Community Investment Grants
Funding Process

Community Investment Grants
We are holding ourselves more accountable to the community, to ensure that the funds invested in United Way are used to create real, long-term change. Through a research study by the Ray Marshal Center and with the help of countless community stakeholders, we've identified very specific, measurable outcomes we hope to achieve around key community issue areas: Education, Financial Stability, and Health.

The agencies and programs United Way funds are focused on achieving those outcomes, and will report to United Way regularly on their success. In the past, United Way merely asked an agency to show some success in their efforts; now, we are working to ensure that all agencies and programs work together to achieve these outcomes. In other words, our funds are focused on the community more than ever before, as opposed to specific nonprofit agencies.

The Funding Process and Selection Criteria
We begin the funding process by distributing out into the community a Request For Proposal (RFP) that is based on the targeted issue areas. Community agencies then respond to the RFP with written proposals outlining their proposed programs and efforts and how they will effectively address the issue areas and measurably achieve the outcomes. The proposals submitted by agencies then go on to a series of highly engaged volunteer groups that review the applications. Volunteers review an agency's overall stability and each proposed program's ability to meet the issue areas' strategic outcomes. United Way's issue area outcomes are its funding priorities. Outcomes measurement provides information about program effectiveness and is one way that United Way is able to provide accountability to contributors.

The Volunteer Proposal Review Process

1. Community Investment Review Teams (CIRT) are recruited and brought together every 3 years (the next one to occur in 2010). These teams are made up of experienced, organized volunteers that come together over a series of meetings to rate and score each proposal and make funding recommendations to the Leadership Councils.
2. Leadership Councils made up of community volunteers, provide ongoing strategic leadership for each issue area. These volunteers ensure the proposals recommended by the CIRTs align within each Issue Area's strategic plan (Education, Financial Stability, and Health). The Leadership Councils then send their recommendations to the Community Impact Cabinet.
3. The Community Impact Cabinet is also made up of community volunteers that thoughtfully assess all the recommendations across the issue areas to ensure the recommendations are in line with United Way's mission, vision, and policies. The Cabinets recommendations then go to the Board of Directors.
4. The United Way Board of Directors then acts and makes final funding decisions.