Grantmaking and Investments
United Way awards grants and investments in nonprofits to help them do what they do best — serve individuals and families in need.
Investing in Change
Since 1918, we’ve helped some of Central Indiana’s most impactful nonprofit organizations expand the reach of their work. Learn more about our 2024 funding opportunities.
United Way’s impact focus areas are geared to specifically support programs that support the basic needs of our neighbors in crisis situations, maximize opportunities for children and adults in families to succeed together, and support a strong and well-resourced human services network.
During the last fiscal year, United Way invested $57.2 million in the community to help improve our neighbors’ lives and strengthen the support of the human services sector.
Click below to learn more about some of our 2023 grantees.
Click here to view a full listing of our accredited partners.
Our Grantmaking Values
Each application for funding is reviewed using an objective rubric and scored by a dedicated team of board, staff and community volunteers. These scores are the starting point of deliberation that evaluates each application individually and across our portfolio of investments to ensure we’re upholding United Way’s grantmaking values.
These values guide our decision-making and are reflective of our priorities and aspirations.
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Ensuring equity and diversity in the availability and accessibility of resources across the UWCI service area; diverse perspectives and needs are intentionally sought and reflected in all aspects of the organization’s work.
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Presenting a clear, honest representation of the organization and its work; operating with a high level of accountability; addressing challenges directly when they arise.
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Listening to the community voice, serving the community need, and responding to community assets and opportunities.
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Creating positive outcomes through innovative, data driven programming; adapting and responding to changing environments; continuously learning, growing and improving.
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Partnering with community and systems level stakeholders to achieve greater impact, scale and sustain efforts, and strengthen or expand services.
Our Approach to Data Collection
United Way’s commitment to data and research is rooted much deeper than grant compliance. We believe it’s the best way to build our collective knowledge around who’s being served, what strategies are the most effective, and how we can better support more individuals and families to attain social and economic mobility.
Data collection is a crucial part of each nonprofit’s application and the ongoing evaluation of all United Way impact grants. Semi-annual quantitative and qualitative reporting is required on the metrics for each program’s focus area to demonstrate efficiency, efficacy and measurable progress toward outcomes.
To see United Way’s impact data in action, visit our public interactive dashboards, Impact United.
