Mid-Michigan United Way Collaborative

About this grant

Across the U.S., United Way organizations are facing significant challenges as they strive to adapt to changing demographics, increased financial pressures and fundraising competition. United Way organizations in economies like Michigan’s face particular challenges. A continued decline in manufacturing jobs, greater demands on services and the need to downsize the nonprofit sector even while service needs increase have put stresses and pressure on United Way organizations.This grant will support a planning process that will enable eight United Ways in lower Michigan, including the United Way of Genesee County, to explore new and collaborative ways of working together and consolidating their marketing and services. The first year of the project will focus on a strategic planning effort to determine the most beneficial types of joint resources, the openness of each individual entity to participating in regional work, and the financial commitments and savings that are likely to result from this effort.