.......All the money you give goes directly to the organization you designate, in this case DAN, but it's actually a paper shuffle. I'll give you an example. I have no idea what the actual figures may be and I'm inventing organizations other than DAN and United Way/CFC, but this is the way the scam, er... I mean.. ah... system operates.
Imagine United Way/CFC is only donating to 3 groups (for ease of illustration, they actually give to a very large number of groups); DAN, The Association of Ambulance Chasing Attorneys, and the Home for indigent and superannuated pickpockets, prostitutes, panhandlers, piemen, priggers and other unworthy poor starting with "P" (extra credit if you know where I stole the last one). Let's say, for sake of argument, United Way/CFC's total budget is $1,000,000. Assuming an operating expense of 15% (again, I have no idea, it could be higher or lower), they would take $150,000 off the top, leaving $850,000 to split up. Now, we know there are lots of attorneys running around, so we'll need a big chunk of cash for them, there are even more pickpockets, prostitutes, panhandlers, etc., so they'll need even more money. There aren't very many divers, so they'll get a smaller share. Let's assume in the split PPP gets 50%, attorneys get 30% and DAN gets 5%. That would breakdown as PPP $500,000, attorneys $300,000 and DAN $50,000. Now let's assume everyone on this board decided to donated to United Way/CFC and we all designated DAN to receive our gifts. Let's further assume that our total donation equals $50,000. You'd think the numbers would remain the same except the total budget would now be $1,050,000 and DAN would now get $100,000. That's what everyone assumes, but it's not what happens. With the extra 50 grand, the breakdown would be United Way/CFC takes $157,500. PPP now gets $525,000, attorneys now get $315,000 and DAN now gets $52,500. How can that be? DAN was going to get $50,000, we donated an extra $50,000 and all of it was to go to DAN, why didn't it? It did. Every dime of the $50,000 we donated went to DAN. On top of that United Way/CFC kicked in an extra $2,500. Money designated to charities are first money. They took $47,500 dollars donated by folks that did not designate away from DAN and used it elsewhere. They do exactly what they say, but they don't tell you exactly what they do unless you dig. They will admit this, but they won't volunteer the information and they won't explain what first money means unless you know what to ask. They will tell DAN that dear Greg donated $1,000 to them so DAN will know who to thank and for how much.
I'd suggest sending the money directly to DAN, but it's your money.
Walter