United Way & DAN

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Greg G.

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If you work for a corporation and like me every year have to fight with the arm-twisting company goons about giving to United Way, I found a great way to get them off your back and help DAN. Did you know you can give to ANY 501(c)(3) organization and have it go DIRECTLY to that organization? That's right! You do NOT have to support exhorbitant and corrupt execs of United Way, just designate that the money is to go to DAN (Diver's Alert Network). It does not pass go, it does not collect in the pockets of United Way execs. You no longer have to fight with the company "yes men" bozos, and you help DAN to boot! Cool, eh?
 
That would be a great idea EXCEPT the United Way/CFC has a budget. In that budget they designate $X to agency A, $Y to agency B, $Z to agency C, etc. If you like agency A, but are philosophically opposed to agencies B & C you can, as suggested designate all your contribution ($N) to go to agency A and that's exactly what will happen. Now, how does that effect the United Way budget? Well you'd think agency A would receive $X + $N. Makes perfect sense, but that's not what happens. Agency A still gets $X, agency B still gets $Y and agency C still gets $Z. How can they do that? Well, your contribution is the "first" money to go to agency A. They send $N (your contribution) to agency A, then suppliment it until it equals $X. In other words, agency A gets EXACTLY the same amount regardless of you making a donation to the general fund or you designate it to a specific agency. It's how they trick us into feeling good about donating to the many non-charitable funds which receive United Way money. I suggest letting the company goons complain while you write a check directly to DAN (or what ever other charitable cause you believe in). I never participate in United Way/CFC for that reason.

Walter
 
I donate $100 each month to several charities. I write them a check and drop it in the mail. That way I know ALL the money I send goes directly to them without going through a middle man (United Way) who takes their cut.

I have never donated to United Way and I never will.
 
Wait a minute, this is beginning to sound like rocket science. I don't doubt what your saying, but if in fact my funds are being siphoned off by United Way, why do I get an acknowledgement from DAN stating the exact amount that I have given via United Way?
 
.......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
 
I see. So via some fancy paper shuffling, I have been in fact still paying for the bloated fat-cat salaries of United Way execs! You burst my bubble, but I thank you for it!

I HEREBY RETRACT MY ORIGINAL POST. (I know this board let's me just delete it, but I'll leave it in case there are others like me who were conned!)
 
Although Walter is correct in his description of the donor choice program generally, donations to DAN through the United Way don't work that way. DAN is not a United Way recipient and as such does not have a United Way budget. DAN is, however, an eligible recipient of funds. Any money you give to DAN via the United Way/CFC/ECCC goes directly to DAN. The ECCC/CFC monthly payment option provides a convenient mechanism for donating money to DAN.

I have been donating via CFC/ECCC for two decades. I also do some of the strong-arming referenced in the above posts. I think this is important work. Yes, they probably pay their CEO too much. The vast majority of the money, however, goes to needy and deserving organizations.

If no one asks, most people won't give money to charity. I ask.

 
Here's an idea, why don't we start our own charity, like
"The Underprivileged Diver of the U.S.". Then we could skim 15% off the top of the donations & travel anywhere looking for more underprivileged divers! I vote for Walter as CEO.
 
Great idea, I like it! I think I would easily qualify as a "needy diver".
 
Hmmm... I retract my retraction? I guess the bottom line is I send $X a month to DAN via United Way. Every quarter DAN sends me an acknowledgement stating they got every penny. I also participate in DAN's seasonal fund raisers and use the company's matching funds program, which is separate from United Way. If somehow United Way has figured out a way to skim from my contribution, oh well, it's still a few $ DAN didn't have before and frankly, I still think it's worth it to get the arm-twisters out of my face. To be fair about it, it's the national organization of United Way that has had a long-standing reputation for being corrupt, to the point that some of the local chapters at one point stopped sending their dues to the national organization.

Nothing personal in my rants about "company goons", but I think they can find better ways of encouraging people to participate rather than using intimidation and trying to embarass people. One example of tactics I resent: During one the fund drives, everybody who participated had their cubicle decorated with ribbons and balloons and a stupid little certificate saying "I gave". I did not, and I stuck out like a sore thumb and felt like a creep. I also resented having to turn in the form saying I wasn't going to participate. Why do they need to know who is NOT participating? They only need to know who IS participating!
 
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