THE HOUSEWIVES' REVOLT

...Since no agency would participate, the Shorewood League conducted a Combined Health Fund Collection with a blank card...

...Some of the Shorewood women wondered what was happening in other parts of the country...

...returned a total of $705.50 with the explanation that "All the checks are being returned because MDAA, Inc...

...The American Cancer Society returned $628.25 earmarked by donors as part of their combined giving, but decided to accept the individual checks made out to the Society directly— amounting to $453—for that year only...

...Further, some agencies apportion the costs of leaflets and other material distributed during campaigns to fund-raising and some to education, so it is difficult to determine when campaign costs are excessive...

...Let's do exactly the same thing," one suggested, "and if they refuse the money again, we'll give it to the University of Wisconsin for medical research...

...A total of $1,700 was returned...

...Only one of the major organizations, United Cerebral Palsy, said, "Yes, thank you," accepting the total contribution of $587...

...and the names, addresses, and amounts contributed by each donor are submitted to the local Unit of the Society within whose boundaries the solicitation occurs.' " The women in Shorewood considered this modification of the Cancer Society's policy a first victory in their attempt to consolidate their efforts as volunteers and as donors...

...The purpose of the volunteers was not to embarrass the national health agencies but to solve the problem of the vanishing block worker and still render assistance to whatever health causes the volunteers chose—no matter who felt chagrin...

...Such decisions, the League felt, would require information it did not have and judgments it was not qualified to make...

...In response to that last sentence, one resident commented: "When I had the job of city chairman for one of the agencies a few years ago, I realized how fed up women are becoming with this constant solicitation and how difficult it is to get workers for any cause...

...The March of Dimes collection was $622, or sixty per cent more than was collected by the Mothers' March the previous year...

...Similar rejections came from other national health agencies...

...This report disclosed that the accounting systems of the agencies were so varied that no meaningful comparative criteria could be established...

...Why can't we go out once for all of them...

...This latter point of view expresses another aspect of the fund-raising scene...

...At the bottom of the card was printed: "Checks may be made payable to the individual agency or to Shorewood League Health Fund...

...The volunteers in Shorewood did not agree...

...In response, the agencies addressed said, "No, thank you...

...As an illustration—ten major agencies reported national fund-raising costs ranging from seven to fifteen per cent of the money collected...

...More money was contributed than in the combined campaigns of any previous year...

...They could not be part of any such combined collection, they said, because they were committed by their national policies to separate solicitations and were convinced that only by separate drives could they keep their identities, maintain their financial success, and promote their educational programs satisfactorily...

...Undaunted by the size of their adversaries, the Shorewood volunteers started their offensive by sending these national agencies a manifesto: "The Shorewood Hills Community League has decided to conduct a Combined Health Fund Drive in their area for the year 1963-64...

...As for research, the Foundation allocates funds wherever needed and as requested by research institutions, which are, primarily, the nation's eighty-five medical schools...

...iting for now?' I'm embarrassed to collect any more...

...They could not believe that they were the only housewives in revolt, since this was a national, not a local, condition against which they were fighting...

...The United Health Foundation is not interested in combating a particular malady as such, but in helping people with any and all health problems...

...Residents again chose to contribute to seventeen different agencies...

...The Shorewood League conducted its first combined collection in March, 1964...

...Although backed by a strong and well-organized community effort, the Cleveland fund was unable either to persuade or coerce the major national health agencies into accepting the money collected by fund volunteers...

...After meeting with representatives of every health agency involved, the League reported to the Village: "The attempts on the part of the Shorewood League to organize a United Health Fund Drive have been rejected by the agencies approached...

...In this spirit, the national agencies were again advised that Shorewood would conduct a combined health fund collection in March, 1965, "on behalf of those health agencies who wish to participate and on behalf of those causes to which we wish to contribute...

...In the Shorewood revolt, few of the donors believed that the national health agencies would refuse the money once it was actually offered...

...All campaign costs will be borne by the League...

...During the 1965 campaign, the Shorewood League printed on its collection card the name of the one participating agency, the American Cancer Society, and several blank lines...

...As the number of agencies has increased over the years, the discontent of the volunteers has grown to the point of revolt...

...In an attempt to solve the problems which multiple fund-raising had created, the Shorewood Hills Community League explored the possibilities of a combined collection...

