United Way

[shawni]

It is that time of year when many of us are being asked to donate to United Way at work through our paychecks. What you may not be aware of is that you can specify exactly which charity your donation goes to. While I am sure that a general donation will be put to good use, you may be able to choose a local charity or one that has personal meaning to you. Don't forget your contribution is tax deductible!

[skipper]

Our Girl Scout Troop parents all made donations to UW and the girls voted on where it would go and we chose a local womens shelter that is supported by UW

[suedavids]

Remember that the United Way takes a 1% fee on your donations. Best to go directly to the charity of your choice. United way also has worked against the boy scouts of america in various location of the U.S.. A charitable middle man is not needed.

[Dangermoose007]

Thats not neccesarily true, suedeavids, United Way may take 1 percent but does a lot of work, in making sure that the charities it supports are legitimate, use their resources effectively, offers help for those charities beyond jsut financial endorsements to streamline their work to allow for more effecient running of specific charities. Some charities take off in excess of 80 percent of every dollar donated to go towards 'administrative costs' and some charities are jsut not well plot out, sometimes harming those they're trying to protect, are you going to take the time to look into where your 1 dollar donation is going to? For the most part peoples answer to that is no, so United Way does that for you. They may take their middleman cut, but that middleman cut is more like an investment than anything else. United Way provides more in services and accountability to local charities than that 1 percent would have gotten them anyways.

[sweeps]

Originally Posted by suedavids

United way also has worked against the boy scouts of america in various location of the U.S.

Given the BSA's past record of discrimination, the United Way is requiring BSA groups to sign non-discriminatory pledges before giving them money. I applaud United Way for that.

[suedavids]

United way is a discriminating organization with big money power

[katwoman]

For those who might be interested, the site www.guidestar.org is a wealth of info on charities. You can also lookup your non profit hospitals and see what they pay their board. It's an eye popper!

[andimorony]

According to United Way, their overhead is 15.8%.

http://uwsd.org/about/faq.asp

When I donate my money, I give it to the Red Cross with a letter indicating exactly WHERE I want my money to go. They honor it if you tell them that you want it to go to say, Hurricane Katrina Relief.

If you don't, the ARC, like many organizations puts it in the general fund which covers ALOT of needs (including future disaster preparedness).

According to Susan Murray of the ARC, their overhead is 9%. Quite a difference

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...121200458.html

[funnyvalentine]

I agree. I wouldn't give one dime to the Boy Scouts. Their record of discrimination again gays and "non traditional"relgious orientation is shameful.



UOTE=Sweepsplayer]Given the BSA's past record of discrimination, the United Way is requiring BSA groups to sign non-discriminatory pledges before giving them money. I applaud United Way for that.[/quote]

[funnyvalentine]

There are many local charities (pet rescues, domestic violence shelters) that would benefit from a check written directly to them. I find that the more local the the organization, the less layers of red tape that money gets funneled through.

As we all know, it's not always money that is needed. sites like Idealist.com and volunteer match often list groups that need in kind donations, donations of time etc.

Probably my last choice would be to donate to a large, national organization. Too much administration requiring too many salaries.

c


QUOTE=skipper]Our Girl Scout Troop parents all made donations to UW and the girls voted on where it would go and we chose a local womens shelter that is supported by UW[/quote]

[PrometheusIV]

I donate about 3% of my annual income, through my day job's pay checks, to United Way. This is a pretty good charity community and hasn't had any negative feedback against them in any way that I've seen...