United Way: An Organization for Charities Across the Nation and Around the World
The United Way is a conduit for funding for charities across the nation and around the world. The organization is not a charity in itself but is rather an umbrella organization for various charities by gathering funds from donors and then dispensing the funds to thousands of different charities. The organization consists of 1,350 individual units providing grants to some 43,000 charities (Barrett). Along with other charitable organizations, the United Way has encountered criticism of the way it raises funds and the way it disperses those funds, with controversy over the amount of funds raised versus the percentage dispersed to charities, the possibility of charitable funds going to terrorist organizations, concerns raised about specific charities and services, and so on. The United Way remains, however, an important organization and one that can be trusted to provide grants to a wide variety of needy charities and so to the people those charities are intended to help. A financial scandal at United Way followed similar problems with other nonprofits, raising questions about the leadership of these types of organization. The amount of compensation paid to CEOs in this sector was the source of much of the problem, and the pre
The United Way serves an important function in diverting charitable contributions to the various programs and charities that need the funds. The organization has the particular task of gathering donations from a variety of sources on a regular basis and has been doing so for decades before now increasing its reach through the use of an electronic pledge system. In terms of the scandal that threatened the organization in the 1990s, that issue produced reform and a new commitment that needs to be respected. The United Way today faces the same issues confronting other charities, including being subject to the vagaries of the economy and perhaps being a conduit for money to charities that are not charitable, including some that may fund terrorists. Such possibilities are no more than minor problems, however, and do not cast doubt on the organization as a whole any more than it does on the charitable spirit. The United Way deserves support for the good it achieves as well as help to do even more. The new leader is also calling for greater accountability and for having each unit reconsider the reason for the existence of the organization (Wolverton 6-10). fÞ Reduce duplication by polling resources from more local United Ways to save money in health insurance and pensions, eliminate jobs, and increase online fund raising In 2004, the new president of United Way of America set out to reshape the system. Among the changes he wants to make are the following: A fall in donations often spurs United Way units to merge in order to pool resources and serve their populations better. This happened, for instance, in 2004 when United Way Community Services in Detroit and United Way of Oakland County in Pontiac, Michigan noted that donations had fallen 25 percent over the previous two years. One of the prime methods for gathering donations for United Way is some form of workplace fund-raising drive. A union of the two would create a regional agency, maintaining a degree of local control while serving a larger area from one office ("Uniting the United Ways" 8). The United Way also experienced concerns in the post-9-11 world as some critics claimed that it was funding terrorists by giving grants to certain or
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Approximate Word count = 1499
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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