L.A. United Way Gives Donors More Control : Charity: Chapter will let contributors direct money to specific organizations. Minority groups have complained that previous method was unfair.

Restructuring the way it collects and distributes tens of millions of dollars, the United Way of Greater Los Angeles will soon allow donors to have more control over which organizations receive their contributions, officials announced Friday.

At a time when diverse charitable groups are competing in the workplace for paycheck deduction donations, the United Way has decided to offer a “donor choice program,” designed to allow contributors, rather than agency officials, determine where donations will be used.

“This is very significant,” said Herbert Carter, president of the United Way of Greater Los Angeles. “We are trying to be responsive to what things donors are asking--more choice and flexibility to direct where their dollars go.”

Historically, the United Way has operated on a “community chest” concept, distributing funds from a general pool to member health and human service organizations, with charities and their funding allocations determined by local United Way officials and volunteer community advisers.

However, in recent years, minority organizations and other special-interest groups have complained that the United Way’s good works do not go far enough to address the needs of rapidly changing communities. Locally, this has given rise to a number of competing funding groups, such as the Asian Pacific Community Fund, the United Latino Fund, the Brotherhood Crusade and Earth Share of California.

Since the 1970s, donors have had some choices in directing their money to specific United Way organizations, but critics say the former program confused the public.

Some complain that the changes will not do enough to extend new support to community agencies.

Robert Bothwell, executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, a watchdog group for charitable organizations, criticized the new program, calling it little more than a marketing strategy.

“This is a charade,” Bothwell said. “The same organizations that the United Way has funded are going to continue to get the same kind of money as in the past. . . . This is not altruism.”

But Carter said the new United Way donor program “recognizes the changing times and circumstances and is an appropriate self-renewal.”

In its campaign drives this year, donors will have three contribution options. Money can be directed to a general fund, which will allow the United Way to decide how funds will be allocated to member agencies.

Donors can select among eight issue areas--including elderly care, at-risk youths, literacy and AIDS--and United Way officials will direct funds to appropriate agencies serving those needs. Or donors can write in the name of any nonprofit organization.

Carter said most member agencies will be able to address the areas that donors direct funding toward. New agencies will be brought in if the need exists, he said.

“The problem is this will reduce the number of dollars that are available for allocation on a community-wide basis through the normal United Way process,” Carter said, adding that research estimates that donors will target about $9 million of the $70 million the agency expects to collect next year to specific organizations. “There is an uneasiness among member organizations about what donor choice will mean,” he said.

Florence Newsom, executive director of the Angeles Girl Scout Council, said she is worried about funding. Although the Girl Scouts are perceived to be well-funded, her chapter relies on the United Way to help it serve low-income youths in some inner-city neighborhoods.

“We are feeling very unsure about this,” said Newsom, whose council received about $300,000 last year. “We really don’t know what will happen.”

In the coming 1992-93 campaign, Carter has lowered fund-raising expectations to $70 million. The reduction takes into account continued hard economic times, the break-off of the Mt. Baldy United Way chapter from Los Angeles and a federal government employee collection drive that was awarded to an alternative group called the Independent Charities of America based in San Francisco.

This year, the local chapter took in about $85 million--$3 million short of projected goals. However, considering the recession, high regional unemployment and a money scandal in the national United Way organization, Carter called the recent campaign a “minor miracle.”

Earlier this year, former United Way of America Chairman William Aramony resigned after it was revealed he used charitable contributions to finance a lavish personal lifestyle.