United Way strong arm tactics

[Cemetery-man]

We are "asked" to commit a dollar amount to be deducted from our paychecks and go the the UW. Luckily we are able to choose where the donation will go locally.

 

[Hoosierbuck]

Decline politely and then support your church or a real charity like the Wounded Warrior Project. (WoundedWarriorProject.org)
I recently worked with the WWP (I say that in the most general way) and found them to be top notch.
FYI-On my 40th birthday I walked 40 miles in 11 1/2 hours and just by hitting up friends and family raised over $3100 for the WWP. I encourage you to pick a charity you DO believe in and get involved. Then when people hit you up for some other outfit, you can decline with a smile and invite them to support your charity.

 

[Leadeye]

This stuff has been going on for years, corporate arrogance at it's best.

Highly paid UW executives hobnob with other corporate executives and sell them on the idea of extracting money from you to support UW. They would just strip the money from your check if that was legal, but instead pressure employees to "donate" the money. Lots of under the table pressure like denial of pay increase or promotion usually gets the job done.

Executives get thier egos massaged, UW gets rich and you pay. When they caught the head of UW flying his hookers around in private jets it was just business as usual.

 

[Suprtek]

Allowing the option of designating which charity your donation goes to doesn't make the united way any more appealing to me at all. Sure, they may send some funds in that direction, but it will be minus their cut as was mentioned earlier. If it is a charity you really care about, why would you use a middle-man to reduce their donation? Just send money directly and your chosen charity will get every dime.

I won't say the UW has never accomplished anything good. On the contrary, I'm certain many good things have been accomplished through their efforts.

IMO there is absolutely nothing wrong with donating to the UW if that is your choice. My gripe is about how they seem to be attempting to remove the "choice".

I'm curious if there have ever been any unjust consequences doled out to employees by over zealous employers and what the recourse may be for that employee.

 

[longbow]

Don't get me started on UW. They also use tricky accounting. It is a great job if you can get it. With real accounting methods between 25 and 40% of funds are burned up on overhead.

 

[longbow]

The gentleman at the Bloomington United Way is a prime example of why not to give to the group.

 

[fireball168]

If it is a charity you really care about, why would you use a middle-man to reduce their donation?

50% company matching

 

[longbow]

In 2007 our company gave $274,000 to UW. UW got greedy and upset alot of the workers. They tried some crazy stuf the next year and UW got $170,000.

Last year we added three more corporate choices plus UW and the total gift was $400,000 to all four. UW got $40,000 of that total.

This year will be horrible for UW at our company. People are sick of the way they work.

 

[Suprtek]

50% company matching

Point taken. That makes perfect sense. It still doesn't validate their questionable tactics.

 

[Suprtek]

Just an update:

Apparently my boss finally realized it wouldn't do any good to ask me about again this year. The form was due yesterday. I was right there when he was collecting them and he never said a word to me.

 

[Caleb]

"I should give not because I have to, but because I want to" - Caleb J Drake



Imho, nobody should be bullied into giving their blood, sweat, and tears if they don't want to. I always thrown mine away and never gave a dime, and nobody can make me.

 

[E'villeGunner]

It used to be that way at work, pressured to give/sign up for the auto deduction from paycheck. But for several yrs now, no pressure. Personally I haven't given to United Way for probably the last 20 yrs or so. I prefer to give to the specific charities that I want to support and only those! Besides, most of my giving is done at church anyhoo.

 

[hodgej1843]

YA MY COMPANY WANTS 100% COOPERATION FROM THE COMPANY....I GIVE 5.00 A CHECK I THINK.NOT TO MUCH.GUESS IT HELPS OUT PEOPLE WHO REALLY NEED IT

 

[Indyhd]

YA MY COMPANY WANTS 100% COOPERATION FROM THE COMPANY....I GIVE 5.00 A CHECK I THINK.NOT TO MUCH.GUESS IT HELPS OUT PEOPLE WHO REALLY NEED IT

That $5.00 a week come up to about $250 a year which some underprivledged young lady working long hours dancing around a pole in some loud seedy bar might really need. Heck, most of them can hardly afford clothes even.

Surely they need your donations more than those high paid UW execs.

 

[Indy317]

I have worked for two entities that do this. One is a major public university. I heard that decades back, they used to force people to go to a meeting, which was basically a sales pitch. The meeting was while you were working. However, the people in the university who were "in charge" of the giving that year would pressure folks in front of others to give. The more they go, the better they looked in the eyes of the Chancellor, vice Chancellors, deans, etc.. Now this university just distributes the form with info pre-printed. I don't give anything to UA. It is nothing more than a charity funding business. The executives at the top get paid way too much for being a "not-for-profit" or "charity."

When I worked for a big regional bank (now an even larger big regional bank), they asked you to donate one hour of pay for the year. If you did that, you ended up getting a floating holiday (eight hours) to take the following year. So basically you donated 12 hours of pay, but ended up getting paid eight hours at a later time and not having to be at work.

The entire thing sickens me, and I only gave when I worked at the bank and only because they gave me an additional paid day off and I didn't get much vacation. So it was a way to get another eight hours of time off if I needed it. It costs me four hours of pay, but at least it was there if I needed it. The university never got a dime. It was funny seeing our department, which was a big money department (lots of bosses who controlled the purse strings), be dead last when it came to giving. Obviously the Chancellor or some VP wrote out a huge check because a week or so later, our group had moved up considerably.