I always remember the combined federal campaign from when I was in the service. Every command wanted to have 100% participation - so just to prevent harassment and harsh looks from the old man I would look through the booklet find an org I was ok with that had the lowest administrative costs and donate $1.
Had a few companies post-service that did something similar with the United Way campaigns. Those I always refused for exactly the reasons you mentioned.
Actually had one manager that said he would put in the money for me and I told him and HR point blank that it wouldn’t be under my name and pointed to the ridiculous overhead costs. They were displeased to say the least.
Very rotten. Why the heavy pressure from above, and to United Way? Some kind of kickbacks or what?