On December 16th, it was announced that Washington State was one of nine states to win a collective $500 million from the federal government, part of an education initiative – the “Race to the Top” grant competition! The goal of the competition and the funds are specifically for states to invest in more children from birth to five years old so that they are ready for kindergarten. Washington State placed third among the 37 applications and will receive a four-year grant totally $60 million dollars…

The kitchen at Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission (UGM) serves roughly 27,000 meals every month to those in need. Each night for dinner, they see approximately 350 guests in their small cafeteria, located in downtown Seattle. That’s a whole lot of chopping and dicing for the three cooks on staff, tasked with preparing enough servings to go around.

After spending Day of Caring volunteering in the Kitchen at UGM, a group of Seattle area lawyers, led by volunteer Mari Horita, got to experience first-hand all the…

United Way of King County’s Day of Caring was a day devoted to harnessing the power of volunteers!  Over 11,000 volunteers from business and community groups fanned out throughout King County to work with hundreds of nonprofits on 400 + projects.  The accomplishments of this army of volunteers were remarkable.  Seeing so many volunteers at work on behalf of the community was truly inspirational.  To access some of these amazing volunteer stories check out the September 28^th blog post Great work – great stories.…

One of my favorite things about working here at United Way of King County is hearing the stories from people that are out there doing good work.  11,000 volunteers worked at projects for United Way of King County’s Day of Caring on September 16, and I’ve had the pleasure of hearing about a number of their experiences.  I thought I’d share some of them with you from volunteers who have blogged about their day of volunteering  Here are some of the ones that I’ve found so far.  If you’ve got…

Today, I am moving on. After three years working in the Brand department at United Way of King County, I’m saying my farewells.

My first encounter with United Way of King County was in the late ’90s. I was working as a copywriter at Nordstrom, and the fall campaign season was kicking off.  There was an event called “Day of Caring,” and coworkers were signing up. The more I heard, the more I wanted to join in. It sounded like an amazing thing–and it…

As you may have heard, United Way of King County’s Day of Caring is the single largest day of volunteering in Washington State, and this year we anticipate over 10,000 people will spend the day volunteering with local organizations. That’s huge! Already, 9,000 people have signed up to volunteer all over King County, including groups from Microsoft, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, AT&T and many more. Use the search box on the map below to see where your favorite local company will…

When United Way of King County board member and CEO of the new tech company Pirq asked Bill Gates how cash strapped startups could create a culture of giving back to the community, Gates told him to build a way to give back into the actual business model of the company.   That’s exactly what Sun did with the ‘Deals for Meals’ program.

Pirq is a new smartphone app that  connects users to great deals at restaurants and cafe’s in real time, where…

When you live in a part of the world that only sees about 71 clear days per year, it’s hard to justify spending any more time inside than absolutely necessary during the summer months, even if it is for a good cause. Fortunately, there are numerous summertime volunteer opportunities that will allow you to get your daily dose of vitamin D while giving back to the community. Don’t forget the sunscreen!

Seattle Tilth: Promote organic gardening and support local food systems by volunteering at…

Earlier this week, our Public Policy department decided to reach out to community members involved in our Volunteer Reader Program. Via e-mail, we asked volunteers to do more to help support early learning in our state.

 Volunteers were asked to sign on to a letter thanking our King County Legislature for its outstanding bipartisan effort to support early learning in Washington. We were very excited when enthusiastic and highly positive responses came flying in. In all, a total of 35 Volunteer…

Thanks to the combined advocacy of our United Way constituents nd partner organizations, United Way of King County was able to achieve many of its legislative asks even in one of the most challenging economic years on record.  Below is a summary of the outcomes of our main advocacy efforts for FY 2011-2013.

 2011-2013 Budget Outcomes

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