Become a host of the United Co-op Appeal

If you would like to sign up as a host or would like CDF to contact someone within your organization to talk about hosting a campaign, e-mail Terence Buen at tbuen@cdf.coop.

Click here to see the 2010 UCA campaign brochure.

How do you start a United Co-op Appeal campaign?

• Work with CDF staff to plan your campaign.
• Hold a “kick-off” event within your organization.
• Process the payroll deduction forms and send the results and forms to CDF.

Why host the United Co-op Appeal?

• UCA gives your employees the satisfaction of helping people through a workplace donation.  There are 15 recipients in the 2011 UCA campaign that are engaged in many forms of cooperative development.  Your employees could support work to improve the rural economy by bringing more cooperative businesses to rural America.  They could support work in America’s cities to give people access to affordable housing or to help people make living wages in worker-owned cooperative businesses.  Or they could support work that creates cooperatives in developing nations around the world, generating income and raising the standard of living.
• UCA helps you broaden your employees’ understanding of cooperatives.  Your employees have a good understanding of your business, the relationship you have with your members, and the role your business plays in your community.  UCA helps you broaden their perspective because it shows them that there are many different forms of cooperatives and that cooperatives exist in many different settings.  UCA also helps them understand how cooperative principles are being used to give people more control in their lives and lets them see how the UCA-supported organizations are finding cooperative solutions to many of our current national and international problems.  T his exposure to the cooperative development work of the UCA-supported organizations should make your employees proud to be part of the cooperative community, which is making a difference in so many people’s lives!
• UCA is compatible with other workplace giving programs.  Your decision to host the UCA campaign does not mean that you terminate any other workplace giving program that you already support.  Many organizations combine several charitable giving programs, such as United Way, UCA, and others so that they can offer their employees more choices for their charitable contributions.  There is evidence that combining several campaigns actually creates more interest and raises more funds for everyone!   Some organizations that host UCA in combination with other campaigns sometimes develop their own contribution form that incorporates all of the campaigns.
• UCA is a great investment!  100% of all UCA contributions go directly to the recipient organizations.  CDF receives a grant from the Nationwide Insurance Foundation to cover most of the administrative costs of UCA and CDF covers the rest.  Thanks to a grant from Google, all contributions made through “Google checkout” also are processed free of charge.
• UCA is easy to administer. Whether you are a small office or a large organization, you can participate in UCA!  If you don’t have the resources to administer a payroll deduction system, individuals can support UCA by making a single donation that you send to CDF for distribution to the recipient organizations designated.  If you don’t already have a workplace giving program, it’s really pretty easy to administer.  You kick off the campaign with a management letter and/or employee meeting and your HR staff will handle the contribution forms and set up the payroll deductions.  CDF then manages the allocation of contributions to the recipient organizations after we receive periodic checks from your HR staff.