates giving money to killing babies, I won’t support them. Not a dime.
 
Lemuel, do what you want.
I was just trying to point out that Planned Parenthood is more than just about abortion.
And that the United Way is about much more than Planned Parenthood.
I am against abortion. But I give to the United Way, because they include a lot of different organizations that they help.
Many people use many different excuses for not giving. I am not saying that you are not giving. What I am saying is that there are a lot of people who find some reason not to give.
God bless one and all! 🙏🙏🙏
 
JoeShlabotnik said:
Planned Parenthood is about much more than abortions. Only a very small bit of the money they have is used for that purpose. The big majority of the money collected by Planned Parenthood goes into things like mammograms and other things to aid women’s health.
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Where you trying to be sarcastic?
You know they don’t even do mammograms, right?
 
Lemuel said:
I’m still not getting it. Why would you earmark it for a specific charity? Why not just skip all that nonsense and give it directly to the charity?
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That’s the million dollar question. You’re not alone in not getting it. They always seemed like an unnecessary middle man to me.

I think they are so widespread because they are like the one-stop shop for charitable giving. They can go to a business, ask them to make the pitch to employees, and make it easy for people to give. And they offer flexibility for people to give to a whole host of charities.

The assumption is that people are likely to give more and to give more consistently if it is taken directly from their paycheck without them having to think about it. That assumption probably isn’t wrong.

So even though United Way is getting a cut, the charities receiving money are—in general—receiving more money overall than they would if they were waiting on individuals to contribute regularly and consistently of their own volition.

For me, though, I’d rather just give directly to the charities of my choice.
 
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United Way served some purpose before the Internet of publicizing charities that were out there. Sure they would send mail to your house, or do PR in newspapers, but most of that junk mail went in the trash and the newspaper ads went right on by. If not for United Way, I wouldn’t have even known about some of the charities in my area. The Catholics tended to just collect money under the umbrella of “Catholic Charities” and decided which organizations got it and other than them being Catholic organizations presumably vetted by the Church, you didn’t have a clue where your money was going there either.

It’s a whole different ball game now that we have the Internet and it’s easy to search for charities or Gofundme and just hit a button to donate to what you want to donate to. We don’t need United Way anymore.
 
They did the same thing when Mama was working. She didn’t have it to give. And she didn’t.
 
While the United Way does a lot of good things, I don’t donate to them because of their support for Planned Parenthood. There are many better organizations that we can donate to.
 
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