Become A Volunteer
Volunteer with ACCT Philly!
You can have a significant positive impact on the lives of shelter animals.
If you are interested, please look into the different opportunities offered below to find out how you can get started.
Main Shelter Volunteer Opportunities
As a volunteer, you can make a difference in the lives of shelter animals!
Volunteers must be at least 18 year old and be able to dedicate at least 3 hours per month to volunteering.
To learn more about ACCT Philly and our volunteer program, please join us for our monthly volunteer orientation, which will be held the first Saturday of every month. You can sign up here!
After orientation you will receive a volunteer application and once you are approved, will schedule training for your volunteer area of interest. Thank you for your interest in joining our volunteer team!
Main shelter volunteer opportunities include:
- Cat socialization
- Dog walking and socialization
- Take photos of animals at the shelter so they have better website photos
- Cleaning cat and critter cages
- Greeting adopters and helping them figure out where to go
- Join our Foodies club and help make food enrichment for our animals!
- Laundry and dishes
- Preparing enrichment items
- Providing exercise for dogs by joining our ACCT Philly running team!
Offsite Volunteer Opportunities
Adoption, community, and fundraising events are a great occasion to promote the shelter, recruit new volunteers and spotlight adoptable animals!
These opportunities include:
- Caring for our cats at in store cat adoption centers, such as the PetSmart in King of Prussia, where we need volunteers to help care for the cats daily. Sign up to volunteer there here
- Setting up our booth or table, directing and interacting with potential adopters
- Representing the shelter at community events, talking to people about our work and how they can get involved
- Taking a dog to an event, and talking to people about the dog, taking photos and sharing notes with staff about the dog on return to
help them get adopted - Recruiting volunteers at events
Group Volunteer Opportunity
ACCT Philly is always looking for groups to come in and help with many aspects of the shelter! We may have a specific project for you to work on or just need your help doing laundry, helping with our food pantry and washing dishes. As our individual volunteers go through specialized training before handling any animals, we no longer have group volunteers participating in activities that require dog or cat animal handling. But we do have groups help with our critters! We are also happy to finish every group volunteer opportunity with some doggy playtime and a photo opportunity.
We typically have groups of 5-10 but can potentially accommodate more with enough notice. Every person participating must be at least 18 years old to volunteer unless an exception is made in advance by ACCT Philly.
If you have a group of friends, coworkers or classmates who would be interested in getting involved, please email volunteer@acctphilly.org
When your corporate team makes ACCT Philly their volunteer-day destination of choice, your company will be making a huge impact on and difference to Philly’s homeless animals. ACCT Philly is the only open-intake animal shelter and animal care and control facility in Philadelphia. More than 15, 000 animals – dogs, cats, birds, reptiles, pigs, wildlife – come through our doors annually. They enter in all states of health and behavior; sizes large and small; from newborns to seniors. Thanks to staff, rescue partners, adopters, fosters, and volunteers, including those from companies like yours,
Whether your team would like to engage in a specific project or participate in a structured experience that can include laundry, helping with food pantry, washing dishes and providing animals with enrichment and care, ACCT Philly provides an experience your organization will not soon forget. It’s always our hope some of your employees will get hooked by the beautiful 100 percent purebred Philly dogs and cats we shelter here, and come back as regular volunteers!
We can accommodate groups of as few as five volunteers and as many as 20. We’ll provide a tour of the shelter, and an informative short presentation on ACCT Philly. Usually, our corporate volunteer opportunities run between 2 and 3 hours.
(All volunteers must sign a waiver of liability. All volunteers must be 18 years of age or older.)