Giving Through United Way

Every year, the United Way carries out a fundraising drive at my place of work. Normally the leadership at my place of work set a contribution target, an amount higher than that of the previous year, which we have always exceeded year after year. Last year our local office consisting of less than 1,000 employees raised more than $1 million for the United Way campaign.

Usually the contributions can be given by way of automatic monthly deductions from our payroll or a one time donation also through payroll deduction, direct debit or by credit card. Like most fundraising drives, my employer organizes a variety of auctions, raffles, get-togethers and other events whereby employees participate in activities promoting the campaign.

For anyone who is keen on charitable giving to help the less fortunate members of the society, United Way serves a way to channel their contributions to needy causes. The campaigns serve as an opportunity for people who are not routinely or actively engaged with charities to make a charitable contribution. To this end the organization raised more than $4 billion last year.

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While I have some reservations regarding the organization, I have always participated in the fund-raising campaigns as the benefits from my giving outweigh the demerits of the organization. In particular, the organization has been embroiled in some financial scandals and I also don't think they are as transparent as I would like them to be. I find their website hard to navigate and I could not find full information regarding the use of the contributions they collect. You also have to realise that the withold a fraction of the contributions, probably to pay for their administrative duties.

On the upside, giving through my employer offers the following benefits;

• Designated contributions - I am able to designate my contribution to a specif charitable organization. Over the years, my choice has always been Samaritans Purse. Instead of allowing United Way to use my contribution as they see fit, I designate my contribution to a charity of my choice. Unfortunately, with this way you can't further designate the money for a particular project, like say helping displaced people in Dafur. In that case Samaritans Purse uses my contribution as they see fit.

• Matching contributions - My employer matches my contribution dollar for dollar. I'm not sure if this money is given to United Way or my designated charity. I would hope it goes to Samaritans Purse.

• Extra vacation days - Contributions over a certain limit, usually 1% of one's salary, is rewarded with extra vacation days. Since I have more vacation days than I could ever take, I just roll the unused vacation days to the next year.

• Tax deduction - My contribution is treated as a charitable deduction by the IRS.

• Automatic giving - I don't have to worry about giving once I have elected my payroll deduction. Once I make the commitment, my contribution is deducted regularly.

• Good publicity - My employer gets recognition and positive media coverage for the contributions made by us and the additional money the company contributes to match our contributions. Our participation ensures that my employer gets to be a good corporate citizen in my state by way of the matching donations and other contributions for the campaign.

That said, I look forward to the kick-off of this years United Way campaign as the activities also serve to break the monotony of work and provide an opportunity to informally socialize with other colleagues who I would not normally interact with.