Volunteers make up the lifeblood of Philadelphia Children’s Foundation. Just a few hours of your time with PCF can help make a positive, lasting impact on the students and youth we serve. Please contact us if you are interested in helping during a volunteer day or on your own during the week.
Computer Refurbishers
We are looking for volunteers to assist with refurbishing computers. Volunteers can work during office hours and we also schedule weekend times to coordinate many volunteers together.
Though you do not need any technical training or ability, it helps to have a basic understanding of computers and software. We will teach you everything you need to know – some of the tasks volunteers help us with are:
- Cleaning computers, monitors, and keyboards
- Testing monitors & attaching stands
- Adding hard drives and memory
- Conducting computer diagnostics
- Installing software, operating systems
Book Sorting/Labeling
The books we provide to schools are most often sorted and labeled using the 100-Book-Challenge. This is different from the Dewey System in that it codes books according to reading level. For instance, a 1st grade student can choose from green, blue, or even red labeled books depending on their reading level. So the student can simply look on any shelf and pick out the books they’ll be able to read (not too easy and not too hard).
PCF often helps to re-label books in existing school libraries or if we acquire donated books, we will label them before we donate them to a school. Coding the books entails looking them up on the Internet and then applying the appropriate color tape to the spine of the book.
Warehouse Organizing
When we receive donated equipment, it typically arrives in very large containers (boxes 6′ tall and 4′ wide). They are typically filled to the rim with an assortment of equipment all mixed up. We can always use help separating the contents of these boxes.
Recent Volunteer News:
One Way to Spend Your Spring Break…
Western Suburbs Chapter volunteers Ashwin and Srikar chose to spend time volunteering for PCF during their short Spring Break holiday this year. With the help of their families, they met PCF at our storage facility [...]
~160 Computers Donated, Delivered, and Installed at Houston Elem.
For the second year in a row, HealthShare Exchange (web ») employees helped PCF with a full day of volunteering. About 30 employees showed up on a hot late summer day at the beginning of [...]
600 Hot Dogs Anyone?
Nothing marks the end of the school year like cooking 600 hot dogs in the summer heat at Emlen Elementary! Although somewhat outside of PCF's technology focused mission, we have helped Emlen with this fun [...]
HeathShare Exchange Volunteer Day & Sponsorship
Board member Hal Augustine organized and facilitated a volunteer day with HealthShare Exchange of Southeastern PA. A team of HSX employees showed up and spent almost a full day doing the spectrum of volunteering: computer rehab, cable [...]
Woodforest National Bank Volunteer Day
PCF Board member Leona Laibhen-Cesar (standing) along with fellow Woodforest National Bank employees came in to volunteer for the better part of the day. They worked their way through a TON of books that eventually made their way [...]
Comcast Cares Day
Comcast Cares Day 2015 was the first volunteer event at the warehouse on Ridge Avenue (after we moved there from Chestnut Hill offices). Comcast has provided great support to PCF over the years and this day [...]