United Way Offers More Activist Role (washingtonpost.com)

United Way Offers More Activist Role (washingtonpost.com): "United Way Offers More Activist Role
In Effort to Expand Fundraising, National Group Urges Affiliates to Pick Issues to Target
By Jacqueline L. Salmon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 30, 2005; Page A05
The United Way of America, seeking to stem recent declines in donations, will announce a plan today to encourage its affiliates to shift from their traditional role as fundraisers and adopt a more activist approach to regional problems.
Under the new system, the United Way's 1,400 local organizations would be encouraged to move away from the 'culture of the thermometer' -- the image traditionally used to illustrate progress in a fundraising campaign -- and join community leaders in identifying societal ills and then use the money raised in United Way campaigns to address them. "