Register a Days of Caring project
and invite volunteers to your agency

365 Days of Caring

For the past 17 years, United Way’s Days of Caring volunteer participation rates have continued to steadily increase. In an effort to take advantage of that caring power for your agency, United Way has expanded Days of Caring from a two day event to a year-round effort to advance the common good through volunteerism. Through United Way’s year-round Days of Caring model your agency can have the volunteers you need when you need them most to help you meet the needs in your community.

Benefits of Days of Caring

• United Way is able to broker between corporations and other large organizations to help connect dedicated individuals and groups to your organization’s ongoing volunteer needs.
• Each spring select agency projects will be chosen as the Days of Caring Signature Site to take place the following fall that will result in those sites receiving increased exposure to local media, access to local leaders and additional project resources.
• When you work with United Way on a customized volunteer project you will receive:
  1. United Way Staff Support (Project management, coordination and logistical support)
  2. Financial assistance to help offset the cost of volunteer materials.
  3. Project management trainings, logistical workshops and other capacity building supports throughout the year.

Days of Caring Project Criteria

In order to be considered as a United Way Days of Caring project site project submissions must fit the following criteria before being approved and posted for selection. United Way reserves the right to decline project submissions that do not fit selected criteria or are deemed inappropriate or unsafe. United Way Days of Caring staff will closely scrutinize registered projects, selecting only those that have the greatest promise of providing a positive and meaningful impact on all stakeholders involved.

United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania’s activities are primarily focused on accomplishing the priority goals outlined in our agenda for community solutions. However, through United Way’s Days of Caring activities we hope to foster a culture of civic engagement in the communities we serve. Therefore we encourage and will accept projects outside of our priority areas meeting the broad interests of volunteers throughout our region.

Projects must meet the following requirements:

• Projects must be submitted at least 8 weeks in advance of proposed activity date.
• Host a minimum of 10 volunteers for a community improvement activity. By registering a project your agency is responsible for facilitating communications, coordinating logistics and organizing site visits with a representative from your matched group prior to your scheduled Days of Caring event.
• Project registrations must be completed in their entirety including location, number of volunteers requested, tasks/activities, anticipated outcomes, and supply costs with itemized stipend request budget. Any changes to the project registration must be submitted and approved by UWSEPA staff.
• All agency project coordinators must annually attend a Days of Caring briefing before hosting a project. For information on attending an upcoming Days of Caring briefing click here.
• Projects should be episodic events that have a clear and defined beginning and end.
• Organizations organizing Days of Caring projects must be non-profit organizations.
• Days of Caring projects may not include the following
  1. Days of Caring Volunteers may not be used as fundraisers. For example Days of Caring volunteers can provide operational support (could include handing out water, cheering walkers etc.) at a fundraising walk, but may not be the actual walkers themselves.
  2. Ongoing activities. For example a weekly mentoring program that matches an adult with a student for long-term support would not be considered a Day of Caring project. However, we encourage this type of program to be posted at liveuniteddelval.volunteermatch.org. After posting your project, let our team know by emailing volunteerway@uwsepa.org and we will feature this opportunity on our home page.
  3. Days of advocacy outside of those done in partnership with UWSEPA.

Download the Days of Caring Project Guide

Download the Days of Caring Project Proposal Form

Please submit all completed Days of Caring proposals to:

Days of Caring
United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania
7 Benjamin Franklin Parkway
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Voice: 215-665-2501
Fax: 215-701-8187
daysofcaring@uwsepa.org

Project Stipends

To help agencies who have been matched with a volunteer group develop and implement their volunteer projects United Way is making available some limited resources to assist in covering any costs that might be incurred. Your form must be submitted to United Way for processing at least one month prior to the date of your United Way Days of Caring project unless other arrangements have been made with staff.

Stipend requests must take into consideration the number of requested volunteers and all corresponding food/supply costs associated with the proposed project. Stipends should be requested only for the costs your organization will incur to host the volunteers. Please keep in mind that while our goal is to meet all the supply needs at each site, there is a limited pool of funds for project stipends, so we may not be able to fulfill your entire request. Please try to be as frugal in your requests as possible. A good rule of thumb is that stipends costs should be no more than $20 per volunteer.

Download the Days of Caring Stipend Request Form

Days of Caring matching process

Through a partnership with VolunteerMatch, United Way has made connecting volunteers to your agency easy. Days of Caring project proposals can now be submitted by local non-profit agencies and other community hosts on an ongoing basis throughout the year. For more information visit liveuniteddelval.volunteermatch.org.