Kudos to Reporter Kerry Hall and her colleagues at the Charlotte Observer for their expose on one of the most mismanaged United Ways in the country. That they had the journalistic courage to do so is good news. The bad news is that the Charlotte United Way was just doing what United Way of America told it to do. That doesn't bode well for the rest of the UW system, but don't say we didn't warn them.
Details of the newspaper's reports are available at www.charlotteobserver.com, but here's the gist of it. Charlotte has a number of large corporations that haven't gotten the word that coerced giving to United Way is not OK. United Way is (was) a sacred cow in this town. Then, a few months back, somebody leaked the details of the incredibly generous pension plan given to the UW CEO, along with her equally magnanimous salary, and the pledge cards hit the fan.
Next, the United Way board of directors, the same board that had authorized the pension payments, fired the CEO for accepting them. (The excuse they gave was that with all the uproar over her salary and benefits she could no longer be effective.)
So the Charlotte Observer started taking a closer look at United Way's numbers, and that's how they discovered a total lack of accountability and transparency within the United Way itself. It turned out that the fastest growing "program" funding was spending on four mysterious UW inhouse programs. This is money that would otherwise have been allocated to community charities. United Way allocated the funds to itself instead. Only problem was, nobody at UW, execs or board, could explain what these programs do or what the UW employees that were hired to work on them do. On the face of it, they appear to be a complete waste of money. Or, as some have suggested, perhaps they were shells used to disguise overhead administrative costs as program costs.
As the newspaper pointed out, United Way is a stickler for vetting other charities' programs before it gives them your money but when it comes to their own programs it's a whole different story. Who knew?
The tie-in with United Way of America? The Charlotte UW was simply adopting the new operating paradigm UWA is pushing so hard -- increase UW infrastructure at the expense of outside charities and use the added capacity to "convene," "track trends in government funding," "study," and "advocate." In other words, to turn United Way into a lobbying organization to push for more tax dollars for the social programs its "experts" favor. Of course, the United Way system has no such policy expertise, but this approach will enable it to buy it. The reason this is a good thing, UWA contends, is that it keeps the United Way "relevant" and "focused on the community" rather than being "a mere pass-through organization."
As I've said before, United Way's arrogant hubris is unbelieveable.
What an excellent truthful commentary on United Way. Below is the letter* I wrote today after hearing a report on the noon news about United Way's disappointment in not meeting their fund raising goals.
* Today on the local (Charlotte) news I heard that United Way is disappointed that donations are down and that even the lowered goals are not being met. They reported that United Way sited "negative publicity" as the reason. That is very misleading and even hurts your credibility more because you still refuse to admit to the cold hard ugly TRUTH. The honest hardworking people of our area do not trust the United Way because their trust has been destroyed, not by the "negative publicity" (which is very much warranted) but because of the negative behavior and unethical practices of the United Way leadership. These same hardworking people who are withholding their donations to United Way are some of the kindest, most caring and generous people in our country. As long as United Way continues with their arrogant attitude and attempts to avoid the real problems they will continue to withhold their donations to the United Way. The donors know that wasting and misusing funds is a very, very serious matter. They currently have no reason to trust or donate to an organization that violates their trust and ignores the sound principles of honesty that they hold dear and adhere to, to hold themselves accountable. It will take many, many more sweeping changes to gain their trust back again and until that first happens there will be no significant increase in donations. It will not happen quickly if at all. In a sense, United Way has been tried and found guilty in the court of public opinion. United Way is now on probation (in the public's eye). Just like any parole board they will be looking for genuine signs of change and repentance. Until they see it and know it to be true they will not grant parole and they will not support you with their hard earned money. Again, as I said, without more sweeping changes they will not start sending their donations again. The fault is not "negative publicity" but broken trust. The future behavior and attitude of United Way will ultimately determine whether the donors will return, not "negative publicity".
L. D. Ewing
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