THe author is saying don't donate to charities overseas especially until you can personally check them out. In India there are orphanages, battered women's shelters, etc. that solicit charity from Americans to improve living conditons for its residents but instead the solicitors pocket the money and don't help the pensioners. Or somtimes worse these places are actually brothels that force women and children into sex slavery pretending to be a charitble organization and asking Americans and Europeans for money. And don't think that it only happens overseas, there are documented cases of this happening in the US and Canada at Indian Schools as recently as the 1980s. As to United Way, I have mixed feelings, they have helped a lot of people but the Organization has been riddled with scandals about misuse of donated funds, ie 99 cents per donated dollar going to the board of directors in 1992 and 2004 the CEO of United Way was convicted for misuse of funds, not one guy, two seperate crooks respectively. Also I have worked at a couple of places where they automatically deducted money from your paycheck for United Way without asking ahead of time, I asked to get out of this obligation at my last place of employment and actually had to go before the college president to get off the list. He was not pleased to say the least, as he had just been on TV and gotten an award for getting 100% of that college's employees to donate (he was on United Way's local board). Many other employees followed suit, and by the next year only 20% of the staff was donating. This left a pretty bad taste in my mouth toward them to say the least.
As to United Way, I have mixed feelings, they have helped a lot of people but the Organization has been riddled with scandals about misuse of donated funds, ie 99 cents per donated dollar going to the board of directors in 1992 and 2004 the CEO of United Way was convicted for misuse of funds, not one guy, two seperate crooks respectively. Also I have worked at a couple of places where they automatically deducted money from your paycheck for United Way without asking ahead of time, I asked to get out of this obligation at my last place of employment and actually had to go before the college president to get off the list. He was not pleased to say the least, as he had just been on TV and gotten an award for getting 100% of that college's employees to donate (he was on United Way's local board). Many other employees followed suit, and by the next year only 20% of the staff was donating. This left a pretty bad taste in my mouth toward them to say the least.
Reply
Leave a comment