United Way Announces New Investments and Calls for Donors Ahead of Its 100th Anniversary
It has also launched an online giving campaign in partnership with Pittsburgh Magazine.
PHOTO VIA UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA/PITTSBURGH MAGAZINE
The United Way has just announced a massive campaign that the nonprofit says will help the Pittsburgh region thrive.
This week, the United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania says it will invest $21 million over the next three years to 138 programs run by 121 nonprofit agencies across Allegheny, Armstrong, Butler, Fayette and Westmoreland counties. Investments are sorted into four categories: meeting basic needs, moving to financial stability, building for success in school and life and capacity building to strengthen the nonprofit sector.
A record 475 funding requests were submitted to United Way in January and February. These were then narrowed down to 194 full proposals totaling $45.6 million. The finalists were then reviewed by United Way staff and community volunteers before being approved by its board of directors.
“This $21 million investment is vital and needed now more than ever,” United Way president and CEO Bobbi Watt Geer says in a statement. “The number of funding requests to United Way grew by 30% since our last multi-year grant cycle in 2023. This is a reflection of unprecedented needs our partner agencies are seeing in the community, often from people who have never sought help before.”
The funding is the result of the United Way’s multi-year grant funding process, where record numbers of community volunteers reviewed proposals from hundreds of nonprofits. (So many people signed up to review proposals — 180 in all — that United Way halted recruitment.)
United Way donor Marc Cordero, who helped evaluate grant proposals this year, said that seeing “the nuts and bolts” of how local nonprofits work, and the variety of services provided, showed not only the range of needs but also the resourcefulness local nonprofits demonstrate in meeting those needs.
“Some of these organizations have been doing this for 35 years. You see the difference they’re making, and you wonder what else they could do with even more resources,” he says.
The announcement also comes as the organization launches the public phase of its fundraising campaign, with the goal to raise $40 million for a new endowment ahead of its 100th anniversary next year.
Dubbed the Fund for Transformation and Resilience, the new endowment will power at least $2 million more in investments each year. United Way has raised $20.5 million so far from foundations and corporations toward its $40 million goal. It is now asking the public to donate.
“This new endowment will make it possible for United Way to achieve three key goals: meeting increasing community needs, responding to unforeseen emergencies, and investing in innovative projects that bring nonprofits together to meet challenges that no single organization can meet on its own,” Watt Geer adds.
United Way has also launched Give Big United Way-100th anniversary, an online giving campaign in partnership with Pittsburgh Magazine that’s powered by $70,000 in matching funds from Comcast. Give Big runs through June 30 and marks the launch of the public campaign.
Anyone interested in donating can do so by clicking here.
