Free Essay: A Nonprofit Tries to Cope With Image Destruction

The United Way of America, the longstanding charitable company in America, commemorated it was a century-long anniversary in 1987. The company evolved from the domestic community, and the fund-raising strategy was very efficient as it helped in funding local charities using deductions in payrolls. However, the United Way has not been short of controversies.

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In 1991, the president of United Way, Aramony was investigated, with key questions regarding his travel habits, dubious relations, and high salary. The investigations into Aramony's living showed that he spent a lot of funds on unnecessary expenses such as limousines, and charged a lot on international airfare. The company culture at United Way of America was against hiring family members in the very company. Aramony hired family members and even paid money in consultation fees (Hartley 192). As an actual contributor, I feel that the high living shown by Aramony does not work to the best interests of the organization and the people it serves. These allegations would affect my gift-giving because I will feel that they do not promote society's best interests. I have experienced arrogance when dealing with government workers. Their attitude is that they are always doing us a favour, and they are often in monopoly positions. The general public does not have any alternative. These attitudes of arrogance are contained when the top officials emphasize on helpfulness and courtesy of workers. The first recommendation is checks and balances, where there are control and accountability. There is a need for periodic scrutiny to avoid future cases of arrogant decision-making.

Some companies force their workers into making significant contributions to the United Way. This is not an ethical organizational practice and only serves to infringe on the rights of the workers. On a personal level, this practice violates employee rights and would only lead to the lack of satisfaction among workers. Another implication is that with the reduced employee morale, the productivity rates within these organizations will decline (Schaltegger, Stefan, and Roger 242). Forcing workers to contribute to the United Way will damage the company's reputation among the public.

Throughout time, board members, advocates of nonprofit companies, and managers are frustrated by the problem of lack of clear organizational objectives. Without a shared understanding of goals, supporters, and leaders of the best nonprofit companies will unavoidably find themselves confronted with activities that reduce and divide the company (Barman 103). In effect, the company's effectiveness is undermined, and the performances are affected. The lesson for the board members, donors, and nonprofit manager are that charity organizations such as Union Way America need a bottom-line. External pressures such as reduced government support, intense competition by private sectors have pushed charitable organizations into thinking and acting more like businesses. The smart nonprofit companies have identified that goal-oriented management, combined with the best ways of evaluating progress, are the differences between failure and success.

As a large contributor to the charity, spending $10 million in the advertisement is a waste of funds and does not sever the charitable organization's goals. Advertisement is necessary for creating public awareness about the duties of Union Way. However, there is a need for appropriate allocation of budgets to ensure the company does not exhaust its scarce available revenue. This causes a situation where there is a lack of accountability to the donating public. These types of loosely run activities, with no one to stop or approve the actions of the administration, only raise more questions. Instead, spending $10 million on advertisement only paves the way for criticism (Hartley 197). The lack of accountability impacts the stakeholders primarily. For most stockholders, they see their commitment and money being wasted.

United Way was still struggling with its damaged reputation in 2000. To remedy the situation, United Way hired McKinsey & Co., a management consulting company, to assist in overhauling its operations and mission (Hartley 200). Brian Gallagher was named as the chief executive, and he fostered faster transformation. There was a tightened requirement for membership and reporting rules. Presently, United Way affiliates have focused on providing solutions to issues facing the local societies. As a result, United Way had a good public image for its assistance in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. To this end, the actions taken by the United Way after Aramony was the best approach of salvaging the public image.

The child labour of Girl Scout cookie could be handled better. There was major criticism concerning the dictatorial handling of the funds by the council (Hartley 198). There are 332 regional councils in America, and each has an office, while the payment of staff is overseen by volunteer boards. For cookie drivers, girls are not paid salaries, and this is the type of a bureaucratic structure. This situation could be handled better by ensuring proper channels of communication and the best remuneration for child laborers. The goal is ensuring people are paid what they work for. At its best, the practice of child labor should be stopped completely because it is a violation of their rights.

Works Cited

Barman, Emily. "What is the bottom line for nonprofit organizations? History of measurement in the British voluntary sector." Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations 18.2 (2007): 101-115. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Emily_Barman/publication/225748087_What_is_the_Bottom_Line_for_Nonprofit_Organizations_A_History_of_Measurement_in_the_British_Voluntary_Sector/links/5613cfe208aed47faceddbcc/What-is-the-Bottom-Line-for-Nonprofit-Organizations-A-History-of-Measurement-in-the-British-Voluntary-Sector.pdf

Hartley, Robert F. Management mistakes and successes. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2011. Retrieved from http://repository.fue.edu.eg/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/3960/7015.pdf?sequence=1

Schaltegger, Stefan, and Roger Burritt. "Business cases and corporate engagement with sustainability: Differentiating ethical motivations." Journal of Business Ethics 147.2 (2018): 241-259. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283572251_Business_Cases_and_Corporate_Engagement_with_Sustainability_Differentiating_Ethical_Motivations