More Employee Options Preferable to Coercion

To the Editor:

United Way organizations could do themselves a big favor by not merely discouraging coercion against employees in United Way campaigns (“Lawsuit Leads Bank to Drop Policy of Required Giving to United Way,” November 19). A more positive approach would be to embrace donor choice. Give the donor more options, and United Way will raise more money.

Most United Ways act like 1950s-style monopolies. This hurts United Way in the long run, discourages giving, and creates ill will in the community. United Way’s leadership is needed to create an open, cooperative approach to workplace giving. It is sorely lacking.

Charles C. (Chris) Starr
Executive Director
National Kidney Foundation of Georgia
Atlanta

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To the Editor:

Many volunteer executives manage their companies’ United Way campaigns as they manage their employees. They have no clue about motivating people. Consequently, they make demands.

Anyone familiar with the principles of effective communication knows that demands do not work. A request implying total freedom to accept or decline is the most powerful of the communication techniques. Implied threats of career harm are the most devious avenues yet.

In 1995, I was given an “expected contribution level” to the United Way. The letter came directly from the president of my company to all senior executives. Not only was I coerced to contribute; I was told how much. It was an outrageous amount, in my estimation.

Needless to say, I complied. However, I responded with my own sabotage. Just before my pledge was to have gone into effect via payroll deduction, I called the payroll department and said that economic pressures were forcing me to decrease my donation. My gift for that year declined from a pledge — hardly an appropriate word for a promise made under career duress — of four figures to $2 per pay period.

I do not disagree in any way with the causes United Way supports. However, the amount I was asked to give to the United Way cut into the support I could give to organizations that held a more significant commitment for me.

The methods used by my former employer did not enable me to feel as if I was giving something. Rather I saw management and the United Way conspiring to take something from me.

C. Susan Taylor
President
Taylor Business Resources
St. Louis