Explanation for those not in the US:
United Way of greater Houston is a non-profit that allegedly allocates donations (of $ and time) into the most "valuable" charity projects.
Every year all the brown-nosers, supervisors and executives put together a $h1tt show with contests, prices, a dedicated website to collect donations, and prices (including a car) and will signal in yammer, their supervisors, and their sponsors how much they love this corporate initiative and how proud they are to be working for such a noble cause.
High-fliers will eagerly volunteer to take part of this, will donate a 4 figure number (you get a special ribbon for this) to signal everyone (primarily your sponsor) how big of a brown-noser they are, and they even host special meetings to preach about "the gift of giving" and on how proud they feel to be part of such a noble corporation that cares so much about the community.
You can even win a premium dedicated parking space in the parking garage (close to the elevators so your fat a$$ doesn't have to be transported more than a few feet) with a sign "united way champion" so everyone knows that you are the biggest brown-noser on Campus.
Employees are mandated to log into a dedicated website and "pledge" (you can pledge zero if you want). They monitor if you have logged in but not how much you pledged (allegedly). Supervisors will pester you to log in and pledge because they will be reprimanded if their group doesn't get to 100% participation.
But the most insulting of all this is, as OP states, that those who engage and participate eagerly in this farce tend to believe they are somewhat endowed with some higher virtuousity, morality and superior values than those who don't, who are dismissed as unvirtuous cultural misfits.
The corporation also spends quite a lot of $$$ in this nonsense, and you can sign up to some project (sponsored by United Way) and would let you take the day off.
But don't be fooled, rest assured that the "virtuous" brown-nosers tend to sign up to projects that involve inanimate things but not rael people.
Between going to the children's hospital and making a terminally ill child smile by reading a book or something alike, or going to some empty anonymous house to paint a fence and beautify a garden, the "virtuous" ExxonMobil brown-nosers will choose always the second option.