From: sjane@bmers248.bnr.ca (sjs)
Subject: The United Way
Keywords: money
Organization: Irrelevant, Ottawa, Canada
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 92 21:36:15 GMT

Before sjs gets started on her main topic, she mumbles for a bit just in case
the word gobbler which stole 3 lines from her last post repeats its feat.
mumble mumble mumble... there...

A while back, folks in here were saying that they would not give money to the
United Way because they couldn't be sure it would go where they wanted it to.  
I wrote to the United Way office in Ottawa-Carleton asking how they distributed
the money & here is their reply (summarized).

1) Before the campaign starts, the United Way organisers meet with the member
charities & negotiate the amount of money everyone will get.  They call these
amounts "tentative allocations" and their sum is the campaign goal for the year.

2) A donor designates that his/her money should go to a charity with is NOT
under the United Way's umbrella.  That charity then gets the money less 10%
to cover the campaign costs and pledge loss (someone says they'll give & then
doesn't).  If the designated money was less than $100, the charity gets all
of it.

3) If the campaign doesn't reach its goal, everyone's allocations are reduced.
(The charities which aren't under the United Way's umbrella are not affected.
Rule (2) still applies to them.)

4) A donor specifies that his/her money should go to one of the United Way
charities in particular.  If the total amount of monies specified to that
charity are greater than the allocation, then the charity gets the greater
amount; otherwise, the charity just gets its allocation.
Eg.  The Girl Guides are tentatively allocated $50,000
     I donate $2,000 specifically to the Girl Guides, but the rest of the 
     donors are unspecific.
     The Girl Guides get $50,000
    ----
Eg.  The Girl Guides is tentatively allocated $50,000
     Lots of donors specify that their money go to the Guides & the total
     specified is $54,000.
     The Girl Guides get $54,000

5) A donor specifies that his/her money should not go to a particular charity
(but any other one is OK).  That charity will get its allocation SUBTRACT
the percentage that the money is of the whole.
Eg. The campaign nets $10 million and the Girl Guides are allocated $50,000
    A bunch of people have specified that they don't want the Girl Guides
    to get any of their money & what they donated amounts to $500,000 (5% of
    the whole).
    So the Girl Guides get (50,000 - 5% of 50,000)=(50,000 - 2,500)= 47,500 

6) Mix cases (4) and (5).  In the first mix, my donation had no affect on
the allocation, so the case (5) amount holds.  In the second mix, those
lots of pro-Girl Guides outweigh the anti-Girl Guides and the Guides get the
bigger number.  
Another Eg.  The allocation to the Girl Guides is 50,000 out of the 10M pool 
             Donors specify 48,000 to the Girl Guides
             Other donors specify 500,000 to charities other than the Guides
             The guides get 48,000.
Another Eg.  Same allocation, same pool. 
             Donors specify 46,000 to the Guides
             Other donors specify 500,000 to charities other than the Guides
             The guides get 47,500. 

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So thar ya go.
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It's not irrelevant; it's a hippopotamus.   sjane@BNR.CA