My name is Jody Burch and I work at the Bartlesville Regional United Way. I work with ConnocoPhillips to put on the Day of Caring. It's time to start submitting projects for this year's Day of Caring (the official Day is Sep 14, but projects happen "around" then).

Day of Caring is done in conjunction with the ConocoPhillips volunteer Grants and the Bartlesville Regional United Way Campaign. This day is where ConocoPhillips employees (as well as Tri-County students, Jane Phillips Medical, Siemans, 66 FCU, etc). Take a special time to do service in the community. For the projects done by COP, there is a volunteer grant that can come to pay back expenses, etc.

To get benefit of both the workers and the COP match (for their employees) you will need to provide projects that require at least 40 man hours of work (ex. a team of 10 working 4 hours). This is not per project, it's per agency. You may have multiple projects. The goal is for all your projects to add up to add least 40 man hours.

Reimbursement

Your reimbursement is as follows: 40 man hours = $1000

                                                       80 man hours = $2000

                                                      120 man hours = $3000

(NOTE: We can take projects that are not 40 man hour projects, there will just not be a grant amount reimbursed)

The money can be spent on materials for the projects and any surplus goes to your agency. The main catch is that you will need to be able to buy any materials you need up front.

Be creative with ways to use our volunteers. There were so many that wanted to work last year, that some had to be turned away. These volunteers become vested in your agencies as they interact with you and see what good work you provide and may become future volunteers, resources or donors. Some groups adopt the same agency year after year. Think of this as another opportunity to spread awareness of your good work.

Tips for Volunteering

·         Volunteers can do painting, light carpentry, handyman work

·         Think of yearly maintenance that you normally do: landscaping, change light bulbs, organize files, deep cleaning (shampooing carpet, waxing floors)

·         For those that provide services, activity can be included (40 hrs spent with kids, chaperones on a field trip, a two hour activity for your clientele using 20 employees)

·         Filing you can't get around to

·         Cleaning out the store room or closet that you haven't ever gotten to/ hauling stuff to the dump

·         Think about specialties that COP employees may have (IT, accounting, etc)- is there some way they can help your agency (besides develop a website)

·         Walk around your building (with fresh eyes) and look to see what needs work.

You can download the 2011 Agency Project List Template form for the Day of Caring here. Fill one out for each project. Do your best to estimate in the budget section (don't spend hours pricing exact numbers at Lowes). In the past, this was used to determine grant amounts, now this mainly tells us the scope of the project. These are due by June 22 (but, the earlier the better).

Also, feel free to email this to other agencies or organizations you may be acquainted with outside our network. As long as they are a 501c3 and not a church, the grant can be given to them. Our goal this year is more projects, more projects, more projects.

Thank you,

Jody Burch, Campaign Manager and Resource Specialist
Bartlesville Regional United Way
501 S. Johnstone Ave. #550
Bartlesville, OK 74003
Phone: 918.336.1044
Fax: 918.336.1048

 Jody@bartlesvilleuw.org