Grants

For over 90 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. 

FINANCIAL STABILITY FUND

Overview

A component of United Way’s Financial Stability Initiative, these grants provide one-time support for programs, projects or initiatives that prioritize women, individuals and families with low incomes, communities of color, and historically and/or systematically marginalized groups. Funding is open to both new/pilot or existing programs, projects or initiatives. See the FY19 Financial Stability Fund Overview for full details.

Note: A subset of awards will be made to programs, projects or initiatives that primarily or exclusively prioritize services for women as part of United Way’s Women United Initiative. Funding previously invested through Women’s Leadership Initiative Grant Program is now invested through the Financial Stability Fund.

Apply
FY19 Financial Stability Fund application is now open. Contact United Way staff to determine eligibility for submission and alignment to the fund's purpose.
Review the FY19 Financial Stability Fund Overview here for full details about this grant opportunity.
 
Past Financial Stability Fund Investments

OPPORTUNITY FUND

Overview
These grants provide support for organizations whose work benefits priority populations in Washtenaw County: lower-income populations, communities of color and groups deemed to be marginalized. In addition to the above, the work of an application organization must align with one or more of the following criteria:
• Meet an emergent, unmet community or organizational capacity need
• Leverage United Way support as match for additional grant funding
• Pilot a promising or evidence-based practice
• Increase the financial stability of individuals and families
• Prioritize systematic racial equity* Read more about our commitment to equity here.
 
*Racial equity is the condition that would be achieved if one's racial identity no longer predicted, in a statistical sense, how one fares. When we use the term, we are thinking about racial equity as one part of racial justice, and thus we also include work to address root causes of inequities not just their manifestation. This includes elimination of policies, practices, attitudes and cultural messages that reinforce differential outcomes by race or fail to eliminate them.
 
Racial Justice [is defined] as the proactive reinforcement of policies, practices, attitudes and actions that produce equitable power, access, opportunities, treatment, impacts and outcomes for all. (Sources: Center for Assessment and Policy Development; Catalytic Change: Lessons Learned from the Racial Justice Grantmaking Assessment Report, Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity and Applied Research Center, 2009.)
 
Priority is given to applicants whose work aligns with one or more of UWWC’s priority areas: early childhood; school-aged youth; safety-net health & nutrition; housing & homelessness; seniors and financial stability. 
 
There is no “floor” or “ceiling” for funding requests. Grantees may only apply once every 12 months.  
 
Note:
  • Funds invested through this grant program are a complement, not a supplement, to other UWWC and Washtenaw Coordinated Funding grant programs. Information about our other grant programs can be found below.
  • The Opportunity Fund does not resource ongoing/core services of local organizations as there are grant programs that specifically fund this work.
 
Apply
The Opportunity Fund application is now closed. This funding opportunity will re-open in Fall of 2019.

Past Opportunity Fund Investments

COORDINATED FUNDING

United Way of Washtenaw County is a proud member of the Washtenaw Coordinated Funders. The Washtenaw Coordinated Funders adopted a funding model with three distinct components (Systems Change (formerly Sector Leadership), Program Operations Funding & Capacity Building Grants) designed to prevent gaps and avoid redundancies in services while streamlining application and reporting procedures for grantees. This effort involved better sharing of information, closer work with local nonprofits to establish common community goals, and increased cooperation in funding decisions.

The Washtenaw Coordinated Funders seek to better coordinate our funding of human service programs in Washtenaw County around shared priorities. This effort involves better sharing of information among us, closer work with local nonprofits to establish common community goals, and increased cooperation in our funding decisions.

Program Operations Grants are multi-year funding to support essential services within five priority areas: early childhood, school-aged youth, safety net health & nutrition, housing & homelessness, and aging. 

Capacity Building Grants support one-time initiatives that strengthen a nonprofit organization and/or the local nonprofit sector as a whole. Annual focus of this fund shifts in response to local capacity building needs.

Past Coordinated Funding Investments

CONTACT

For more information about our work, contact:
Bridget Healy, Director of Community Impact, 734.677.7209, bhealy@uwwashtenaw.org 
Amanda Reel, Community Impact & Volunteer Center Manager, 734.677.7234, areel@uwwashtenaw.org