AUW not statewide?

[craigwatanabe]

I just found out that Aloha United Way doesn't serve the entire state of Hawaii but only the island of Oahu.

87% of charitable donations to AUW are used ONLY on Oahu with the rest going to administrative costs.

So what happens when a big company like oh let's say First Hawaiian Bank which has branch offices all over the state does an AUW campaign drive on all islands? What happens to employee donations on Kauai, Maui or the Big Island? It all goes to Oahu for Oahu "Community" needs. None of it goes to the neighbor islands.

WHY? Because AUW isn't a statewide organization and the only community it serves is the one it was established on...Honolulu.

If you live on the neighbor islands such as the Big Island, you donate to the Hawaii Island United Way organization which keeps 92% of all monies donated on the Big Island not 87% like AUW.

I hear FHB is really pissed off at AUW and is pulling it's pledge support of about $1M out of AUW. That's a big chunk o' change there. Apparently FHB wanted all of it's charitable donations (minus that 13% admin cost) to go to a particular organization.

Obviously when that organization told FHB, "Hey where's the rest of it?" FHB got a bit concerned and inquired. Apparently AUW decided that well not all of it had to go to that particular organization, let's spread it around a bit.

So FHB will probably create it's own charitable organization and contribute to whomever they want to...in house and leave AUW out in the cold. Apparently other big contributing companies are thinking of doing the same.

Ouch that's gotta hurt AUW.

On another side note: AUW is restructuring how it's gonna donate to organizations by creating five impact committees comprised of people who work in those five areas AUW feel is necessary for charity. One is Early Childhood, another is Crime and Drug Use, another is Homelessness. Three have been established and the latter two due out in a couple of years.

So if you are a beneficiary of AUW's support, you may want to get cozy with the committee members of that particular impact committee that will determine WHO will get funded each year.

Me thinks there are gonna be a few charitable organizations that will be pinched when the cash flow from AUW is shut off.

It's all about accountability, something FHB mentioned to AUW in some heated meeting in Honolulu yesterday (Thursday);)

It'll be in the news in a few days.

[Pomai]

87% of charitable donations to AUW are used ONLY on Oahu with the rest going to administrative costs.If this is true, I'll stop my annual contribution to them when they ask again this year. For sure!

So far I've given them about $800, which is "manini", but still. 13% "administrative costs", along with lack of support for the neighbor islands is a slap in the face to contributors such as myself. As much as I'm an "Oahu boy", I do have family on the neighbor islands, as does my girlfriend, and to think they're not supporting needs there does not sit well. Not at all.

Actually they just might be "supporting" the neighbor islands... with VIP stays at the Grand Wailea by upper-AUW staff. :mad: :confused:

Perhaps AUW can "save" themselves by donating funds to the Big Island, Kauai and Maui to build sufficient harbor facilities and road infrastructure to support the SuperFerry. Hey, it's tax-deductible! :D

- Former AUW supporter

[scrivener]

That neighbor-island-Oahu thing doesn't concern me so much as does the fact that FHB designated its contribution for a specific beneficiary and that agency didn't get it. AUW promises us every year that the money we earmark goes to the agency of our preference. If that's not true, someone's going to have to start talking, and soon. How dare it hit us year after year with the same spiel and then not follow through as promised?

[glossyp]

This is one of the reasons we donate directly to the charities we support. BTW, the Hawaii Food Bank (our favorite and the designated charity for our business) ensures the donations made on an island stay there. It was a point that they made to us numerous times when we were setting up our "Everybody Eats" program.

[pzarquon]

I have to confess a bias against AUW as well. It's sheer size makes it pretty clear it operates more like a business than a charity, including its partnerships with "big name" companies and foundations, and thus its overhead must be substantial. The AUW has better looking promotional material than most for-profit entities, and it ain't all comped.

At a previous job, the AUW was deeply entrenched... as in, company forms to set up per-paycheck donations entrenched. This despite an overall policy that discouraged other fundraising activities in the workplace. And we were all told that our company was proud to have "almost 100 percent participation." I have to confess, I was part of the reason it wasn't 100 percent.

