SOUNDS LIKE YOUR EMPLOYER WAS EXTORTING MONEY FROM YOU!When I first got out of college, I worked at a place that had a lot of WWII vets. You didn't dare mention Red Cross around them. They were universally hated.
Salvation Army was commonly listed as the most effective charity, in that they didn't pay out huge salaries or have big overhead, so the highest percentage of money actually went to the poor. Unfortunately, they decided to go "woke" and expound upon how white people are to blame for all the world's problems. They will never again see a cent of my money.
United Way is largely a scam. The big bosses make incredible salaries. They used to force us to contribute to it at work. If you didn't, you were listed as "not being a team player", and that was used against you for promotions and pay raises. I tried to buck the system when I was first starting out, only to find myself called into the director's office for a special "talk". I quickly groveled and gave in while I still had a job. I found that I could direct my contribution to places I thought were worthwhile, so I divided it between the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. Then the Boy Scouts went bankrupt because they tried to cover up the number of sex predator incidents, so now they are "woke" and let girls join.
Go woke, go broke.
During my years in an engineering company in Houston, we were yearly asked to participate in united way. The project manager of our team obtained a list of agencies supported by united way. Everyone in the group declined to participate.