In my role as webmaster at United Way, I review every piece of electronic communication that comes to us via the website. If you fill out one of our contact forms, or make a donation, or comment on a blog post, or sign up for a newsletter or send a letter to your Senator using our online tools, I see it.

I monitor all the conversations that are taking place on the web about our organization as well. If there's a blog post, or comment on a news story, or a Tweet about United Way, chances are, I see that too.

It's one of my favorite, and least favorite, parts of my job.

It's my favorite because, admittedly, I'm nosey. I just like knowing what's going on. But, more than that, I love connecting with those that care enough about the work this organization and its volunteers are doing to drop us an email or make a donation or write about their experience with us online. I believe in the good work of United Way and I like to meet like-minded folks.

But then there are the naysayers and they make this part of my job so very unpleasant.

Now, I'm not just talking about those that have legitimate concerns or questions about United Way. We are never above questioning, of course. But there are those that take advantage of the anonymity of online communication and use it to spread misconceptions or sometimes, unfortunately, outright lies.

It tears me up every time I read an accusation that we only want to take people's money - not help them, or that our employees are chauffeured by private drivers, or that our CEO is flying around the country on his private plane, or that we are anti-Boy Scouts / anti-GLBT / anti-Christian / too Christian / too right-winged / too left-winged, paying Kanye West (I'm not making this up), or discriminatory against people in certain zip codes... The list goes on and on. Trust me, I've read a lot in the last eight years.

(Quickly: We are in this business to help. We drive ourselves us to work - or take the bus - or walk. We fly coach. We choose programs to partner with based upon needs and outcomes. We are inclusive. We are not affiliated with any one political party or religion - the work of community change belongs to suburbanites, city residents, conservatives, liberals, Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and atheists alike. We serve everyone in Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties. And, if Kanye was on the payroll [he's not], I would pay big bucks to listen in on the professional development conversations between my boss and him!)

I've tried various responses to the criticisms. When I was but a newbie, someone wrote something pretty nasty about our CEO, Mike, on the Freep.com comments and I responded, trying to debunk a rumor. And that worked like a charm... not.

I was skewered. In fact, the conversation ended with a not-so-gentle suggestion that I go "back to Ireland" and drink "myself to death." I can't tell you why the commenter assumed I was Irish but, for the record, I am not and drinking myself to death is now on my to-do list - right under "Disagree with someone on the Freep.com comments again."

For the most part, I've come to separate the majority of the naysayers into two categories - those who are just looking for a fight and those that truly don't understand what it is that we do here. I've learned to give up on those that are just looking for a fight. But, for those that just don't understand, I've been trying to figure out how it is that we can better help them understand that we aren't a bunch of gremlins that spend the day laughing like children while we roll around in piles of your money.

I wish I could bring each and every one of you down to our office for a meet-and-greet. I firmly believe that if you just met us and saw that we are just like you - that we work hard, that we take our jobs very seriously and that we really do care about this community, that we could all move beyond the naysaying and just start doing what we are supposed to be doing - working together instead of against each other.

So, I've decided to do the next best thing - I'm going to bring us to you. I'm committing to blog about as many of my colleagues and their work as possible.

For those of you that already know us, now you'll know us better. For those of you that don't, I hope this prompts you to want to get to know us and this organization better. And for those just looking for a fight (because I have a hard time just giving up), maybe you'll finally begin to believe that United Way is comprised of hundreds of employees and volunteers that are highly committed to being the best stewards of your gifts of time, talent and money.