More about my own situation. My employer was the government. This was a federal agency jumping into bed with United Way and using strong arm tactics to press for donations. Not only was there the implicit understanding that everyone had to give (or face consequences), but each person deciding not to give had to sign a paper explicitly stating that they chose not to contribute. It is illegal for the government to endorse charities, but they did. It was a scam of epic proportions.

The government and businesses usually are not this adimate about pressing paticular chairties unless there is some catch. Otherwise they would encourage giving but be happy with any charity. My guess is that there was a Good Old Boys club somewhere that included United Way employees. Having read other testimonials, this seems to be a fairly systematic practice for United Way. I would not be suprised if they were not also getting some sort of kickbacks.

I will also note that this problem is not in every United Way. A couple of months ago, after I moved to another state, a United Way rep asked me how the previous state achieved their numbers. I straight out explained the situation, and he seemed fazed with the impropriety of it all.

About Planned Parenthood: money is fungible. Pretend you have an axe murderer. He has to use his own money to both feed himself and buy axes for his murderinig hobby. If you are a good Samaritian you might give him a Subway gift card thinking “he can’t use this money on axes.” But what you do not realise is that you are offseting his food costs. Money he would before have to use on food, he now can use on axes. The same holds for any Planned Parenthood money coded for other activities. We should not fund abortonists.

Because the United Way distributes some uncoded money to Planned Parenthood, this same rule applies. Some Pro-life groups boycot the United Way for this very reason.

As to value, value is subjective. But I will ask you what I asked a previous commentor: “Is that dollar you are giving to United Way the most productive use of that dollar?”. For example, 3 billion people in the world live on less than $2.50 per day. At the same price of feeding one American you could feed half a dozen people living in poverty. These are people living in world poverty; they would kill to live in American poverty. Now it is your own money, you can do what you want. I would not fault anyone for spending their money on the American poor. But I ask you, “does United Way represent the optimal use of that dollar if your goal is to help people?”.

Even if you prioritize Americans over other people. You can fund education for students and food for the elderly through other avenues than United Way. That way you can ensure your funds are being used for your project, and not offsetting funds for projects you do not support.

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