'the' with an organization's name
I'm confused with the use of 'the' when mentioning an organization name. E.g.: 'the WHO' or just 'WHO', 'the IDG' or just 'IDG' (Internatinoal Data Group).

Thank you!

Question

'the' with an organization's name
I'm confused with the use of 'the' when mentioning an organization name. E.g.: 'the WHO' or just 'WHO', 'the IDG' or just 'IDG' (Internatinoal Data Group).

Thank you!

Answer

This is nothing more than a rule of thumb, with potentially numerous exceptions. However, my thought is that abbreviations of governmental or quasi-governmental agencies are generally used with the article "the" (e.g., the CIA, the FBI, the WHO, the FDA, etc), whereas private companies (and universities) generally do not use the article (such as IBM, IDG, UCLA, USC)... Again, there are likely numerous exceptions to this rule of thumb.