Grants

For over 100 years your local United Way has been supporting organizations to improve the lives of Washtenaw County people. We envision an equitable community where opportunity is not limited and every member reaches their full potential. By the year 2030 we aspire to live in a community where: 

• Your zip code no longer determines your opportunity in life
• Life expectancy is the same across all populations and communities in our County
• The academic achievement gap is eliminated
• Everyone in our community has a home
• Poverty is not generational. If it exists, it is intermittent and brief
• Community members seek understanding and awareness of their own power and privilege and actively work to end poverty in our County
• Everyone in our County is able to thrive and meet their needs—housing, food, transportation, education, health expenses and childcare
 
Children entering kindergarten this fall will be graduating high school in the year 2030. Before those children don a cap and gown, there is much work to be done.  If our vision resonates with you, we invite you to apply for funding. 

OPPORTUNITY FUND

United Way is now accepting proposals to our Opportunity Fund and COVID-19 Recovery Fund beginning Wednesday, September 1st through Tuesday, October 5, 2021 at 5pm
 
 

Opportunity Fund Purpose: Grants made support for organizations and groups whose work prioritizes the populations and geographies above.  This cycle, we are prioritizing proposals that increase capacity to:

  • More fully express a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).  This could include, but is not limited to efforts such as staff and board training, developing equitable evaluation practices, undertaking community engagement work, etc. 
  • Deliver high-quality services.  This could include, but is not limited to efforts such as strategic planning, program technology and software enhancement, professional development for staff, etc. 

 

We will accept applications which propose to: 

  • Engage in community advocacy and/or mobilization for changes to policies and practices that limit opportunity.
  • Pilot a promising practice that mitigates or disrupts the impacts of racism, poverty, and trauma on the priority populations identified above.

 

COVID Recovery Fund Purpose: Recognizing that the pandemic continues to differentially shape the ways in which we work, learn, and move through our community, these grants provide one-time support to meet pandemic-related needs of ALICE Asset-Limited, Income-Constrained and Employed) households -- those that earn more than the Federal Poverty Level, but less than the basic cost of living--  and those experiencing poverty in Washtenaw County in our priority communities identified above. The goal of this fund is to support efforts that help people navigate returns to school and work amid COVID-19.

All applicants — regardless of where in their equity journey they may be today — must demonstrate a commitment to ongoing growth through the integration of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) principles into both their external programming or services and internal structures and operations.

 

Please download the application packet in full.

Please download the grant scoring matrix.

 

Questions? Contact Jaime Hoffman, Community Impact Manager, jhoffman@uwwashtenaw.org 

 
To be notified of future UWWC grant opportunities, complete this online form.

Past Opportunity Fund Investments

 

POWER OF THE PURSE

United Way of Washtenaw County awards Power of the Purse grants annually as part of its Financial Stability Initiative. These grants provide support for programs, projects or initiatives that prioritize the financial wellbeing of people who identify as women, individuals and families with low incomes, communities of color, and historically and/or systematically marginalized groups.

This year’s investments were made to women of color led organizations who are helping women and families maintain their financial stability and meet their basic needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Food security, K-12 education supports, and wraparound supports are the types of services prioritized for funding.

 

To learn more please read our  FY21 Power of the Purse Fund grant investments, Round 2

COORDINATED FUNDING

Washtenaw Coordinated Funders, a consortium of public and private funders,  has reached a decision based on community feedback, independent evaluation and the current state of the community to cease operations as a funding collaborative at the end of the fiscal year, June 30, 2021.  The group consists of the City of Ann Arbor, Washtenaw County, Washtenaw Urban County, United Way of Washtenaw County, the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation, and  St Joseph Mercy Health Ann Arbor. For those currently receiving funding, there will be no funding changes through June 30, 2021. 

Update as of 04/20/2021:

United Way of Washtenaw County (UWWC) is offering non-competitive, one-time transition grants for the period of July 1 - Dec 30, 2021 only to agencies who previously received program funding through the Washtenaw Coordinated Funders (COFU).
Please contact Jaime Hoffman, Community Impact Manager, jhoffman@uwwasthenaworg, for more information about this transition grant.
 
Application available online, April 20, 2021.
 
Application due, May 3, 2021 by 4p.
 
Past Coordinated Funding Investments
 

COVID-19 Grant Investments

Please click here, to read more about our COVID-19 Grant Investments.

CONTACT

To be notified of future UWWC grant opportunities, complete this online form.

For more information about our work, contact:
Bridget Herrmann, Vice President of Impact and Advocacy, 734.677.7209, bherrmann@uwwashtenaw.org 
Jaime Hoffman, Community Impact Manager, jhoffman@uwwashtenaw.org 

In the service of transparency and improving the grant-making sector, please consider providing anonymous feedback about United Way of Washtenaw County at GrantAdvisor.org