The United Way of Southwest Michigan is making some adjustments to its funding cycle so it can better serve non-profits in the face of changing circumstances.
The United Way’s Zack East tells us while the organization runs some programs of its own, like the Dolly Parton Imagination Library and 211, a lot of what it does is support other non-profits. Since they’ve been dealing with a lot of funding uncertainty, East says it’s time for a change.
“In order to be more nimble and agile with all the changes that are kind of still up in the air, but also expected with this year, we’ve decided to change that funding cycle to a year,” East said.
The United Way of Southwest Michigan’s previous funding cycle was three years.
East says this move is in response to changing circumstances at the partner non-profits, and not so much at the United Way. He says a three-year funding cycle could make it more difficult for partners to plan with so much up in the air.
“A big piece of what United Way does is really allocate funds out to the community for lots of different impact areas that really help the ALICE population, like we’ve talked about in the past, and are really making sure that we’re trying to impact local areas of real importance, and that’s usually based on a lot of data.”
East says adopting a more nimble funding cycle seems like the more responsible thing to do given what’s happening in the non-profit world. He notes the United Way receives no federal tax money and is entirely supported by donations, but for some non-profits, that’s not the case.
The new funding cycle will take place July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026. We have a link to a full list of programs allocated to United Ways Impact Partners at our website.
