Posted on 10/19/2005 1:14:48 PM PDT by Axelay
I have tried to google for something of substance that would explain why corporate entities spend so much time and energy coming up with ways to 'persuade' employees to donate.
At my place of employment, it's common knowledge that the exec sitting in the corner office is going over the list of those who donate and those who do not making 'mental notes'.
Personally, I have never donated, and never will. The more they pressure me to do so, the more opposed to it I become.
I really want to know _why_ they try so hard. It has to be more than simple tax incentive, and you will never convince me that any corporate entity truly cares about who is helped and who isn't. If that were the case they would put forth similar efforts for things like storm aid, and the canned food drives and such, but they barely mention those.
Do they get kickbacks? Is the tax right-off really that attractive to them that they devote entire sections of HR to promote and track individual donations?
I got a personalized email (a form to be sure) prompting me to log on to a website to set up my donations ffs. There has to be more to this than meets the eye.
OH LOOKY!!! It's "Mr. Melbell" I talk about him all the time and HE finally came to check us out!!! :D
At any rate, the question he's asking is one we are both very curious about, as both of our places of employment are running United Way drives and I get funny looks because I didn't pay my $2 to have casual day today.
The one answer that almost certainly weighs into it is good PR, but you're right there's got to be more to it than that.
By the way, Welcome to FR.
I used to be a machinist at a large defense contractor and the personnel director came out and gave us his United Way speech at the end of which he said that if he raised x number of dollars he got dinner out. I thought it was a particularly stupid thing to say to a bunch of cynical machinists.
Some years later I had a boss whose higher ups were pushing for 100% contributions from the branches. When I refused, he gave a donation in my name.
I don't know how it's done now, but many years ago, I worked for a large electric utility now known as TXU. They began the United Fund drive by showing all the employees a tear jerk film about the plight of the poor. (we lost our coffee break if memory serves.) Their plan was titled "One day's pay the American Way." At the time, my husband had been drafted into the Army, I had to drop out of college to pay our bills. My day's pay was 13 dollars and 10 cents. I didn't refuse to give, but objected to signing the "pledge card" that would allow them to deduct it from my pay. I said I'd give it in cash. Reason: My religeous faith required acts of charity to be annonomous. I was threatened with termination since my boss and his company wouldn't be eligible for winning their name on a silver tray for having their employees 100%. I couldn't tell you how mad my boss was. The end of the campaign was celebrated with a PRAYER breakfast where the largest donor CEOs were feted with food and accolades for having fostered such generosity in their employees. I've never given them a dime since.
The partners were not pleased with me. It didn't matter to me because I knew I was right. My decision had no impact on my career. :-)
It would appear, from some friends of our's, that the incentive to push these drives is that the companies are given a goal by the United Way, and anything they collect above that amount, they are allowed to keep (without telling the donating employees, of course) or do with as they please.
Can anyone confirm this?
I used to have payroll deduction (reluctantly). That ended when the UW of San Francisco (where my money was going) decided to black-list the Boy Scouts. I immediately stopped my payroll deduction.
For the past 15+ years, I have written a check payable to BSA. I turn it in in the UW envelope. Each year I get a Thank You card from BSA. No one, at the company, has every complained. If they did, zero, zip, nada, $0.00 UW contribution.
I used to have payroll deduction (reluctantly). That ended when the UW of San Francisco (where my money was going) decided to black-list the Boy Scouts. I immediately stopped my payroll deduction.
For the past 15+ years, I have written a check payable to BSA. I turn it in in the UW envelope. Each year I get a Thank You card from BSA. No one, at the company, has every complained. If they did, zero, zip, nada, $0.00 UW contribution.
You think it's bad in the corporate world, you ought to work for the government. It's annoying as hell. What irks me is that so many employees use their regular work hours to get involved in the drive to get people to contribute. It seems wrong to make the taxpayers pay to have people do this. I have no problem with any employer providing a means for an employee to have money held back every paycheck for a charitable group of his or her own choosing, but to turn it into a program is ludicrous.
United Way is part of the U.N
IF the worker is charging to a government contract while working on United Way stuff, he/she is breaking the law and could go to jail. Seriously.
My old employer (a bank) used to put the strong-arm on all of its employees to donate. I told my boss he could look at my pay stub and take note of how much was already being deducted. I figured if it wasn't getting done on the large chunk I was already signing over to the Government, then the problem wasn't on my end.
I think all taxpayers ought to deduct at least $5.00 on their IRS form for the donated time. Certainly the employees time along with the expense to print the United Way forms using employees names should be considered a contribution in itself. Or are employers giving your names to the United Way to print the forms? Right!
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