We donate regularly in smaller ways to smaller groups, usually those closely aligned with our interests or with families and kids overall. I gotta say, our finally dropping the ACLU and Sierra Club was good news for other local organizations.

[MixedPlateBroker]

I have to agree with pzarquon. My previous experience with AUW while I was working at a large company back in the 90s left a seriously bad taste. Management bugged us so often about filling out the "voluntary" pledge cards included with our paychecks that I started wondering if the cut AUW takes for administrative fees came back to certain company administrators as kickbacks.

Whatever the case, I now only donate food, clothing, money or time directly to organizations I want to help.

[scrivener]

I just wanna say that while it surely helps an agency more if you give your money right to it, the value of what AUW does shouldn't be ignored. The school I teach at is a partner agency. There are a lot of people who know about my school's mission (it's very specific, and it is unique in this state), and they dig deep all the time.

But not everyone in a position to give knows about what my school does, and AUW helps get our mission out there. None of our operating expenses come from donations; rather, we operate fully on students' tuition and no student's tuition goes toward another student's expenses, as it often does at other private schools (those who can pay tuition at some school are often paying some financial aid for those who cannot). Everything we get from AUW goes toward tuition assistance, and as I've said elsewhere on HT, we have the highest tuition in the state.

AUW lets people know we're out here. That's a good thing. It also finds money we don't have the resources to find ourselves. That, too, is a good thing.

[Adri]

I just wanna say that while it surely helps an agency more if you give your money right to it, the value of what AUW does shouldn't be ignored. The school I teach at is a partner agency. There are a lot of people who know about my school's mission (it's very specific, and it is unique in this state), and they dig deep all the time.

But not everyone in a position to give knows about what my school does, and AUW helps get our mission out there. None of our operating expenses come from donations; rather, we operate fully on students' tuition and no student's tuition goes toward another student's expenses, as it often does at other private schools (those who can pay tuition at some school are often paying some financial aid for those who cannot). Everything we get from AUW goes toward tuition assistance, and as I've said elsewhere on HT, we have the highest tuition in the state.

AUW lets people know we're out here. That's a good thing. It also finds money we don't have the resources to find ourselves. That, too, is a good thing.

Thoses are good points. I generally have a bias against AUW because it does take a fair sized slice for admin costs and I'd rather donate directly to charities so the charities get all of my donation instead of minus the admin costs. But I guess AUW does let people know a fair number of charities that are out there. But I would think if they're Oahu specific, they'd have to reveal that they are Oahu specific so that people clearly know where their donations are going and that AUW would have an obligation to use the money as designated or not accept the money.

[GeckoGeek]

AUW lets people know we're out here. That's a good thing. It also finds money we don't have the resources to find ourselves. That, too, is a good thing.

That's all well and good, but I'd feel better if AUW acted as a clearing house of information to connect donors and charities rather then "just give us the money". I'm never been too sure about where my money goes, and it might well go to things that are against my principles.

[craigwatanabe]

That's all well and good, but I'd feel better if AUW acted as a clearing house of information to connect donors and charities rather then "just give us the money". I'm never been too sure about where my money goes, and it might well go to things that are against my principles.

Well the new mission for AUW will be along those lines. Those five impact committees will determine how the monies will be doled out by a certain expectation of accountability. AUW will not simply give the monies to an organization without expecting to see how it will impact those involved.

For example if you gave your hard earned money to your teenage kid because he says he needs it to buy something for his school project, you'd expect to see the receipt to see if he in fact did use that money for that purpose.

The criteria for eligibility may or may not include this kind of scenerio. This is what the role of the five impact committees will be trying to achieve over the next few years...what criteria to use to determine accountability of monies donated to each recipient and what kind of recipient will be eligible. AUW will focus on which organization will get those donations based on the criteria established by these committees.

I think this way big Pace Setter donors such as FHB can see exactly how the monies they donate thru employee contributions are being utilized.

I believe that's fair and as a big donor, I'd want to see accountability in how my money was being spent as well.

