The United Way

[Giggle Goose]

I don't think Mr. Rum would get in trouble for not filling out the forms to donate for the upcoming year, and I don't think they care if he doesn't fill them out. There are, however, certain organizations we both would like to contribute to.

Oh, the dreaded CFC campaign!!! I think I am going to stop giving this year since I've learned that a pretty large chunk of my donations go to "administrative expenses" and not directly to the charity.

Don't even get me started on United Way. For one of my classes we read a study on a tax incentive that Arizona used to encourage charitable LOCAL donations. Think it was back in the early 2000s. Surprise, surprise, guess who got the most money? Since they could prove they provided benefits to Arizona residents, UW was considered an eligible organization under the program. Abstract here:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/1...430.x/abstract

The local mom and pop ones didn't get much at all. It's pretty hard when they're up against Super Bowl ad campaigns.

[draco664]

I like this idea, too. And it seems to work.

But you're still taking a risk of not getting paid back

Yep, when you have a kiva page, you get to see in your loan statistics how many loans are delinquent, and how many have defaulted.

[goes and checks]

Right now, the average kiva user has 3.25% of their outstanding loan balance delinquent, and 1.13% defaulted.

That's less than the loan default rates on major banks in Australia, which has one of the most regulated banking systems in the world.

I'd say the idea works very well.

[senor boogie woogie]

Howdy!~

I am a new member on this board and am glad to be here! I was referred to this website by another forum called customerssuck.com.

I HATE the United Way.(or UW.) A seething visceral hate.

Back in the 1990's, I was a casino dealer for Harrah's Entertainment in Tunica, Mississippi, a huge multibillion dollar casino corporation (that now owns three casinos in that market) that really sucked to work for. The pay, the hours, their ridiculous corporate culture. Most of us front line employees were making less than $8 per hour. I started in security and made $7.50/hr. Then I became a card dealer and was paid $4.25 (minimum) plus tips, which probably came out to about $10 an hour. The floormen, pit bosses and the like made between 35-40K a year. Not too bad money, but if you have a family to feed and educate, and a house to make payments on, that 40K still runs thin, even in Mississippi.

Harrah's were (and I am sure are) partners in the UW. When they came around, I politely refused to give them money. Why? Because I was only making about $20K a year. Not only that, I paid something called taxes, and social security. I wanted to keep what was left of my meager paycheck. I have bills too. I also believe that by my spending my money, I am doing my part to keep someone employed, which means that they dont need charity. Part of my taxes took care of lots of people without means of caring for themselves (not well, but do.).

One evening, I was going on break and was approached by my immediate supervisor, a young guy my age. He was something called a dual/rate which meant he was a junior supervisor who also did my job as required and was about a half a peg above me.

He talked to me and BEGGED me, yes, BEGGED ME to contribute. Please, please, please, please. The thing is that UW and Harrah's wanted everyone to contribute to UW. The GM sent the word to the shift managers, to the floor supervisors, to the employee supervisors that everyone must give to UW.
It was that supervisor's task that everyone give something, or it would reflect badly on him. Harrah's was big about TEAM PLAYERS.

Finally (because he was a nice guy) I said OK and gave up the minimum, which was $2 a week. Giving the minimum did not help my career there because it showed that I begrudgingly did this, and did as little as I could.

This really rattled me on so many levels.

* The Corporation who enters this scheme with the UW gets a huge tax break. This is the only reason they would do this. So here I am, making minimum wage, helping Harrah's, a billion dollar conglomerate secure a tax break.

* UW more often than not, enter workplaces with a lot of low paid employees, people who want to be promoted within the company, or people who do not want to "rock the boat" so to speak. Companies want "team players", and by not giving to the UW means the opposite of being a "team player". There is a form to sign, which is kept on file, probably in my employee file. The more you give, the more you are seen as a good employee.

Recently, in Memphis, a supermarket company named Shnucks (or Shmucks, let's call them that.) decided to sell off some of their stores to Kroger while shuttering 2 or 3 unprofitable stores. I was reading in the newspaper about one of the stores closing and in the end of the article, it was mentioned that these, again, low wage employees gave contributions to the UW, and even did a fundraiser for the UW on their own time. Some of these front line employees gave several hundred to over a thousand dollars a year to the UW. Personally, I think that the UW should help them and refund them their money. I mean, that's the general idea of a charity, to help those in need, isn't it?

About a year ago, the head of the local UW in my city retired and the newspaper stated that contributions to the UW risen from 2008 to 2010. Where did that money come from? There was an economic crash in 08', which deepened in 2009 and 2010. So where did the money come from? Simple. It came from workers who are desperate not to lose their jobs. Giving whatever amount to the UW every month is a hedge to keeping the job. On the comments line of the story, I said just that. Unfortunately, the newspaper is pro-UW and my post was eventually deleted. Other posters agreed with me, while one was pro-UW or worked for the UW and said I would, quote "eat my words" if one day I was on the outs and needed them. Well, since I don't know who in the hell UW gives their monies too, I wont know if they have helped me or not, and besides, UW is not in the helping business, but the money business.

*UW is not a charity, they are a "middle man", getting the money from the workers and the (tax dodging) corporation, taking a cut for themselves and then deciding which charity the UW decides to give (OUR) money too. The contributor has no say in where the money goes to, or who benefits from it.

* Several UW bigwigs have been arrested and convicted of stealing/embezzling UW funds for their own use. William Aramony (wiki him) in 1992 was convicted of 25 felony counts and did 6 years in prison. Before Aramony was arrested, he was making $390,000 a year(20 years ago), while being chauffered around. There was another case of another UW boss who was caught stealing, the money spent on her horses. This is from 2003.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/06/us...way-theft.html

*UW knows that they are unpopular with lots and lots of workers over their legalized, unethical fundraising and guard themselves from criticism quite well. Anything I read positive about UW, I tell the truth and they dont like it and sometimes delete me.


__________________________________________________ __

What can be done about the UW?

1.) There was internet in the mid 1990's, but not like it is today with the social networking. Most people, even working people have an e-mail address and a computer. People can rally around online and decide as a group to refuse the UW. If everyone, or a vast majority of workers refuse to give them money or use their free time for them, the UW might go away. Refuse to put your name or sign their forms.

2.) I would like to start an e-mail campaign to the 50 State Attorney Generals and the Federal A.G. about UW, to see if there is a way to get them out of our workplaces. Call it the Employee Charity Protection Act, which would make soliciting funds from corporations to employees illegal.

3.) E-mail the director of your local UW and express your opinions on their collections. Spam them. Call them names. As for their financials. They are a tax exempt charity, it should be public record, produce it. E-Mail these people (I have already started). If hundreds and then thousands and then tens of thousands of people slammed their e-mail, it will slow them down.

4.) Give to charity! Cool by me. We dont need a UW anymore. Find a charity you want to give online and give.

Lastly, (I promise) one of the only good laws that George W. Bush signed was the Telemarketing Act, which required "No Call Lists" and restraints on that dubious industry. It passes in the Senate unanimously. From the most conservative Republican to the leftie Democrat, all voted yes on this. Probably this law was the culmination of years of grassroots efforts from citizens to do something about tele-annoyers who could do what they wanted because it wasn't illegal. Well, the same can be done with the f'ing United Way. if thousands, tens of thousands and upwards of people call and write their elected reps about them, eventually something can be done.