United Way VS BSA

[Scoutmaster Ron 12]

Next Monday is my company's schedule time do pledges, does anyone have any creative statements or questions to ask the UA rep?

[Eamonn 61]

Our council covers two counties and we deal with two United Way offices. Of the four Districts in the Council on one has a foot in both counties. Yes the one that I serve.

Both still donate to our Scouting programs. One gives us a substantial amount, the other is less than $5,000. For the $5k, they require annual paperwork and are always looking for something. Gift Baskets, or people to man UW events. But $5k is a lot of money. They are so busy doing stuff that they never have time to do anything. The shame is that they serve the poor county. The County that has more special need units than the other one.

The other UW agency is really nice. They have not increased the amount that they give us for about 3 years. Not because of anything political, just because they are having a tough time. They have cut funding to local libraries, as they for some reason no longer meet some requirement that I don't as yet understand. I have invited people from their staff to talk to the District Committee and they have come to the meeting and explained how they see volunteering and the future of volunteering. There was a lot of good stuff in what they presented and it did get the little gray cells working. While most of what they do is done at the Council level, I invited them mainly because they have lists of people that are useful for the District.

I do know that not everyone has the same relationship with the UW as we are lucky enough to have.

The Company that I work for is based in another County.So I have to write in the code that is needed to get that money back to our council. There is a lot of hoopla when the United Way kicks off in our company, there are goals and prizes and drawings. There always seems to be some new hot place that gets more attention than all of the others. After 9/11. It was that. We have had Breast Cancer, but somehow finding the BSA is like hard work, finding the code for a out of county Council is even harder.

I don't know how the United Way runs things, I think each agency is slightly different. If I were really anti something I think I would ask how much do they give to that? And where is that funding coming from?

Eamonn.

[fotoscout 15]

Yes, I do!

 

Ask him for the details supporting their claims of how much of the donated money actually goes to the organizaions they claim to support.

 

I forget what the published number is, but I for one don't believe it. I think UW is a scam. Anyone that has seen their edifice on the banks of the Potomac will agree.

 

If you want to give your money to Scouting, then write a check to your Council Office.(This message has been edited by fotoscout)

[NJCubScouter 1389]

Ron, why ask him/her anything? If you want to contribute to the BSA through United Way, you can just designate your funds accordingly. It's my understanding that all United Ways permit that, even ones (like the one in my county) that have "disqualified" the local BSA council from receiving any "discretionary" funding. Or you can always do as fotoscout suggests and contribute directly, though I understand there are employers who may put pressure on their employees to participate in United Way, so that may be a factor in the other direction.

 

As for fotoscout's general statement about what the United Way takes out of your contribution for its own operations, I don't know whether they take too much or not, but I do know that they provide an "economy of scale" that each individual recipient organization may not have. At the level we are talking about, fund-raising costs money. Each organization has to decide whether it could raise the amount of money it gets from United Way (plus the United Way's "cut"), at an equal or lower cost than the United Way takes out of the contributions. In most cases, the answer is probably no. (Some of the larger BSA councils might be able to do it, and they might do it now, for all I know. However, I am sure a lot of smaller organizations could not do it.)

[berkshirescouter 11]

NJ is right.

You can give to BSA through UW even if no money is directly given to BSA by UW. But it may depend on how the local UA does it.

I heard about this a year or so ago; A BSA council was cut off of UA funding but allowed pass through. The amount sent this way was so high that UW asked for some of the money for its own programs. I think the council said no. Can anyone verify this?

[LovetoCamp 9]

Take the money and give it directly to your council's James West endowment fund. Or better yet, take some money and gift a life insurance policy to your council. Or better even yet, buy a GREAT BIG HUGE life insurance policy, gift it to your council, and create your own endowment.

 

 

[Bob White 20]

Rarely are the people who do the presentations the same people who set the local UW policies or determine the distributions. Grilling them will only creat anymosity toward the program.

 

Find out who is on the UW Board that determines distribution and contact them. express in positive terms your support for the BSA or specific other programs that you wnat to see your money support. Let them know that the amount of your donation is directly related to seeing the programs that you endorse get support from the UW.

That will make a much more powerful impact that grilling a volunteer presenter.

 

Yes, pass through programs are available but the UW takes a hefty administrative fee from those donations, the exact amount varies from chapter to chapter.

