United Way Case Study

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The United Way of America is a charitable not-for-profit organization who has been around since 1987. United Way made fundraising easy by coming up with the idea of receiving money straight from worker’s pay checks. This system created large amounts of money, that was donated to smaller local charities. This organization was built by William Aramony, who was the CEO until 1992. Aramony created a bad public image by giving himself to large of a salary, which forced him to resign. The board of directors appointed a new 39 year old women president, by the name of Elaine Chao.
William Aramony had a salary of $369,000, which was pretty modest compared to salaries of other companies. Aramony had created a company that was raising over a billion …show more content…

Elaine Chao was only 39 years old and originated from California. However, she was one of six daughters in a family that was from Taiwan. As a young Girl Elaine did not know the English language. This profile about Elaine, was part of the reason why she was appointed by the board of directors. When Elaine was appointed, she was given a salary of $195,000. This salary was less than half of what Aramony’s salary. When she came into the job, she knew that there was a lot to do, and that it was not going to be easy. She knew that the company was damaged severely, which led her to make budget cuts immediately. Elaine had a strong profile about herself, which led her to reconfigure a damaged company that had a bad public …show more content…

CONS: Aggressive media campaigns could be costly if external consulting and marketing firms are hired. If viewed as unnecessary spending this could actually further damage the public’s opinion of the organization. Alternative 4
PROS: This shows people that the company is trying to do good for the community and the one bad egg should not permanently ruin the public’s perception.
CONS: The negative publicity could be the United Way’s ultimate downfall. It is possible that this will not be enough to change people’s minds.

In conclusion, the recommendation is to employ a solution that incorporates a combination of Alternative 2 and Alternative 3. The addition of internal controls in the form of an oversight committee provides sufficient accountability. Making such a change shows the public the United Way’s willingness to be transparent, building public confidence in the organization and hopefully impacting donations in a positive way. Alternative 3 is an important factor in solving the problem because, in addition to making significant changes, the agency needs to communicate that clearly to the public. Launching an aggressive campaign to rebuild the brand, although possibly costly, is the best way to adjust the perception. The United Way does important work in local communities and must help the public refocus

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