From: owner-lucy-list-digest@smoe.org (lucy-list-digest) To: lucy-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: lucy-list-digest V6 #169 Reply-To: lucy-list@smoe.org Sender: owner-lucy-list-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-lucy-list-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk lucy-list-digest Sunday, November 21 2004 Volume 06 : Number 169 In this issue: [lucy-list] My UNITED WAY contribution [lucy-list] My UNITED WAY contribution ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 20 Nov 2004 09:57:49 -0500 From: "Phil Garner" Subject: [lucy-list] My UNITED WAY contribution MNJack@aol.com wrote: My boss asked me to contribute to the United Way this year so our department could have 100% participation. Without going off on a rant about how I dislike being pressured to give and especially about the United Way, I was very pleased to see on our company website I had the option of designating a percentage of my donation to a specific charity. I entered "Half the Sky Foundation" in the search box, and it popped right up! So I was easily able to designate a portion of my donation to Lucy's favorite charity. :) Phil G here If you understood how the United Way works then your :) would be turned to :( ! The United Way is dishonest about designated funds; very very few people know about this and wind up misled. The United Way calls it "first dollars in" when it comes to funds for designated agencies. Here's how it works: "Unless designated funds for a specific agency exceed the United Way's allocated dollars for that agency then there is zero effect on how the money is allocated to all agencies. If designated funds exceed the allocation then the effect is only the amount that exceeded the allocation, not the complete amount." Think about it, it is quite rare that designated funds made any difference at all. Making matters worse, all United Way agencies must report to the United Way all private contributions they receive and those contributions have direct impact on what percentage of United Way funds are allocated to each agency. Agencies with large amounts of private contributions receive relatively less from the United Way and agencies with small amounts of private contributions receive relatively more from the United Way. In effect those private contributions were contributed to the United Way general pot of money. If the agencies do not report their private contributions then the United Way kicks them off the field of play. The United Way is essentially in control of all contributions made to all United Way agencies; they say how much each agency gets with a very heavy hand. A couple years ago I did a speech about the United Way to a civic club of which I am a member. That speech was well researched and carefully worded. About a week before giving the speech I sent a copy of the speech to the top executive at the United Way in my city. He called me and we discussed it at length. He told me that my facts were accurate, every t crossed and every i dotted, but that he did not agree with my conclusions about the heavy handedness and dishonesty of the United Way. After giving that speech I became aware of how much big companies support the United Way and how much small companies dislike the United Way. Some small companies do not participate at all for the very reasons I've noted in this post. Practically every big company participates because they're part of the "machine". Peace, Phil ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 20 Nov 2004 09:57:49 -0500 From: "Phil Garner" Subject: [lucy-list] My UNITED WAY contribution MNJack@aol.com wrote: My boss asked me to contribute to the United Way this year so our department could have 100% participation. Without going off on a rant about how I dislike being pressured to give and especially about the United Way, I was very pleased to see on our company website I had the option of designating a percentage of my donation to a specific charity. I entered "Half the Sky Foundation" in the search box, and it popped right up! So I was easily able to designate a portion of my donation to Lucy's favorite charity. :) Phil G here If you understood how the United Way works then your :) would be turned to :( ! The United Way is dishonest about designated funds; very very few people know about this and wind up misled. The United Way calls it "first dollars in" when it comes to funds for designated agencies. Here's how it works: "Unless designated funds for a specific agency exceed the United Way's allocated dollars for that agency then there is zero effect on how the money is allocated to all agencies. If designated funds exceed the allocation then the effect is only the amount that exceeded the allocation, not the complete amount." Think about it, it is quite rare that designated funds made any difference at all. Making matters worse, all United Way agencies must report to the United Way all private contributions they receive and those contributions have direct impact on what percentage of United Way funds are allocated to each agency. Agencies with large amounts of private contributions receive relatively less from the United Way and agencies with small amounts of private contributions receive relatively more from the United Way. In effect those private contributions were contributed to the United Way general pot of money. If the agencies do not report their private contributions then the United Way kicks them off the field of play. The United Way is essentially in control of all contributions made to all United Way agencies; they say how much each agency gets with a very heavy hand. A couple years ago I did a speech about the United Way to a civic club of which I am a member. That speech was well researched and carefully worded. About a week before giving the speech I sent a copy of the speech to the top executive at the United Way in my city. He called me and we discussed it at length. He told me that my facts were accurate, every t crossed and every i dotted, but that he did not agree with my conclusions about the heavy handedness and dishonesty of the United Way. After giving that speech I became aware of how much big companies support the United Way and how much small companies dislike the United Way. Some small companies do not participate at all for the very reasons I've noted in this post. Practically every big company participates because they're part of the "machine". Peace, Phil ------------------------------ End of lucy-list-digest V6 #169 ******************************* This has been a posting from the Lucy Kaplansky mail list digest To unsubscribe send mail to Majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe lucy-list-digest" in the body of the message