 

 

 

 

[Scoutmaster Ron 12]

What I dont understand about UW is are they seperatly ran? I hear all the time this UW not supporting scouts and then this one does each UW decide on this?

[Bob White 20]

Each UW chapter is an independent body which can make decisions based on the needs and characteristics of the community it serves, It is musch like a BSA Council.

 

It pays a portion of the money collected to the national office which is responsible for training, marketing tools, methodology, trademark ownership, and the like.

 

Each local chapter has a professional director and staff that do the everyday administration. Again much like a BSA council. It then has a number of volunteer committees that do much of the actual work.

 

Hope this helps.

BW

[sylmore 10]

Our UW chapter no longer sponsors our local Council based on a mutual agreement considering the disagreement regarding inclusiveness (Homosexual leaders.) Since our company was pushing for employee participation, I did a *write in* for our BSA council. Only after I heard the UW takes admin fees from the pledge, I didn't realize that previously. The UW Chapter president is paid $194K/yr, that was another surprise to me.

[NWScouter 9]

Our Council is in five counties and there are four United Ways. The two largest no longer give money to the Scouts out of the general drive, the other two are small and give us a little. They do pass through contributions if you name the Council. The United Way in the larger county to the south of us will give us money if they name our Council but if you just say Boy Scout then the other Council gets it.

There have been times when presenters have been asked if the United Way gives to the Boy Scouts. They said yes but then didnt say you had to name the Boy Scouts. It seems a little underhanded as they leave the impression that they give to Boy Scouts out of the general fund.

A few years back the United Way would set an amount for Boy Scouts say $25,000. When people would designate Boy Scouts, they would still only give $25,000 unless the amount designated is greater than $25, 000.

 

[drkellogg 10]

I disagree with the strong-arm tactics of United Way. My parents and other people I've known have been basically bullied into donating. Also, does anyone else remember a big scandal back 15 yrs. or so, where one of the executives of UW ran off with some money?

 

I prefer to donate through FOS.

[Twocubdad 665]

My father and I have an on-going disagreement over this one. He has held every possible post in the local UW and is deep into the regional stuff, too. Despite his involvement, our council taking money from UW is like making a deal with the devil. I'd like to see us tell them no thanks and step up our community FOS program. Something like that may be in the works. Our council recently announced a capital campaign for next year. Part of the money is to be put into the council's endowment. Interestingly, at 10% the endowment amount will generate income equal to our current UW allocations. Sounds like someone downtown is on the ball....

 

Over the past three years our UW grant has been cut in half. Nothing political, always "just because." Two years ago UW was 12% under their goal. For some reason BSA took an 18% cut to help make up the difference. Now our funding is down to an amount equal to our Scout Reach budget.

 

Because we still take money from them, we have to jump through all their hoops. One rule is that you can't lobby folks to make directed contributions. If we could, I suspect that BSA could generate contributions far exceeding our current allocation. How they handle directed contributions is a sham. Specifying that your dontation goes to BSA doesn't increase our allocation. I have a dad in our pack who designated his $2500 contribution go to the council. Although "his money" is theoretically sent to the council, the council won't get any more because of him. I suggested that next year he make his contribution directly to FOS, but he said he is "required" by his company to make the contribution through UW.

 

Another rip-off is that UW allows people to designate funds to non-UW agencies. These agencies get the actual dollars that are designated to them, less the vigorish UW keeps. If I can designate my money to the Left-handed Dwarf Scholarship Fund and have them get the money, why doesn't designating money to BSA count?

 

As I write this, it occurs to me that someone could designate their UW contribution to the "Pack 1 FOS Fund." Because the fund isn't a regular UW agency, they would send Pack 1 a check, less their cut. We could then send the contribution to the council at FOS time. Any of you who work with UW know any reason why this wouldn't work?

[Bob White 20]

The UW does not send money to an organization just because you name them. That group still has to prove their validity as a registered 501-c roganization.

[BadenP 93]

There is another fact no one has mentioned, Bob hinted at it though, UW takes 25 cents of every dollar for administrative costs. Your money will go a lot further if you contribute directly to your council or FOS campaigns. A friend who works for UW told me that even if you request your money to a specific organization if their UW quota has been reached they will allocate your contribution to another group. That is just plain poor business practice, if not illegal. I have cut all my ties to UW and contribute directly to FOS.