Let’s begin by giving credit where credit is due: To the extent that the United States has a culture of giving, United Way and its workplace campaigns (along with religious organizations and the federal tax code) deserve a fair bit of credit.

According to Heather E. Price, co-author with Patricia Snell Herzog of “American Generosity,” friends and community members are the two factors that appeared most often when the researchers studied what or who most influenced higher giving levels. A workplace campaign can capitalize on both, since many people are friends with their co-workers.

Those campaigns have also proved plenty irritating for employees. So many of them felt pressured to give, or give more, that United Way now posts a number of guidelines on its site to warn companies away from heavy-handedness. Peers, not bosses, should lead fund-raising efforts, and 100 percent participation goals may make employees uncomfortable if they do not want to give at the office.

Campaign tactics aside, what can a middleman offer under the best of circumstances? Jason Saul, founder of Mission Measurement, which helps organizations calculate the impact of charitable dollars and has done work for several United Way chapters, laid out three historical categories of assistance.

First, United Way promised to make sure that money did not go to illegal charities. Then, the local chapters offered expertise about community needs that many citizens would not have recognized. Finally, United Way held out the promise that the causes and organizations it picked would help each donor’s charitable dollars have more impact than if that person, acting alone, picked the recipients.