It’s fund allocation season at United Way!
Ever wonder what goes into our grant making process?
A whole lot of applications, reviews, presentations, questions, answers, deliberations, tough decisions, and community love. It’s a process that can be inspiring, heartbreaking, challenging, and uplifting— all at the same time. And we cherish every minute of it.
United Way’s grant allocation approach is truly a community-driven effort. We raise money in the community, evaluate community needs and programs, and rely on community volunteers to help us decide where to invest the dollars they’ve helped raise and contribute. Yes, it’s real, live donors like you that help our staff and Board determine where and how dollars should be invested to make the greatest impact.
“I’ve been involved with United Way of Whatcom County for many years, but serving on the Community Impact Panel was a new and meaningful experience. It was inspiring to learn about the incredible work of the partner agencies and the impact they’re making in our community. United Way’s thoughtful process and support made it a truly rewarding experience. I’m grateful to have played a part in helping direct resources where they’re needed most.”
It’s both rewarding and difficult.
The decisions our committee is faced with aren’t easy. The need is always much greater than the dollars we have to allocate. There are so many incredible nonprofit organizations doing life-changing work in Whatcom County, and we’d love to be able to fund them all! But our resources are limited, and our supporters are counting on us to make the hard choices. Our donors look to us to prioritize programs addressing the most pressing issues in our community in the most effective ways, and they trust us to fund local agencies that are financially sound and organizationally healthy. They want to feel good about giving, and they want to know we are stretching every dollar as far as it can possibly go.
“The funds allocation process gave me a front row seat to the real needs of our community- and a voice in how we meet them. Each presentation, each funding decision, wasn’t just about numbers. It was about impacting lives.”
Each grant cycle, our list of partner agencies changes slightly, depending on which agencies apply, what services they request funding for, how they achieve program goals and outcomes, and the amount of funding available. This year, our community volunteers felt strongly about funding programs and organizations where our average grant size of $25,000 would make the biggest impact. Because food and housing insecurity have been steadily increasing, they also felt it was important to keep investing in basic needs.
As always, this year’s grant allocation process was both extremely challenging and highly rewarding. As much as we wish we could say yes to more agencies and programs, we are thrilled to be able to support 24 amazing local nonprofits with grants ranging in size from $15,000 to $45,000. This is in addition to our work funding and managing Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library for our community’s littlest learners, supporting childcare expansion, and investing in the ALICE@Work program and data. All important tools to help build a stronger Whatcom County.
Thank you for being part of this work!
We love this community so much and are proud to be part of the engine that keeps our nonprofit services running.
“Volunteering on the Community Impact Panel reminds me that the needs in our community are great, but I am continually inspired by the incredible efforts happening all around us and the powerful impact made possible by our community’s generous donations.”
United is the Way we help our friends and neighbors struggling with financial hardship land on their feet— and stay there. We don’t take this responsibility lightly, and we don’t do this work alone. Thank you for joining us and choosing to Live United!
Click here to see the current list of United Way partner agencies.