United Way

[Sea Ray]

It's been this way for a longtime. When my wife joined Federated in the late 1970s it was like this. Why do corporations care about the United Way? They don't pressure you to give to Salvation Army or other charities. I wonder how it ever got to this point?

It certainly is one of the negatives of working for corporate America.

[registerthis]

They pay their CEO's 6 figure salaries. 6 figures salaries are great for a for-profit business, not a non-profit charity.

That's a terrbily naive point of view. And I'm not even a big United Way supporter.

[WebScorpion]

That's a terrbily naive point of view. And I'm not even a big United Way supporter.

I think he's actually talking about 7 figure salaries anyway, but I understand your point too. Why shouldn't a CEO for a non-profit be worth just as much as a CEO for a normal profit-oriented company? Well, perhaps it's because that same CEO will ask his employees to work for less than the normal salary in deference to the cause supported by the organization. I worked for the Red Cross for a year and the employees were some of the greatest people I have ever worked with, but we were all making 50% of the normal salary for our positions. I still volunteer for the Red Cross, but I've gotten a job with a company that pays me a commensurate salary.

The company I currently work for encourages community service and volunteerism by offering cash grants ($50 to $750) to the organizations where employees volunteer. The employee must submit the non-profit organization for the award and the company awards anywhere from 2 to 6 grants per quarter based on certain eligibility requirements.

I think United Way got such a strong foothold in corporate america by being a 'one stop' charitable contribution. They see it as a way to allow all employees the flexibility to contribute to many different types of charities and the company gets the credit for the combined charity of all their employees. If my company tried to strong arm me into contributing to anything, I'd refuse and consider seeking employment in a more forward thinking company. I feel the same way about cold calling telephone contributions, I refuse to support it and I tell the caller as much. By calling they are LESS likely to receive my charitable contribution.

[George Foster]

That's a terrbily naive point of view. And I'm not even a big United Way supporter.

How is it naive? If you work for a non-profit full time you should make a decent living, don't get me wrong. However I find it some what troubling to ask people to donate to your non-profit when you are making 5 times what they make. The Salvation Army is a perfect example of how it should be done. It should be a "calling" to work for a non-profit. I don't want my money going toward 250K salaries...call me crazy.

[Hoosier Red]

In order to attain the best talent you have to pay in the neighborhood of market rates.
While you can get many rank and file employees to work for much less(they also will last a shorter period of time.) You probably need a more talented CEO to run a non-profit than a for-profit company.

If you decide you'll only pay a CEO "enough for a decent living" you'll get what you pay for.

With that said, I'd imagine the United Way CEO is on the low end of the pay scale for CEO's of companies that size.

As for the organizations, I believe companies support the United Way as a cure all, employees can designate within the United Way which smaller company they wish to support, but the company only has to answer yes to one company(United Way) as opposed to hundreds of worthy requests.