Frequently Asked Questions

United Way Worldwide is not legally set up to provide direct financial assistance to individuals, but we work with many community partners who do. If you're in the U.S. or Canada, call 211, the 24/7 go-to help number, where real people (fluent in 180 languages) will connect you to available resources in your area. You can also go to 211.org and type in your ZIP code, anywhere in the U.S. or Canada, to email, call, chat or text 211 in your community..

If you live outside the U.S. or Canada, please reach out to your local United Way to find out about local NGOs or programs that could help. You can find your local United Way here. 

If you're in the U.S. or Canada, call 211, the 24/7 go-to help number, where real people (fluent in 180 languages) will connect you to available resources in your area. You can also go to 211.org and type in your ZIP code, anywhere in the U.S. or Canada, to email, call, chat or text 211 in your community.

If you live outside the U.S. or Canada, please reach out to your local United Way to find out about local NGOs or programs that could help. You can find your local United Way here. 

United Way is made up of local leaders who partner with nonprofits, community leaders and organizations across sectors to tackle youth opportunity, healthy communities, financial security and community resilience locally. You all should get to know each other! 

Our network is made up of 1,100+ local, state, regional and country United Ways. Each is led by local leaders, and independently incorporated as a nonprofit organization, with its own grantmaking guidelines. Because most program funding happens locally, reach out to the Community Impact team at your local United Way to learn more.  (You may want to check out their website first, to see what is happening on which issues.)

First, thank you for your service.  If you're in the U.S. or Canada, call 211, the 24/7 go-to help number, where real people (fluent in 180 languages) will connect you to available resources in your area. You can also go to 211.org and type in your ZIP code, anywhere in the U.S. or Canada, to email, call, chat or text 211 in your community..

If you live outside the U.S. or Canada, please reach out to your local United Way to find out about local NGOs or programs that could help. You can find your local United Way here. 

Thank you for supporting stronger communities!

Checks should be made out to United Way Worldwide and sent to:

United Way Worldwide
PO Box 358086
Pittsburgh, PA 15251-5086

For wire transfers, please contact Bruce Friedman for more information.

Employees at local United Ways should be registered at United Way Online, where you can find resources, tools and direct contact information for all United Way Worldwide staff members. Please check out United Way Online or Ask United Way.

Thanks for being willing to give back. You won't be alone! Some 1.4M people in tens of thousands of communities across the world are making a meaningful difference through United Way. 

To find out about volunteer opportunities, connect with your local United Way. Follow them on social media to stay informed about volunteerism events, check out their website, or go old-school by calling them.  Any way you do it, tapping into your local United Way helps you take action to make your community a stronger place for all.

That's great! We have 12K passionate, dedicated people working in our global network. They joined United Way to make a positive difference in the world.  The way we do that is by mobilizing communities to action, so everyone can thrive. 

Reach out to your local United Way directly to find about internships or job opportunities there. Find your local United Way here. 

To see posted job opportunities across the global United Way network, check out the careers area of our website.

That's great! And it's a conversation you should have with your local United Way, unless you're specifically interested in partnering with United Way Worldwide (UWW) in Alexandria, Virginia. 

If that's the case, find out more about UWW's partners and collaborative impact work here.

If you want to work with United Way locally, or in your corporate headquarter region, connect with your local United Way here.

United Way is a global community action network. We're mobilizing communities to action, bringing millions of volunteers, advocates, and donors together to make life better for people around the world.

From strengthening local resilience to advancing health, youth opportunity and financial security-wherever there's a need in our communities, United Way is there.  

We're in tens of thousands of communities across 34 countries, with 1,100+ local, state, regional and country United Ways bringing people together locally to advance community-led solutions. We work with 64K partners and 1.4M volunteers to impact 48M lives every year.

Want to know more about our approach and results?  Please read more on this website about the work of United Way. If you want to connect with your local United Way, click here to find it.

For every dollar donated to United Way, 85 cents goes to our mission.

Overhead rates vary at local United Ways.  In the U.S, the local United Way network-wide overhead rate is 14.5%, which is well below industry standards. United Way helps hundreds of other nonprofits maintain low overhead rates, too.

If you want information about your United Way's expense or overhead rates, please contact your local United Way here. 

We feel strongly that charitable giving should always be a personal matter and decision, free from coercion.  

We don't want campaigns using undue pressure in any way, shape or form. That's not who we are, and it's in direct conflict with our operating standards. That's why we conduct training programs for fundraisers, in which we emphasize the use of information and education instead of pressure tactics. (That's why we recommend workplace fundraising always be led by peers, not managers.)  And we always discourage the practice of setting 100 percent participation as a campaign fundraising goal.

United Way's Board of Directors has made this official by adopting the following policy statement: The Board of Governors of United Way ...  believes that the most responsive contributors are those who have the opportunity to become informed and involved.  A well-planned campaign with an effective communications program, conducted by committed volunteers, will ensure responsive contributors.  While we have always been unalterably opposed to coercion, we do recognize a responsibility to state our beliefs formally, as freedom of choice is a basic tenet of our democratic society.

If you have felt pressured to donate to a United Way campaign, we encourage you to raise those concerns directly with your local United Way, which you can find here.

All local funding decisions are made by the individual United Ways, with the input of local leaders and community stakeholders. United Way Worldwide does not control funding decisions by local United Ways.  In many instances, funding for Planned Parenthood is the result of specific direction from individual donors, including those from the United Way Worldwide Donor Advised Giving program.

Several local United Way partners provide professional family and individual counseling services. Local United Way-funded pregnancy related programs focus on community health maintenance (e.g. communicable disease prevention; medical care service; family planning; health education; public awareness services; and family preservation) and strengthening services like counseling and family life education.