Boy Scout Debate Tears at the Heart of a United Way in Florida

By DEBRA E. BLUM

When the Heart of Florida United Way, in Orlando, decided last fall to

institute an antidiscrimination policy for the charities it supports, it found itself in the center of a tempest.

Like many of its counterparts in other cities, the Heart of Florida United Way began to consider a discrimination policy following last summer’s U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the Boy Scouts of America’s right to keep out homosexual leaders.

But as the Orlando United Way contemplated a new policy that would probably have eliminated $300,000 a year for the local Boy Scouts council, powerful and vocal critics weighed in on all sides of the issue.

Some insisted that the organization, which raises about $20-million a year, take a strong stand against all forms of discrimination, including on the basis of sexual orientation. Loyal supporters of the Boy Scouts pushed to keep the United Way donations intact. Others said that while they deplored discrimination, they believed that the United Way should not interfere with a private organization’s right to set its own policies. And still others used the debate as a chance to take issue with the United Way’s hold over on-the-job fund raising.

The dispute — which was shaped by intense donor lobbying and punctuated by the resignation of the United Way’s board chairman, who has a gay son — was so divisive that the then-mayor of the city of Sanford, Fla., gathered up last fall’s United Way pledge cards when they arrived at City Hall and mailed them back before they could be distributed to municipal employees. Larry Dale, Sanford’s former mayor, says he was incensed that Heart of Florida was “forcing their philosophies” on charities that received United Way support.

Prohibiting Discrimination

The controversy began when some donors, concerned about the Scouts’ exclusion of gays, pushed for the United Way to drop its affiliation with the Boy Scouts. Observers say the critics included employees at Walt Disney World, the area’s largest employer and perennially the United Way’s largest company donor, but neither United Way nor Disney officials would confirm. A Disney spokesman said that the company supports both the United Way and the Boy Scouts.

In response to donors’ concerns, the executive committee of United Way’s board, led by John Lord Sr., who was then chairman, drafted a nondiscrimination policy. It stated that United Way member organizations — the six dozen or so charities, including a local Boy Scout council, that received money each year from the United Way’s fund-raising drives — may not discriminate in picking leaders or volunteers or in the provision of services on the basis of sexual orientation, among other criteria.

But the proposed policy met with unexpected opposition when it came before United Way’s 50-person board, and a vote on it was tabled. During the ensuing debate, Mr. Lord, who has since retired as an executive of the Bank of America, resigned from the board, worried that his having a gay son was muddying the debate. “I didn’t want that to be anybody’s excuse” not to support the antidiscrimination policy, Mr. Lord recalls.

In early September, shortly after Mr. Lord’s resignation, the board approved an antidiscrimination policy with one important modification: It would cover only the provision of services, not an organization’s personnel.

For the Boy Scouts, the policy meant that the United Way wouldn’t interfere with the Scouts’ decision to keep out gay leaders, but would require that all boys, including those who are gay, be allowed to join.

Despite the timing, United Way officials insist that the new policy was not aimed at the Boy Scouts. Instead, they say, it was part of an effort announced early last year to increase the diversity of United Way’s participants and beneficiaries.

“The United Way felt like this was the right thing to do,” says Jerry Hilbrich, chief financial officer of the Catholic Diocese of Orlando, who served out Mr. Lord’s term as board chair from September through March. “We raise money from the entire community, no exceptions, and the money should go to programs available to the whole community, no exceptions.”

Money in Jeopardy

When the United Way last fall asked the 75 charities it regularly supports to sign the policy, only one — the Boy Scouts of America, Central Florida Council — balked. The move put the council’s United Way support — which had been about 10 percent of its annual budget — in jeopardy.

Tico Perez, an Orlando lawyer who is president of the Central Florida Scouts, made a strong pitch to keep the United Way’s money, arguing that nearly two-thirds of it has gone each year to help pay for scouting programs for boys from inner-city areas.

He also pointed out that, as a local affiliate of the national scouting organization, the council had no choice but to abide by the Boy Scouts’ rules.

“This would hurt and affect a lot of my kids and their programs over something they can’t change, we can’t change,” Mr. Perez says.

The Scouts’ plight raised plenty of hackles.

