[4] Individual United Ways mobilize a single fundraising campaign to raise money for various nonprofits, with most donations coming through payroll deductions.

[7] Each affiliate is led by local staff and volunteers and have their own board of directors, independent of United Way Worldwide or a parent organization.

[13][24] Some United Ways let donors choose which focus area or social problems (like helping kids or the elderly) they wish to support, which allocates their gift to a relevant subset of their charities in its network.

[13] If the donor does not earmark a specific cause or organization for their donation, the money goes into a general fund and are allocated to areas of greatest need by the local United Way's volunteer committee.

These funds are provided in the form of contracts in which the nonprofit must deliver programs and are subject to review and audit by the United Way's volunteer committee.

World War I helped disseminate the concept of the Community Chest as the model for federating giving was used to support wartime fundraising efforts.

The Ford Company issued a well-publicized press release stating that the automaker lost $40,000 in executive time and employee productivity with each plant solicitation.

Bayard Ewing, the president of the fund said: "We wanted a simple name that would give people a clearer and more descriptive idea of what our organization is trying to do.

[43][44] These alternative funds challenged the central thesis of the United Way model – that one umbrella organization can serve both the donors' interests and community's needs.

[44] Some United Ways fought against the additions to alternative funds out of fear that nonprofits will suffer when faced with competition and that the multiple donation appeals would cause confusion.

In one case, a delegation from the Bay Area United Way phoned the chairman of the Safeway supermarket chain to lobby against the addition alternative funds in their workplace campaigns in 1988.

[46] The trend of alternative funds continues to today with only 25 percent of the companies conducting a traditional United Way–only campaign (according to a 2009 survey by the Consulting Network).

The suspicious set up raised questions if the companies, which were designed to offer bulk discounts and other cost-savings to local United Ways, were actually being used for Aramony's personal enrichment.

Aramony said he was retiring "to put things back in proper focus ... because media attention is overshadowing the importance of the work of United Way and the countless accomplishments we have made together.

"[50] In April 1995, Aramony was convicted on 23 counts of felony charges, including conspiracy, fraud and filing false tax returns.

[35] Aramony first introduced the donor choice concept to prevent large employers from allowing alternative funds to solicit alongside United Way.

Undoubtedly, initially corporations were not concerned about this reporting system (and) had been making every effort to keep up both the reality and the façade of increased philanthropic dollars.

"[69] The Community Impact suggested that funds were no longer a guarantee and that grants were competitive and performance-based driven by a nonprofit's ability to achieve outcomes related to United Way goals.

[71] By the 2000s, United Way has faced competition for control of the workplace campaign from technology companies offering customized platforms for employee giving and volunteering.

[76] The product was run as a United Way of America subsidiary until it was purchased by CreateHope Inc. in 2008 and spun off as a separate for-profit company TRUiST, Inc.[77] Fundamentally our biggest "competition" is not other nonprofits.

[35][78] Benevity was founded in 2008 and has become the workplace campaign provider of Apple, Microsoft, PayPal, T-Mobile, TripAdvisor, Charles Schwab, and Nike.

[35][80] To better compete with technology companies, Salesforce.org (the philanthropic arm of Salesforce) and United Way Worldwide launched Philanthropy Cloud, a workplace donation platform, in 2018.

[82][83] In November 2020, the HuffPost reported that three female employees at United Way Worldwide filed complaints between 2019 and 2020 with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The investigation found no "actionable harassment, discrimination, or retaliation" at the organization but the report also noted "the need to address the broader organizational and reputation issues.

"[83] Lisa Bowman, who alleged then-CEO Brian Gallagher fired her as retaliation for reporting sexual harassment by another executive, called the inquiry "not a thorough, fair, or reliable investigation.

"[83] The third woman who filed an EEOC complaint (who did not want to be identified for fear of retaliation) said that she was not contacted either by the investigators and that she was "not at all surprised" about the report findings, "It's what I expected.

While United Way's workplace fundraising campaigns may help encourage higher donation levels among co-workers, it may also lead to employees feeling pressure to take part.

"[111] United Way lists guidelines on its national website to prevent coercion, including having non-managers lead the solicitation and discouraging setting campaigns with 100 percent participation goals.

[116] By design, United Way aims to provide support for large, local human service organizations through a process of consensus decision making.

[116] Planned Parenthood, The Boy Scouts of America, counseling services for gay youth, and, initially, programs for people with HIV/AIDS have been excluded to avoid turning off potential donors.