I remeber years ago when I worked for Western Union, my supervisor tried to get me to donate some of my paycheck to The United Way. I told her no, that I give to my church and I am happy enough with that. A lot of these big charities have a lot of bureaucratic expenses. Fogettabouddit!
Plus if they take united way money they are not supposed to have any additional fund raisers. Most do anyway.
I worked for a law firm that boasted 100% employee participation in the United Way campaign....which wasn’t right because I never donated to it. UW is a corrupt organization, a conglomerate of charities. If I want to give to a specific charity, I’ll do so directly. I don’t need UW to filter my donation for me.
My brother, now retired, worked for the electric company. He said that while technically, donations to the United Way were voluntary, it was common for those who did not donate to be passed over for promotions. Illegal, but I don’t think anyone who was denied a promotion on this basis was ever able to prove that this was the reason.
I would put the United Way #1 on any list of “worst charities” due to the way they infiltrate companies and encourage managers to strong-arm their employees.