United Way/Good or Bad/pros or cons

alco141 · Oct 18, 2003

i look at the united way as a back door for unpopular "charities " to get their hands on money. a fair amount went to questionable organizations around here, they are not a charity in any sense of the word. when i found that out as well as the significant overhead in the organization i dropped them from our list of donations. i dont think they will get back on my list after reviewing their priorities. i have a real problem with the misrepresentation of what a charity really is.

alex

fishman · Oct 18, 2003

When my wife and I were college students in the early 90's, the United Way subsidized our child care. They had a child care center set up in an older home in a nice neighborhood and all children were welcome. Your payment was decided by how much income you made. Without that help we would not be in the financial position we are now.

Anybody else out there on the receiving end?

JN4310 · Oct 18, 2003

I'm not entirely sure if it is true, and whether you think it is a good or bad thing is up to you, but I have always heard that the United Way is a major financial supporter of the ACLU...anybody know for sure?

thcri · Oct 19, 2003

( I'm not entirely sure if it is true, and whether you think it is a good or bad thing is up to you, but I have always heard that the United Way is a major financial supporter of the ACLU...anybody know for sure?
)

That one would be really interesting to know?

murph

Junkman · Oct 19, 2003

Apparently you can specify where you want some of your money to go and the UCLA is one of the "partners" that you can specify. It is too involved for me to give you all the facts, but here is an article that will help you to understand the United Way..... web page

Bird · Oct 19, 2003

( heard that the United Way is a major financial supporter of the ACLU )

I don't know, but years ago, I had a list of all the organizations that received funds from the United Way in Dallas, and there were definitely some on the list that I would not want to fund at all.

lamarbur · Oct 19, 2003

UW still uses strong arm tactics around here with the various employees and still with some municipalities too. Don't care to contribute? No problem, you will be in the unemployment line in short time. It is wrong and bad tactics and it's a sin that UW workers are in "conjunction" with the various business' and municipalities around the county. I refuse to donate to UW because (at least in this neighborhood) 60% goes to the red cross REGARDLESS how much you ask to go to boy scouts or whatever. Red cross is another serious peeve with me, but that's another story for another time.

chim · Oct 19, 2003

Years ago the owner of a small company I was working for wanted to bid on a project remodeling offices for UW. He was told by UW that he could not bid the project, since he had a non-union company. Guess what kind of donations they got from our guys. They may have been pressured by some of the industrial donors. At that time there was still some industry left in the city.

I'd rather donate to individual places than have someone else split it up and send it to where they want it to go....................chim

5030 · Oct 19, 2003

Mike:

I have a saying..."Charity begins at home". Seeing as I am writing this post, and I am at home......

All charitable contributions may be made to: ME!!!

On the serious side, we constantly get telephone calls from groups hawking money. My favorite one is the Fraternal Order of Police. I am not anti-law enforcement, but I figured out how to keep them from calling.....I just told the solicitor that I despise law enforcement. We should have a continuous state of martial law.

No more calls.

Our big charities are ones that deal with neglected animals and the American Cancer Society.

Mike: Don't worry, I am heading for the shop now!!!

thcri · Oct 19, 2003

( Years ago the owner of a small company I was working for wanted to bid on a project remodeling offices for UW. He was told by UW that he could not bid the project, since he had a non-union company. )

I think that stinks. I as a citizen of the United States I should have the right to be union or non-union. As the owner of the company I should have the right to be union or non-union without pressure forcing me to join the union from the union. The United Way as an organization has the right to make that stipulation in their bidding process but don't ask me to donate to them. Our local municipality decide a couple of years ago to only allow Union Contractors to bid on their projects. I firmly believe that is wrong as I pay taxes also. Makes you wonder if there isn't some kind of kick backs going on like in a neighboring city where the City Council Men got caught with kick backs.

murph