From: Bruce E. Cobern (bec@PIPELINE.COM)
Date: Sat Sep 02 2000 - 10:23:46 CDT
> From: Scouts-L Youth Group List [mailto:Scouts-L@listserv.tcu.edu]On
> Behalf Of NayBlaine@CS.COM
> Sent: Saturday, September 02, 2000 10:43 AM
>
> And all of your contribution gets to BSA. United Way takes a cut
> to pay its own overhead (some of those UW execs get paid
> quite well).
This is true. No matter HOW a particular UW doles out its money, it FIRST
covers its overhead and only distributes the balance. It is a good idea,
with ANY charity, to find out what percentage of their donations actually
goes to their charitable work, as opposed to their overhead.
>
> A little known fact: Although a donor tells UW which charity gets his/her
> donation, it doesn't really affect how much gets to that charity. UW has
> already predetermined how the year's take will be distributed.
Well, my understanding is that this depends on the particular UW. Some
take the specifically allocated funds (after expenses) off the top and give
them to the designated charity, and then allocate the balance according to
their formulae, so your designation actually WILL increase the money going
to that organization.
Others allocate their money amongst their beneficiary organizations and the
specifically allocated funds are considered to be part of that allocation.
In this case, the designated organization only benefits if the total
specifically designated exceeds the allocation. In that case, I believe
most UW's that use this method will increase the allocation to that
organization to match the specifically allocated funds.
>
> I prefer having greater control over how my money is spent -- it
> goes to my church, to BSA, and little girls selling cookies.
Direct giving ALWAYS provides greater control, although it tends to benefit
a narrower group of organizations. UW allows you to support a broad
spectrum of organizations with one donation.
I, personally, do not give to UW. I prefer to target my donations to a
specific, limited, list of organizations, which I support.
--
Bruce E. Cobern
mailto:bec@pipeline.com
