There are a number of lists of United Way agencies that are said to not
support the BSA being circulated around the Internet.   Political
interest groups of either conservative or liberal orientation are using 
these lists to communicate a message slanted to their agenda.   Almost all 
of these lists are inaccurate.

The United Way is a system of 1,400 separately incorporated, independent 
organizations. Each raises money in an annual fund-raising campaign and 
allocates funds to local health and human service agencies.   During the 
height of the homosexual policy controversy in the United States (1999-2001)
and with a lot of pressure from homosexual political advocacy groups, a
very, very small number of United Ways, about 40 of the 1,040 agencies
(approx. 3 percent), announced that they were removing funding from BSA
traditional Scouting operations.   However, the majority of the BSA's
funding from United Ways already didn't go to the BSA traditional Scouting 
operation
but rather to the "other programs" the BSA Councils conduct to fund
at-risk,special needs, handicapped, and in-school programs...most of which 
fall
under the Learning for Life umbrella now.   It should not be surprising
then to find that out of the 40 or so United Ways that announced they did 
not
support the BSA over half continue to support the BSA Learning for Life
program or have resumed simply donating funds to their local councils to
be used as the local councils see fit. This leaves approximately 1 percent
of the independent United Way agencies not supporting the BSA in any way.
As you can see, we are talking about very small numbers here.

Related sites:
http://national.unitedway.org/aboutuw/boyscouts.cfm
http://www.scouting.org/nav/enter.jsp?s=3Dmc&c=3Dps

© 2008 FAQS.ORG. All rights reserved.