...A total of $3,800 was collected, about fifteen per cent more than the preceding year...

...The Rockefeller study raised such disturbing questions as these basic ones: Does the country need more than 100,000 local, state, and national voluntary agencies to provide health and welfare services...

...twenty others were strongly committed to the United Givers Fund and felt that this was the only agency through which citizens ought to contribute money, and that all voluntary agencies should be under that roof...

...The Housewives' Revolt by POLLY BRODY TEMKIN Each year the various private na-•*-J tional health agencies muster their separate armies of volunteers to solicit funds in communities across the country...

...That person, they said, can promote and solicit for several health causes at one time just as effectively as at separate times...

...Again, contributions for a specific health cause were to be offered to the appropriate national health agency, with the stipulation that, "Should you feel obliged to refuse such a contribution, the money will be donated to the University of Wisconsin or other agency for appropriate research...

...In that community, members of the fire department had served annually as volunteers for the Muscular Dystrophy Association...

...The National Foundation (March of Dimes) engaged in a lengthy correspondence but its policy of refusal also remained unchanged...

...Also printed on the card was the following release clause: "Should any agency refuse my contribution, I hereby release my gift to the United Givers, Inc...

...We conduct an independent fund drive where our own volunteers have the opportunity to inform the public about this incurable disease...

...The National Foundation (March of Dimes) returned all contributions forwarded by the Shorewood League...

...Why should we have to go out every month for a different cause...

...The League turned it over to the local United Givers Fund, which gratefully accepted the money...

...It was, therefore, a somewhat discouraged Shorewood League board which met in the fall of 1964 to decide whether or not to conduct a combined collection for the second time...

...United Cerebral Palsy accepted the money offered them immediately, but it was several months before the committee heard from the Muscular Dystrophy Association or the National Foundation...

...Most of the added dollars were earmarked by the donors for the American Cancer Society—in apparent community recognition of the Society's concession to the values of a combined campaign...

...Only ten residents voiced disapproval of the combined collection...

...Should you wish to have us distribute any educational material on behalf of your organization, we shall be happy to do so...

...This procedure eliminated any control by the League over the division of funds among the agencies...

...The Madison Chapter of Muscular Dystrophy, after several months delay, replied that it could not accept the funds offered...

...Cerebral Palsy advised that they would accept funds raised on their behalf but could not permit use of their name in the Shorewood campaign...

...Nor was the local chapter of the March of Dimes able to persuade the National Foundation to change its policy, but it was able to accept the contribution this time by having the Shorewood League check re-issued to the Salk Institute —March of Dimes...

...At a coffee hour of volunteers such comments as these are heard: "Every time my neighbor sees me coming she says, 'What are you solicPOLLY BRODY TEMKIN is a free lance writer and housewife who has long been active in voluntary fund-raising drives...

...Similar comments were heard from housewives in the village of Shore-wood Hills, a suburb of Madison, Wisconsin, during the fall of 1963...

...It was learned that the Cleveland Health Fund was essentially the aftermath of a housewives' revolt against too many solicitations...

...A member of the League received a newspaper clipping from a friend in Frankenmuth, Michigan...

...The agencies involved were the American Cancer Society, which in 1960 reported receiving contributions of $34,470,900...

...To sum up: No funds were returned following the 1965 campaign in Shorewood...

...the National Foundation (March of Dimes) which raised $32,690,000...

...A total of $3,271 was donated by 413 families to seventeen different agencies...

...But an audit of their Los Angeles campaigns made by the Board of Social Service Commissioners there disclosed fund-raising costs ranging from 12.5 per cent to 36.2 per cent...

...The Shorewood League decided to insist on a change and thus began a long struggle between a handful of housewives sparked by a spirit of revolt, and a few of the giant national health agencies determined to maintain the status quo and, as they saw it, their independence...

...More than $1,000 was contributed to the American Cancer Society, which was fifty per cent more than had been raised in the separate Cancer Crusade of the preceding year...

...Yet, that is exactly what some of them did...

...The American Cancer Society and the National Foundation each claimed about 3,100 local chapters...

...When Frankenmuth adopted a combined health fund collection, the fire department mailed a share of the contributions to the Association only to have the gifts returned...

...The collection was a remarkable success...