Once the criteria for accountability is established all five impact committees will be dissolved. I believe at that point an elected chair from each committee should sit on a board within AUW to act as council to help guide and keep AUW focused on their new mission.

I do believe however AUW needed to be upfront to all donors that they only service Oahu and not the neighbor islands. That may or may not have been the genesis for this change from companies such as FHB.

If you look at AUW's website (http://www.auw.org/Default.aspx), nowhere will you find anything that tells the reader the monies will be limited to Oahu. As a matter of fact their own words use "Community" as their servicing area. That community was originally established to service Honolulu under the Honolulu Chamber of Commerce as the United Welfare Fund back before it became involved with United Way.

This established the center and limits of service for AUW. Nowhere in it's website does it EVER indicate neighbor island support. For evey instance of geographical support listed AUW uses the word "Community" to reference who it targets. By looking at it's mission statement (http://www.auw.org/About/MissionHistory.aspx) you will understand it's limits. It's origin from the Honolulu Chamber of Commerce says it all. It's based on business in Honolulu.

I hope this new vision helps AUW but over the next two years when the two final impact committees will be added, I think there will be a few donors that will drop out because not all agencies may qualify with new guidelines in effect at that point.

As for me I've been a donor to AUW for over 25 years, but now as a Big Islander, I need to focus on the communities that I live and work in. If you feel you need to support your local community then look at the agencies that do and donate to them. If AUW is an intermediary to your local community and the agencies listed as recipients suffice your choices, then by all means stay with AUW. But remember in the future AUW WILL NOT give you the option of donor preference. I've always used that option because I wanted to make sure the organization I felt compelled to donate to got as much as I could give.

From AUW's perspective, there have been instances where AUW staffing had to spend too many man hours to research and find an organization that fit a donor's request of a single donation of less than $50. The administrative cost exceeded the value of the donation.

I would think if the donation was huge like FHB's $1M donation, then there may be an exception.

[jody]

First, we at Aloha United Way are very pleased that our new direction has stimulated conversation in the community. However, some of the information conveyed in the previous postings was incorrect and we’d like to set the record straight.

OAHU-CENTRIC FOCUS
Accurately stated, Aloha United Way does have a primary focus on Oahu. That is because there are independent United Ways in each of the Neighbor Island counties and we each limit our fundraising to our respective county. (Eg. Hawaii United Way for Big Island, Maui United Way for Maui, etc.)

However, our Donor Choice program has always and will continue to allow for designations to the Neighbor Island United Way’s and their partner agencies and likewise, the Neighbor Island United Ways also provide this service for their donors who wish to contribute to Oahu-based agencies.

On a broader scale, Aloha United Way does provide funding and services that benefit ALL on a statewide level. These include the following:

§Aloha United Way provides the 211 Information and Referral hotline for the entire state. Any resident can call 211 toll free from a land line and from most cell phones. Aloha United Way decided to take this on approximately nine years ago, funds the entire program and continues to make it a free service to benefit the entire state.
§Aloha United Way also provides Volunteer Hawaii, an automated volunteer matching system for all islands which matches individuals and organizations with volunteering opportunities, Again, this is something that benefits the state as a whole, yet is funded solely by Aloha United Way

§Aloha United Way also coordinates programs that have a statewide focus such as our Earned Income Tax Credit outreach program and associated free tax preparation sites which are provided for all of the Neighbor Islands and have brought $2.7 Million for 2007, $1.0 Million for 2006, and $.445 Million for 2005 to working families and individuals--so, the total EITC and CTC for the three years of the program are $4.14 Million.

§Finally, many of Aloha United Way’s partner agencies are Oahu-based yet provide services throughout the state. Therefore, because Aloha United Way funding is to agencies rather than specific programs within an agency, Aloha United Way funding to a multi-island agency subsidizes that agency’s operations on the Neighbor Islands.

DONOR CHOICE POLICY
Much of the information in the postings about Aloha United Way’s Donor Choice program (which allows donors to designate their gifts to specific agencies) is incorrect.

