Community Impact Grants
Our vision is for a community that collaborates, integrates, and innovates to create a highly effective regional delivery system of human services to best meet the needs of our residents. We work toward these goals through our fundraising, grant-making, and community leadership efforts.
The application window for our new 2-year grant funding cycle (July 2020 – June 2022) has closed. If you have a smaller, volunteer-based project that needs funding, we encourage you to look into our Micro Grant program.
OUR FOCUS AREAS
The mission of the Cape and Islands United Way is to unite people and to improve lives, creating lasting change on Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. In support of this mission, we partner with local nonprofit organizations to ensure a robust continuum of services and supports for all residents. Our grant-making process is centered around four main goals:
In 2018, we received nearly 80 Letters of Intent. In total, nearly $500,000 was distributed to 34 nonprofit organizations – in support of 36 programs across Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket in our four priority areas. Grant awards ranged from $5,000 to $25,000.
DESIRED COMMUNITY OUTCOMES
Over the past two years, we have used the Results-Based Accountability (RBA) framework to focus on results and impact. After careful review of this framework, as well as additional work to understand the needs of our community, we established a set of Desired Community Outcomes. These outcomes are aspirational goals that organizations are working towards to improve areas of need in our community, and fall under selected strategies of our RBA framework. This refinement allows a greater focus on targeted outcomes to ensure maximum impact.
The four focus areas of Education, Financial Stability, Health and Housing each has a goal statement which is followed by information to set the context for the selection of strategies and Desired Community Outcomes. These describe the results that funded programs should be working to achieve in the community.
2020 GRANT CYCLE: UPDATES AND DATES
In addition to the focus on Desired Community Outcomes as described above, the 2020 grant cycle also starts our new two-year grant funding period. Specifically, this means that organizations applying in the fall of 2019 will be awarded a two-year grant (July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2022). Approved organizations are eligible to receive between $5,000-$25,000 in grant awards; payments are made in quarterly installments.
The grant must be for two continuous years of funding for the same program. Applicants will include a two-year budget in their full application. This multi-year funding will increase focus on outcomes and allow more opportunities for deeper and richer partnerships. Letters of Agreement will be completed annually, and all funding is contingent upon the achievement of anticipated results and the availability of funds.
Two year funding also provides the opportunity for more real-time reporting on results throughout the grant period. Brief quarterly reports will be required that are uploaded to the grants portal. The report only focuses on results and does not contain a narrative piece.
