Campaign coordinators are the lifeblood of United Way of King County’s fundraising efforts. They often coordinate workplace giving campaigns on top of their regular jobs. At this year’s Spirit of Caring Celebration, we saluted three of our top coordinators.

Ben Farrow

From the get-go, Ben Farrow ensured that Puget Sound Energy was well-positioned for a successful campaign season. He secured top-level management support and developed a keenly strategic campaign plan. At this year’s campaign kickoff, he and the team organized two lunch-hour volunteer activities to engage…

Every year at our Spirit of Caring Celebration, United Way of King County recognizes an Outstanding Employee Volunteer Program at a local company. For 2009-2010, that company is Deloitte.

Volunteering is an integral component of Deloitte’s corporate culture. The company has a deep commitment to skills-based volunteering, pro bono services, capacity-building philanthropy, nonprofit board service and thought leadership.

Deloitte’s employee volunteer program is at the heart of its community involvement initiative. It includes a cutting-edge, $50 million pro bono program, board service, a year-round volunteer project…

At the 2010 Spirit of Caring Celebration, we honored Microsoft with the Innovative Fundraising Award for breaking new ground and exploring creative ways to motivate employees to give to its workplace giving campaign.

The Microsoft Auction Tool
Microsoft IT built an online auction tool to help raise funds for United Way among employees. Over time, the capabilities of the tool have increased dramatically, in part because the tool has migrated to Windows Azure, the company’s new cloud services platform. Using Azure has enabled dramatic enhancements of…

We recently honored the best in giving and volunteering with our annual Spirit of Caring Awards. Sandy Gregory, Lucy Pruzan and Elaine Sells all were award winners, and we are proud to tell you more about them!

Elaine Sells: Volunteer of the Year

When it comes to stepping up and giving back to the community, Elaine Sells leads the way. Elaine has volunteered with United Way of King County’s Impact Council since 2004. She’s been instrumental in helping guide the direction of our work to end homelessness…

Note: This piece was originally published in the Seattle P-I five years ago. Unfortunately, the GAU program is on the chopping block again. The arguments put forth by United Way CEO Jon Fine and United Way board member Dan Brettler are still true today and powerful reasons to preserve GAU. Take action to save GAU by contacting your senator. More info is at the bottom of the post.

Darren Branning lived under a bridge in Renton and did his best to stay as far away from…

First Lady Michelle Obama is taking on the challenge of childhood obesity through her Let’s Move campaign.

As a result, One of the key issues that she is addressing is “food deserts”, as seen in the video embedded above.  According to Mrs. Obama, they’re going to be investing $400 million a year to eliminate food desserts in America.

Food deserts, as you may know, are areas in low-income communities where healthy, affordable foods are not easily accessible.  This leads to families eating high-fat and unhealthy food because they…

Disclaimer:  The views expressed in this post (or any post on this blog, for that matter) represent the opinion of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of United Way of King County staff or volunteers.

My logic tends towards the illogical, as many of you know, so try to stick with me here:

What Is Affordable Housing? from the Center for Urban Pedagogy on Vimeo.

The Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP), a nonprofit that uses design and art to improve the quality of public participation in urban planning and community design, created a great video and website that explains what the term “affordable housing” means.

For those of you who didn’t already know, the government defines affordable housing as housing that costs no more than 30% of your income.

The video goes on to discuss the implications of affordable housing has on low-income families…

Get your taxes done for FREE!!

Now through April 15, 2010, United Way of King County will operate 17 free tax preparation sites throughout King County.  Tax assistance will be provided by over 550 volunteers who are trained and certified by the IRS.

Who is eligible for this service?

What services are available at tax sites?

United Way of King County’s Spirit of Caring Celebration is a special evening dedicated to recognizing and thanking the extraordinary people in our community who are stepping up, standing out and giving back—including you!

Please join us March 3 at the Hyatt Regency Bellevue for drinks, hors d’oeuvres and raucous rounds of applause for the winners of the Spirit of Caring Awards, United Way’s highest form of community recognition.

Notable nominees:

It takes a Village (i.e. lots of committed and engaged volunteers)…to create community change.  Ever wonder what it takes to engage volunteers?  Seattle Works knows that effective volunteer engagement doesn’t happen without great Volunteer Managers and Leaders.  So they have teamed up with Washington State’s Association of Volunteer Centers to help support VAN (Volunteer Administrator’s Network) – a professional association that provides support, resources, training and mentoring opportunities for Volunteer Managers and Leaders.  That support for VAN comes in the form of an AmeriCorps VISTA…