Angry donors threatened to withhold their money from the United Way if it couldn’t accommodate the Boy Scouts. And a few — including Campus Crusade for Christ International, which decided not to run a workplace campaign among its more than 900 Orlando employees last fall — skipped their donations to last year’s fund-raising drive.

Seeking Alternatives

Other companies and municipalities that run workplace campaigns for Heart of Florida began considering alternatives to United Way.

In Seminole County, outside Orlando, county commissioners will decide by the end of next month whether the county will drop the United Way, keep it but invite nonprofit organizations outside the United Way’s fold to also raise money among county employees, or create the county’s own fund-raising charity to collect employees’ donations.

Randall C. Morris, a county commissioner, says the controversy over the Boy Scouts raised broader questions about the dominance Heart of Florida has had in the area’s workplace campaigns. And county leaders, he says, would like to ensure that employees have more choice and control over their gifts.

Unlike many other local United Ways, Heart of Florida does not usually allow donors to earmark their donations for charities that are not among the groups that receive annual support.

Compromise Plan

In the face of all the opposition, and after negotiations with the Boy Scouts, United Way backed off its tough stance on the nondiscrimination policy, announcing a compromise in February. It would keep its policy intact and continue to bar any nonsubscribers — in this case, the Boy Scouts — from being a member charity and receiving money donated to the United Way’s general funds. But, the Boy Scouts would be given a new status as a “contract organization” and be allowed to get money from United Way donors who earmark their contributions for them.

The Boy Scout council is Heart of Florida’s only contract organization.

The Boy Scouts’ Mr. Perez is pleased with the solution, saying that it’s possible the Scouts could collect more in designations than it had been from sharing in the United Way’s general funds.

And, he says, the controversy has already started to lead to an increase in direct donations. For example, a series of fund-raising dinners that the council sponsors annually this year raised $1.4-million, nearly a third more than last year, he says.

Still, says Mr. Perez, everyone would have been better off in the long run if the United Way had never instituted a nondiscrimination policy.

“As they pick sides, the only people that lose will be the charities,” Mr. Perez says. “The question may not be just whom do I give to, but do I want to give to the United Way and its charities at all?”

Emotional Bruises

Indeed, the debate has left many people still sour.

On one side are those who wish that the United Way had stuck to its guns. Any charity that does not sign the nondiscrimination policy, they say, should no longer be allowed to benefit from United Way campaigns, even as a contract charity.

“They may have started with good intentions,” says Peter Pavich, interim executive director of the Gay, Lesbian & Bisexual Community Center of Central Florida. But, he says, the United Way caved in to pressure from donors who support the Boy Scouts.

“It was all money and politics,” Mr. Pavich says.

And on the other side are those who wish the United Way had never dipped into the nondiscrimination issue at all.

“We feel that they made a big mistake,” says James A. Hinson, president of Dr. Phillips Inc., a nonprofit organization that, along with a related foundation, gives away about $7.5-million to Orlando-area charities each year. “They are trying now to become the moral standard of the giving community here. We don’t think that’s appropriate for the United Way.”

Mr. Hinson says that a $1.5-million gift to Heart of Florida from Dr. Phillips Inc. last year has been moved into a fund from which the Boy Scouts will earn all the investment interest. Dr. Phillips, which is bound by its charter to give money to the United Way each year, will probably add about another $2-million over the next few years. And during that time, Mr. Hinson says, his group is unlikely to give any other money that would benefit the United Way or its member charities.

Potential Loss

If that happens, Heart of Florida will take a big hit. Since 1984, Dr. Phillips has given more than $1-million to its annual fund-raising drives to benefit member charities, and has given millions more to the group for its own capital needs, including donating the building that houses United Way.

Still, Heart of Florida’s officials are sanguine about their fund-raising prospects.

Matt Zavadsky, chairman of this year’s campaign, says the organization’s goal for the fall drive is to raise $22-million, slightly more than last year.

And, while he says he can’t predict how much of that money might be given to the United Way versus the Boy Scouts, he says he expects the fortunes of both groups to rise.

“All the publicity regarding the discrimination issue has raised the importance of giving in the community,” says Mr. Zavadsky, chief executive officer of the Health Council of East Central Florida, an Orlando think tank. “People understand now more than a year ago how United Way money benefits the community.”

At the same time, he says: “The controversy has probably energized Boy Scouts’ supporters to be even more generous and vocal with their support.”