The United way is the largest American charity organization (6)

The United way is the largest American charity organization founded in 1887. It is an intermediary for finances that provides activities for raising funds mainly through employee payroll deductions from donor organizations and then funds agencies that can deliver services in the target community. Another source of funding comes from government grants, individual donations, but mostly from local business employees. These funds are raised for respective communities to address their critical needs.

United Ways aims to bring attention to the issues that challenge communities worldwide. Their mission is raising awareness of unemployment, poor education and lack of it, lack of health care, and lack of shelter. The United Ways brings the spotlight to these issues by facing them. The mission of United Ways is jarring a wake-up call to the world on the problems that cannot be ignored. In 2009, The United Way of America changed its name to United Ways Worldwide, then merged itself with United Way International to try and curb the increase in need and reduction in giving that was trending. They focused on advancing the common good, like addressing causes of problems  The organization has changed over the years to launch its first own fight campaign in 2017, which was to invite people to support them in helping solve world issues. Their message is hope, and they effectively offer aid by solving underlying problems, collecting funding, and channeling it to these issues.

The organization faces various challenges which complicate attaining its goals. The first general environmental pressure is economic turndowns. Economic turndowns cause slow contributions even after the turndowns are over. People experience jobs with fewer hours, stagnating wages, and less pay during an economic turndown. Secondly, the charity industry faces trust issues because charity organizations like The United Ways have to act as practice models for financial and management accountability. The United Ways has previously faced three ethical scandals that were high profile, and they had to fight the issue to build and retain people’s trust, which is crucial in this industry. Dealing with confidence while competing with other competitive charitable organizations could prove complicated. Thirdly, the United Ways faces competition for donations. They have to raise funds for operation costs, difficulty in keeping and recruiting fundraisersqualified fundraisers. The challenge n raising funds arises from issues like smallholders thinking that if rich people donate, what is the use of their small amounts.

Governance mechanisms are challenging for Non-governmental organizations prevalent governance ones because people who donate require revenue streams to be diversified. The specific functions they are presenting it for. This makes it hard for organizations because they have to have many departments to allocate those funds to particular parts (Rosenfeld et al., 2019). Joint governance raises conflict among board members’ goals. Regardless of the degree of good communication and information reaching all members, they will still have problems agreeing on missions and goals. The objectives of different stakeholders are different, which may cause challenges in the organization’s overall mission.

The United world Ways has put in place strategies that could help fight these environmental pressures in service delivery. Some of these strategies include enhancing excellence standards by increasing the accountability level of members and transparency. It does this to maintain trust and continually be perceived as a legitimate organization to receive donations. The United World Ways has also started dealing with the root causes of world issues like poor health care in some areas instead of just distributing funds to these areas (Jones et al., 2020). This strategy is effective when the economy faces a turndown and a lack of funding. Dealing with the root problems makes it easier to curb the environmental pressures in delivering their services. The forces make implementing this strategy easier because they will be deemed as looking for legitimate solutions and not just temporary ones.

The United Ways could work more with all leaders, informal and formal, to develop shared goals and visions for the community. By doing these, they can prioritize issues and identify the crucial ones to deal with first. They could also with organizations and individuals to acquire the necessary assets. United Ways could strictly implement the new excellence standards to maintain the faith and trust people have in their legitimacy. These standards were developed to promote effectiveness, and adhering to them will benefit. Operating in transparency and high levels of accountability should be the United Ways’ goal to provide cost-effective systems and ensure the achievement of their mission.

The United Ways and other organizations like this are important in raising awareness of global issues. They help communities worldwide in dealing with their joint problems by raising funds for them. These organizations should be supported and run with utmost transparency because people make them.