§First, the Donor Choice program will continue to operate under our new allocation system. The only change we have made to Donor Choice was to simplify the process for the donor and reduce the cost of processing the designations.

§Secondly, designations are paid as follows:

oTo our partner agencies (currently there are 62 partners but we have opened our funding to ALL health and human service agencies that meet a series of requirements. We have been accepting applications for new partners and have received a positive influx of new agencies eager to be a part of the process). We pay 100% of any designation received. (E.g. If you designate $100 to XZY Partner Agency, they will receive $100.)
oTo our non-partner agencies (there were 185 non-partner beneficiaries in 2007) we charged a 9% handling fee for processing their designations. (E.g. So the same $100 designation to a non-partner would result in that agency receiving $91.)

§Finally, the statement that Aloha United Way diverts dollars designated by a donor to another cause is illegal and would cause Aloha United Way to fail our annual audit. That has never happened. We legally must and continue to ensure that any designation is paid as directed by the donor.

EMPLOYER GIVING PRESSURE
Aloha United Way is aware of the pressure to participate in the United Way campaign sometimes applied by employers. We do not nor have we ever condoned this strategy and we go to great lengths to discourage these practices during our training for campaign volunteers and internal company coordinators.

CLEARINGHOUSE TYPE-SERVICES
A previous posting commented that he/she would like to see Aloha United Way providing clearinghouse-type services for the state. Please see my earlier comments about 211 and Volunteer Hawaii – that is exactly what they and some of our other programs like Gifts-In-Kind and Board Match are intended to provide.

NEW ALLOCATION SYSTEM
Our new allocation system which a posting accurately described is now operational. However one minor error in an earlier posting indicated that our Impact Councils will be dissolved after they complete their work this year. This is incorrect.

The Impact Councils will be a permanent feature of our allocation system and the five Councils will be responsible for monitoring agency performance and making continuing funding decisions for our three-year funding agreements. They are all representative of our community, including business leaders, other funders, retirees, agencies and issue-based specialists.

By the way, we welcome applications from community volunteers to our Impact Councils (there currently about 75 volunteers on the five Councils).

MISCELLANEOUS COMMENTARY
Lastly, we do want to address the comment made about Aloha United Way staff staying at the Grand Wailea. None of our staff have ever stayed at the Grand Wailea to conduct business.

[craigwatanabe]

I'm glad the impact committees will be retained as well as the Donor Choice policy. Remember my post was done quite soon after the initial meetings were conducted and those issues were addressed with the dropping of the ability to donate to a particular organization and dissolving of the impact committees.

I am glad however that AUW reaches out to the neighbor islands and for that I feel if anyone benefits from those services then by all means donate to AUW. BUT I feel AUW should have been more upfront as many of here on this forum felt AUW was statewide.

We'll see if the impact committees will be retained. I hope so.

I've noticed that FHB has started it's on TV ad awareness campaign on it being active in the community and being a supporter of charitable causes.

[scrivener]

First, we at Aloha United Way...
Who's "we?"

[Leo Lakio]

Who's "we?"Jody Shiroma Perreira, Vice President, Marketing/Communication, Aloha United Way.

E-mail is in her profile, phone number at the AUW website.

[craigwatanabe]

Jody Shiroma Perreira, Vice President, Marketing/Communication, Aloha United Way.

E-mail is in her profile, phone number at the AUW website.

Funny after reading this post, Tat's avatar image comes to mind (egg on face):D

[localmoco]

I have donated to United Way for many years and will continue to do so. For me, they provide the valuable service of investigating and weeding out phony charities. I get solicitations from numerous organizations that seem like they perform valuable community services. But I know that many of them are either outright scams or keep a large percentage of the funds for "adminstration". I don't have the resources to check into all these organizations and rely on United Way to do this for me.

I also give directly to some charities that I have a first-hand knowledge of. But I want to help others outside of my small circle and need United Way's help to do that effectively. It's nice to know that United Way will keep the charities accountable and craigwatanabe will keep United Way accountable:).