...There was no question, however, about the temper of the Shorewood women...

...This successful revolt of a small group of volunteers may well indicate that times are changing in the field of the voluntary health agencies...

...does not approve of any solicitation on its behalf without its knowledge or approval...

...Each resident was asked to contribute to any and all health agencies he or she chose, and to specify the amounts for each...

...We do not wish to give up completely, so any residents with information about cooperative drives in other communities or any other suggestions might relay them to the League's Fund Drive chairmen and a new approach might be tried...

...As far as they were concerned, the Cancer Crusader, the March of Dimes Mother, and the Muscular Dystrophy Marcher were one and the same person...

...A different kind of revolt, with a broader and more positive program than the housewives' revolt, has been the development of the United Health Foundation, which functions in many communities as an arm of the United Givers movement that raises funds only through United Givers campaigns...

...They may even have considered it silly and petty...

...There was no indication, however, that national MDA policy had changed...

...They also believed that while the agencies had the right to solicit funds as they saw fit, they, as a segment of the public, also had the right to contribute funds as they saw fit...

...The UHF movement, less than ten years old, has been adopted by nearly 200 United Fund communities...

...Some of the committee had read the Rockefeller Foundation's "Study of the Voluntary Health and Welfare Agencies in the United States," published in 1961...

...We will not deprive the public of their traditional freedom to choose to help Muscular Dystrophy or any suffering child or adult, either physically or financially...

...Representatives of the National Foundation (March of Dimes) had met with the League chairman to request that the Foundation be ignored in any collection sponsored by her group, so as not to embarrass the agency...

...Even experts might find it difficult to make these judgments...

...For this reason, the League does not expect to conduct its Health Fund Drive this coming year and the agencies will act independently as in the past...

...The women agreed in general with the study's conclusion that "the problems presented . . . are both substantial and pressing and that more effective use can be made of the immense investment of the American people in their voluntary agencies," and with the survey recommendation that there should be a National Commission on Voluntary Health and Welfare Agencies to continue exploration of the subject...

...and Muscular Dystrophy Associations of America, Inc., $5,568,-200...

...The agencies had no alternative solutions to offer regarding the housewives' problem...

...Eventually, the Madison MDA chapter decided to accept the money offered...

...Cerebral Palsy Association, $12,770,000...

...We propose to operate as a collecting agency only, soliciting our residents with a designated card on behalf of the following agencies: American Cancer Society, National Foundation (March of Dimes), Cerebral Palsy, Muscular Dystrophy, and a blank for any other health agency...

...The American Cancer Society finally agreed to a compromise and notified the Shorewood League: "The policy has been amended in regard to fund-raising activities such as those of your Shorewood Health Fund...

...More women offered to help than in any previous agency campaign —sixty block workers to visit fewer than 600 families...

...Muscular Dystrophy Associations of America, Inc...

...Mostly they had to rely on hearsay, since they knew of no published reports...

...In spite of all the good these agencies do, it is time for the public to reappraise the fund-raising procedures and ask some searching questions about the power and policies, the arrogant attitude, of these nationwide organizations that depend so heavily on the good will, the cooperation, and dedicated effort of housewives throughout the country...

...They forbade the Shorewood ¦ League to use their names on the solicitation card...

...The League was most impressed by the strong expression of approval from the community...

...With the growing participation of government and privately endowed agencies in such services, is there not considerable duplication and overlapping of programs...

...It reads as follows: 'Resolved that funds designated specifically to the American Cancer Society which have been contributed through rural or neighborhood unfederated solicitation may be accepted by the Society as long as Division approval has been received in advance of the solicitation, no restrictions are placed on the Society's Crusade efforts...

...At an earlier meeting with representatives of the American Cancer Society, one of its executives had referred to a revolt in a California community, which had to return to the individual contributors all the monies collected because the solicitation did not provide for a release of funds to the United Givers or anyone else...

...We shall attempt to collect at one time amounts previously contributed separately to the various agencies and shall offer to the agencies involved the total amounts collected on their behalf...

...But, the agencies themselves are too divided to do anything about it, and unless women like ourselves here in Shorewood, and in other parts of the country, take matters into our own hands and insist on a change, there will be no changes...

...It seems that as soon as one health agency joins the United Givers Fund, a new one comes looking for its own block workers...