Charities outside of United Way campaigns are gaining an increasing share of the millions of dollars that American workers give through workplace campaigns, a report said Thursday. The report was issued by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, which has campaigned for giving workers access to newer and smaller charities that are not usually part of United Way campaigns. The committee, representing more than 300 fund-raising organizations, was established in 1976 to monitor developments in philanthropy. Alternative organizations are getting 10.1 percent of the money raised in workplace campaigns, the report said. Ten years ago, it said, alternative groups got 3.5 percent of the total. Among the alternative organizations are some health agencies such as the Muscular Dystrophy Association; international agencies such as CARE and Oxfam America; arts funds; the United Negro College Fund; and agencies which raise money for social action causes and women's and environmental groups. All told, United Way campaigns are expected to raise $3.2 billion in contributions this year, two-thirds of it through payroll deductions and other employee contribution programs. Organizations not under the United Way umbrella are expected to raise $205 million from employee contribution programs. ``We have already witnessed the dismantlement of the United Way's monopoly of workplace fund raising,'' said Robert Bothwell, executive director of NCRP. ``Our figures indicate that the 1990s will produce a 20 to 25 percent market share for alternatives to United Ways.'' Clark LaMendola, senior vice president of the United Way of America said the report failed to make clear that United Way acts as the campaign manager for raising most of the money collected by the alternative organizations. ``We get the volunteers together, we raise the money, we print the pledge cards, we count the money and we make sure the organizations get it,'' he said. He said the report gives the erroneous impression ``that these funds are somehow raised independently.'' Two-thirds of the $205 million expected to be raised this year on behalf of the alternative organizations will be solicited by campaigns managed by United Way, LaMendola said. The NCRP report said alternative charities made their most significant gain in the huge Combined Federal Campaign, which collects contributions from federal employees. CFC is the world's largest workplace charity drive. It solicits contributions from almost five million workers. In 1987, it collected $187 million. In 1980, United Way organizations got 71 percent of all money collected by the federal drive. By 1989, their share had fallen to 37 percent, the report said. ``CFC donors have sent out a message that has been picked up by workplace giving campaign decision makers across the country, in both the public and private sectors,'' said Don Sodo, who champions broader workplace fund drives. ``They have demonstrated that they are interested in a wide variety of charities, including those that provide services not within the somewhat limited United Way umbrella.'' Sodo is executive director of National-United Services Agencies, which represents 87 widely divergent organizations, including the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, National Organization for Women Legal Education and Defense Fund, Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum, Ralph Nader's Public Citizen and the National Right to Life Educational Trust. The NCRP fought successfully in court and in Congress during the 1980s to broaden CFC drives to include alternative charities, including some lobbying and advocacy groups. The federal campaign now collects for United Way, seven other national federations, 220 unaffiliated agencies and thousands of local unaffiliated charities and federations, the report said.
