Anthony Nixon
THIS IS ONLY AN INTERPRETATION, TWO-THREE SENTENCES AND A QUESTION IS ALL I NEED. TELL ME YOUR THOUGHTS
United Way of America (renamed United Way Worldwide) is a large non-profit organization that assists people all around the world for more than 125 years. Several individuals who intended to make their city better founded it in Denver in 1887. This first campaign of united nation dealt with health and welfare departments, collected charity funds, and coordinated relief agencies. Thus, the great United Way movement was created in order to help people obtain financial stability, improve education, promote a healthy lifestyle, and provide emergency assistance in any possible issue.
Nowadays, the United Way meets the toughest problems of “nearly 1,800 communities across more than 40 countries and territories” (“Our History | United Way Worldwide”, 2017). In these communities, people volunteer, donate, and empower ideas for the local solutions. Having united the organization’s forces with the National Football League in 1973, the public service programs were developed to involve football players and coaches into different social activity. Since that time, the organization “drafted 39,000 people to serve as readers, tutors, and mentors” (“Our History | United Way Worldwide”, 2017). In this way, numerous kids and their families were encouraged to keep fit, eat healthy food, and practice physical activity. “United Way impacts up to 50 million lives every year,” helping everyone to achieve the aim (“Our History | United Way Worldwide”, 2017). Would it be kids, students, parents, or workers, they may always obtain necessary help, support, and a piece of advice. Additionally, the organization joined forces with many foundations to protect low-wage families and save their money (“Our Mission | United Way Worldwide”, 2017).
The United Way Worldwide is tightly connected to almost every social area of human’s life, including business and government. Thus, millions of cherished funds are invested into the most important social fields of different countries and provide their improvement. Nevertheless, it is hard to cope with the biggest issue of every non-profit organization and find employees and volunteers, who will be identified with company’s mission and present valuable service. Additionally, a fierce competition exists there exists among charity organizations, as their amount is increasing. In this way, people send their money to new organizations more heartily. It happens because it is thought that large organizations support abroad targets more than local American objects. American residents do not feel confident about their cherished money and prefer to donate to small local organizations, considering them more honest and transparent.
Nevertheless, the mentioned suspicion is not the only one issue for donors to be concerned. In 1995, a fraud scandal was broken, headed by the United Way leader. His name was William Aramony, and he was considered a person who had implemented new approaches of charity and developed the organization into a powerful empire. Unbelievably, but he appeared to be a fraud who had stolen more than 1 million dollars of cherished funds. The Washington Post had written about the purposes of the borrowed funds: “He used United Way money to support a luxurious lifestyle that included craps games in Las Vegas, frequenting velvet-rope dance clubs and eating lobster dinners in tony restaurants” (“United Way leader’s fraud scandal marred charitable legacy”, 2017). As a matter of fact, he explained his behavior with the intention to integrate into rich people’s life to obtain more financial support for the United Way. This situation severely affected the organization and amounts of donated money were reduced. Despite the fact that many years have passed, people still remember the learned lesson and think twice before providing money.
Current strategic plan of United Way Worldwide should include solutions for two issues mentioned above. First, organizational leaders and managers should think of a more positive image for this non-profit institution. People have to believe that every coin they cherished would be used in important purpose. It is necessary to develop a strong targeted marketing approach and advertise, demonstrating the achieved results. Unquestionably, the policy of the company should be transparent, and every resident has to have access have access to the money turnover. Thus, the Internet access to this sort of information must be easy and understandable for everyone.
Secondly, it is necessary to persuade people that the organization does not support abroad targets more than local objects. For this purpose, the network performance should be provided along with real pieces of evidence about the productive results for American society. Donors should admit that a large organization is more efficient than small local associations, and it is capable of implementing significant long-term projects in the USA. For promoting this idea, it is essential to create a well-developed mobile platform.
Thirdly, it is crucial to attract more volunteers all around the globe. People should be motivated to help and be engaged in a variety of events. For that purpose, the United Way of America should organize more meetings with football players and charity fairs. Also, it is possible to invite TV stars and famous people for these events. Besides, volunteers have to observe results of their work and feel that their help is priceless. Thus, there is a need to arrange conferences for them in different countries and prepare the remarkable reward for the best volunteers.
United Way of America is an organization with a productive past and outstanding future. Despite various issues, it is moving forward and implements new ideas into the real life. More than 100 years it helps people to obtain stability and education, improving every aspect of their life. Thus, in the long run, it is expected to become the largest non-profit organization in the world and help everyone who is in demand.
References
Our History | United Way Worldwide. (2017). Unitedway.org. Retrieved 18 April 2017, from https://www.unitedway.org/about/history
Our Mission | United Way Worldwide. (2017). Unitedway.org. Retrieved 18 April 2017, from http://www.unitedway.org/our-impact/mission
United Way leader’s fraud scandal marred charitable legacy. (2017). Washington Post. Retrieved 18 April 2017, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/un…
