Asian, Black Charities Seek Payroll Deduction Rights

Two ethnically oriented charities in Los Angeles are trying to step up competition in the workplace for donations by paycheck deduction--long the fund-raising domain of the philanthropic powerhouse United Way.

The Brotherhood Crusade, a black-run foundation formed in the aftermath of the Watts riots, is trying to expand its rights to conduct office campaigns from the public sector to private companies. The crusade’s overtures have been resisted so far by two large utilities, but officials take heart from the fact that Safeway in Northern California and Pacific Power & Light in Oregon, among others, have acceded to similar requests from so-called “alternative funds.”

And the recently established Asian Pacific Community Fund of Southern California wants to follow in the crusade’s footsteps. The fund was created by 11 Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean and Southeast Asian service agencies. Board members say they hope to win payroll-deduction rights among employees of Los Angeles County, as the crusade did, and grow from there.

The Los Angeles United Way is clearly displeased by such activity. “I think there is room in this city for a Brotherhood Crusade, for an Asian crusade, or other such groups that have a particular focus,” said Herbert L. Carter, the newly installed--and first minority--United Way chairman. “But I do not believe that the payroll-deduction method is the right approach.”

He said employees can already designate contributions to the other funds through United Way, without separate campaigns. United Way charges a 10% administration fee for passing the money along.

And United Way, Carter noted, is at the midpoint of a yearlong review of minority participation. Already, United Way has committees working to recruit more black, Asian and Latino volunteers.

“Do you really achieve by constantly carving out small enclaves of activity or do you do that by involving yourself in the mainstream?” Carter asked rhetorically.

But officials from the crusade and the Asian Pacific fund say they intend to push for their own payroll-deduction rights anyway.

“As far as the United Way is concerned,” said Danny Bakewell Sr., the crusade president, “they’ve got to wake up and talk about ‘both/and,’ not ‘either/or.’ ” The crusade concentrates on giving to smaller, minority-operated agencies, such as the Family Helpline, the Fair Housing Foundation of Long Beach, East Los Angeles Shelter for Battered Women and the Minority AIDS Project.

Added Alan Woo, chairman of the Asian Pacific fund: “I’m not anti-anyone and I don’t think our fund is anti-anyone. It’s a historic statement for the Asian Pacific community. There is sufficient leadership, there are sufficient Asian Pacific companies, there are Asian Pacific employees in companies. We want to use our own resources to benefit our community.”

National Phenomenon

The Los Angeles efforts echo a national phenomenon. Ten years ago, about a dozen “alternative funds” existed to channel money to agencies serving minority communities, or focusing on health, the environment or women’s issues. They raised a total of about $1 million from payroll deductions. By last fall, about 40 brought in about $22 million at the workplace, said Robert O. Bothwell, executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy in Washington.

The “alternative funds” have sought payroll-deduction rights for the same reason that United Way did, Bothwell said: It is convenient for employees, who tend to give larger amounts when allowed to pay by installment rather than in one lump sum.

One Rhode Island group, which financed social-justice programs, took in $4,300 when state employees had to make a special effort to ask United Way to send their money to the fund, Bothwell said. The next year, running its own campaign, the group received $43,000, he said. Government employers were the first targets of the “alternative funds” because politicians were more vulnerable to lobbying than corporate executives, Bothwell said.

‘Corporate Access’

These days, Bothwell said, “the issue of United Way monopoly in the public sector has all but been resolved. The new phase is corporate access.”

The Brotherhood Crusade has been concentrating on utility companies, partly because many minorities are employed there, partly because many minorities are customers and partly because they are publicly regulated and the crusade hopes that legislators may bring pressure to bear.

After being frustrated by unsuccessful attempts to meet with top executives, the crusade bought 20 shares of stock in each of three firms: Southern California Edison, Southern California Gas Co. and Pacific Bell.

The first two have held their annual shareholder meetings since the stock purchases. At both, Bakewell represented the crusade’s shares. Both times, protesters chanted slogans outside in support of the crusade, while inside, under chandeliers in hotel ballrooms, Bakewell made a pitch for payroll-deduction rights.

Campaigns in Progress

He noted that the Brotherhood Crusade already conducts campaigns among employees of Los Angeles County, the city of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Unified School District, the Southern California Rapid Transit District and other government entities, bringing in about $1 million a year (United Way attracted 88 times that amount last year). The crusade also has payroll-deduction access at the Boys chain of markets in mostly inner-city locations.

In April, Howard Allen, chairman of Edison’s parent company, SCEcorp, told Bakewell to sit down and let other shareholders speak. But he agreed to meet with crusade representatives. “We still plan to meet that commitment,” said SCEcorp spokeswoman Becky Sordelet. “It hasn’t occurred yet, but it will.”

In May, Paul A. Miller, chairman of Pacific Enterprises, which owns the gas company, told Bakewell he was proud of the utility’s record of employee giving. “Our people are not satisfied that we should open the doors to any group other than the United Way,” he said.

Miller, who is a United Way board member, said he is satisfied that the organization serves “a good cross-section of the community.”

‘Wouldn’t Be Fair’

The gas company invited Bakewell to meet with Vice President of Public Affairs Marc Christensen sometime this month, spokesman Ralph Cohen said. But, Cohen added, officials continue to believe that offering payroll-deduction rights to the Brotherhood Crusade “wouldn’t be fair because we’d have to honor all these other groups as well.” The Environmental Federation of California and the Combined Health Appeal have made similar requests and received similar responses, he said.

So far, for Los Angeles County, multiple charitable campaigns have not been cumbersome, said Evelyn Gutierrez, the administrator who oversees them. United Way and Brotherhood Crusade make presentations to employees during the same campaign season, from mid-September through mid-November, she said. Last year, United Way raised $2 million from county employees and the Brotherhood Crusade got about $750,000, she said.

Because the deduction system is computerized, “it’s not a tremendous burden,” she said. “It gives our employees some options. As we understand it, the Brotherhood Crusade has an immediate impact on smaller agencies. . . . Brotherhood Crusade seems to respond more quickly.”

But when told about the Asian Pacific fund’s plans to approach the Board of Supervisors, Gutierrez said: “Oh, my goodness! I really think either United Way or Brotherhood Crusade could embrace that.”