United Way and the workplace

In the US, many workplaces have a yearly United Way drive where they get you to sign up to give a certain amount of each paycheck to this "charitable" organization. I think you can give as much or as little as you want, though most people usually choose to donate $1-5 per paycheck. I believe people can also make a one-time donation only if they so choose.

I personally do not partake in this for a number of reasons.

For one, the United Way has been caught mishandling money in the past, and it's been shown that a lot of the money people give to these supposedly charitable organizations never goes to what is claimed.

But more than that, I hate the workplace mentality that comes along with giving to this organization, where people feel pressured into donating out of fear they might be looked down upon by their employers if they don't. It's almost like a gauge for conformity and political correctness. Most people wouldn't sign up to donate on their own accord, but when they're confronted directly by one of their "superiors" at work, their phony side gives in and they capitulate to donating.

Why do people succumb to the pressure so easily just because it deals with work? Are they fearful that their employers might retaliate, or that people might think less of them if they don't contribute? I don't know, but I find the whole thing to be slightly annoying.

Thoughts/opinions on this matter?
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Where I work, people participate I all kinds of things because they don't people to think less of them. United Way is one of those things.

I don't participate for various reasons.

 

I dont think they have that where i work.

Something similar that kidna annoys me is people who stand infront of stores asking for donations for whatever charity it is.

I mean.. i could go stand infront of walmart with a box asking for donations for the boys and girls club or something.

hard to tell if these people are scamming or not

 

they did, or they still have it at my work - i really don't remember lol. there's no pressure to do it though. it's one of those boxes you check off when where selecting our yearly benefits, and the only people that know are whomever in HR that goes through the form and yourself (and whoever else you want to disclose your choices to).

i don't do it. i have my charitable giving organizations, so no need to remove a couple dollars from my pay check.

i do know that my co-worker had a pretty hard time unsubscribing from it though. multiple calls and what not just to stop them from taking the money

 

Yeah, once you join its almost impossible to unsubscribe - like those Time-Life books


Hotwater

 

I think when you donate per paycheck, it lasts for about a year, unless you sign back up again the following year. Every year, the HR person where I work devotes an entire day to getting people to sign up or resubscribe to donate to the United Way. So it seems it would be a yearly thing. Maybe some workplaces do it differently, though.

 

i'd have to ask him about the details.. we had this convo about 3 1/2 years ago, at least.

 

Employers are under tremendous pressure within the local business community to participate in the annual drive and reach specific goals, and I pass that pressure along to my employees. I don't care to take the heat on their behalf.

Instead of contributing to the United Way's general fund, employees can specify that their money go to one or more specific charities that are a part of the UW. They can directly contact those charities and request audited and certified financial statements every year. The UW has a lot of member charities covering a wide variety of causes, so most people have no trouble finding one that interests them.

I don't hear any complaints about it around the office. If they don't like the UW, it never gets back to me.

 

My workplace started donating to united way this year. They offered some stupid incentive..if my memory is correct I think they provided lunch for every department with 100% participation. But there wasn't really any pressure because the whole process was done through a link in our email so there was no way of finding out who didn't participate.

I didn't realize it was a thing for employees to do this though

 

Trust me, they have ways of finding out. Everything you do on a company computer or any computer logged into a corporate web site is tightly monitored. Some people find that out the hard way.

 

I meant my fellow coworkers, I know upper management and hr has access to it.

 

no thanks..charities are for rich people to throw money at..not me

 

i never saw it until my current job. it kind of perplexes me here; we are pushed to donate money to the united way, and then the united way donates money to us. why not just cut out the middleman and have us donate to ourselves?

 

+1 :2thumbsup:

 

I've known about a few really shit employers in really shit jobs where there's a culture of pressuring in to charities.
1stly, the donations are often listed as "by the company" which I think is disgusting in the extreme.
2nd, its often via silly, juvenile events designed to create some atmosphere of "false happiness" joviality ie masking the overwhelming fact that its a truly horrible, exploitative environment.
3rd, its mindgames. As if to say "You think your job is shit, stop moaning and look at this lot in Africa". When the reality is "the job is shit, because of some greedy ignorant bastards at management/director level, and nothing whatsoever to do with some war zone in Africa".

Wouldn't surprise me if the bosses are on a commission. (This is legal in England and charity reps don't even declare it) There are numerous disgusting loopholes in the charity laws - like private schools count as "charities".

People should just say "No, I do my own thing".

 

Mindgames and salaries I suspect.

PS USAID (and its foreign equivs) must rank as one of the most fucked up so called "charities" in the World. What sort of charity overthrows democracies so US military bases can be installed?

 

That is exactly the way the totals are listed, and it matters greatly in the local business community. Every company is ranked by dollars and percentages, and business leaders from underperforming companies are treated like dirt for the rest of the year.

I don't know how they manage to pull this off year after year, because most business leaders are hardcore conservatives, and the majority of UW charities are liberal. In fact, the most frequent reasons given for not participating is that people don't want their money going to charities that don't "honor Jesus Christ" and that they want to boycott any organization that has any kind of ties to Planned Parenthood.

Most business owners that I know would rather see that money go to the NRA, but we all live in the same pressure cooker, so nearly all of them conform.

Don't know how it is in the UK, but most UW money in the US stays in the local region. And if somebody wants to specify that their money goes to a specific organization instead of into the UW general fund, they can check with that charity to see how much they use locally, and what they send back to their own national organization, if they have one.

Personally, I like the international charities, especially the ones who help people in countries that have been harmed by predatory business practices by first world multinational corporations.

 

I work for a locally owned restaurant, so we don't have any sort of thing like that. The only charity I rarely ever turn down donations to is the Children's Miracle Network. If it weren't for them, my family wouldn't have been able to afford the medical care for my premature brother. The Ronald McDonald House is also a favorite charity of mine, but I don't see people gathering money for them very often.

 

I've never worked for a place that had a partnership with the UW.

But, I've experienced something similar in grocery check out lines. The Cashier asks something like: "Would you like to donate to the Jimmy Fund?"

It's awkward, because the cashier and other customers can hear your answer. It transforms the motive for giving from a genuine charitable feeling into a social pressure.

Or, even worse. One grocery store used to give out little scratch tickets where you could win money or groceries if you won. So, donate to a charity, get a scratch ticket. I overheard someone scratching a ticket. They didn't win any of the prizes and said: "Dammit, why do I even bother buying these tickets?!!?"

Um...to donate money to kids with cancer, fucktard. Not so you can win.

So, ultimately I think that these schemes change the function of "giving" behavior. Where it should be that donating money in itself is the purpose of the behavior, it turns the function into social pressure of some other contrived thing.

 

i don't feel pressured to donate to those things at the grocery cashier.

all they ever get from me is an automatic "aahhhh, no thanks."

honestly, i just don't like donating my money


i've never had this united way thing at work. but i wouldn't donate if i did

people are always asking for donations for something. with social media it's gotten worse.