Investing Deeper. Building Further. Mobilizing Change.
United Way’s commitment to West Michigan for the next three years
Poverty is not one problem. It is the compounding weight of a dozen smaller ones — a housing cost that outpaces a paycheck, a child without support to stay on track, a family that can't access the care that would keep a crisis from becoming a catastrophe.
That's what 38 percent of households across Allegan, Kent, and Ottawa counties are navigating right now, working and still not stable, one emergency away from a much harder situation.
Heart of West Michigan United Way addresses that reality at its roots — as a coordinated system that invests in proven partners, builds what the community is missing, and mobilizes the people and organizations that make lasting change possible.
This month, United Way announced our 2026–2029 community investment decisions. For the first time, all three counties are part of a unified three-year strategy as one United Way. The commitments span multi-year grants to 58 nonprofit programs, one-time strategic awards to 15 additional organizations doing critical work, and continued investment in the internal programs, systems, and mobilization efforts that United Way builds and operates year-round. Together, they represent a coordinated response to the four areas where we know sustained, connected investment changes outcomes.
These four impact areas operate as one system — each one shaping whether a family in West Michigan can move from crisis to stability, and from stability toward something more durable.
One thing this cycle makes visible across all four areas: what United Way's investment and presence looks like in Allegan and Ottawa counties is fundamentally different than it has been. Multi-year commitments replace the short-term awards that characterized prior cycles — funding at a level and timeline that allows organizations to plan, staff, and execute rather than simply respond. That shift in investment is compounded by United Way's deepening operational presence in both counties — more direct programming, stronger infrastructure, and a coordinated regional system that partners in Allegan and Ottawa are now genuinely inside of. The scale of what United Way does in these counties is no longer captured by grant totals alone.
Explore how United Way is showing up in each area — and how they work together — below:
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Creating a stronger financial future for every generation.
Housing. Income. Access to resources that make stability possible. Financial Security is the foundation — and it's where we invest most deeply, because nothing else works when a family is one missed payment from losing their home.
In this cycle, United Way is committing three-year investments to 21 programs across Allegan, Kent, and Ottawa counties focused on housing stability, employment pathways, and financial empowerment.
Alongside those commitments across the region, United Way's Family Stability Program operates directly — case management and rental assistance for more than 100 families a year at the edge of eviction — intervening in Kent County before a housing crisis becomes a homelessness crisis. VITA, serving the full region, returned $9.3 million to households last year through free tax preparation. These are infrastructure we build and operate. The need is consistent.
And we lead the systems that no single organization can carry. United Way serves as fiduciary for the Coalition to End Homelessness, coordinating more than 60 organizations in Kent County around a shared goal, and for the Kent County Essential Needs Task Force, where 200+ partners address food access, transportation, energy, and digital inclusion as the interlocking challenges they are. When someone calls211 — 24 hours a day, across 16 counties — financial navigation is often the first question. Over 58,000 West Michigan residents connected through 211 last year.
Financial Security is where stability begins, but it is also where systems either hold or fail. The combination of long-term investment, direct intervention, and coordinated leadership is what allows United Way to move beyond temporary relief and into sustained change. This is what it looks like to not just respond to financial crisis, but to reduce how often it happens in the first place.
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Improving health and wellbeing for all.
Health is the precondition for everything else. You cannot keep a job, raise a child, or build a future when chronic illness goes untreated, when mental health support is out of reach, or when the nearest affordable food is miles away and you don't have a car.
In this cycle, United Way is committing three-year investments to 26 programs across Kent and Ottawa counties focused on mental health access, food security, and family crisis navigation — the support systems that keep households stable before a crisis requires more intensive intervention.
United Way builds and operates programs here too. The Food Delivery Service connects residents with mobility and transportation barriers to food resources through the Community Information Exchange framework, and supports 9 food access programs through capacity-building investments. When the gap existed, we built the solution.
When federal benefits are disrupted and families can't wait for the system to catch up, United Way moves. The United Response Fund deployed resources to 22 organizations across the region during this past year's SNAP delays — rapid stabilization support activated before families fell further behind.
Healthy Community is about more than access to services — it is about whether the systems that support health are actually reachable, responsive, and connected. United Way’s role is to ensure those systems don’t operate in isolation, but as a coordinated network that can respond in real time and adapt when needs shift. That is how stability is protected before it becomes crisis.
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Helping young people realize their full potential.
The conditions a child grows up in shape everything that follows. Opportunity gaps that form early compound over a lifetime — and the young people facing the steepest barriers are often the ones with the most to contribute, if the right support exists at the right moment.
In this cycle, United Way is committing three-year investments to 11 programs in Kent and Ottawa counties focused on education, youth development, and pathways to post-secondary success.
United Way also builds, runs, and launches programs in this space directly — because some gaps don't wait for a grant cycle. United Way supports EmbraceHer and brought in the community partners and leaders who have helped it grow into a year-round space where girls of color develop leadership, connection, and self-worth. United Way also supports We Matter Now — a program supporting boys and young men of color through education, financial empowerment, and wellness that United Way created and built alongside the community partners now helping lead it. Their collaboration, Embrace Them, brings intergenerational mentorship and community-building into one program.
Student United Way engages high school students in community leadership and service, developing the next generation of people who show up for this region. Stuff the Bus ensures students from low-income households start the school year with what they need. Stuff the Sled brings the same spirit to the holidays for Head Start students in Allegan and Kent counties.
Youth Opportunity is United Way's most collaborative impact area — built on partnerships with schools, community-based organizations, and youth leaders across the region. It spans leadership summits and year-round programming, investments in career and college readiness, and a deep commitment to youth belonging — the belief that a young person who feels seen and connected is a young person who can build something. That combination of investment, direct programming, and community partnership is what makes the work in this area more than the sum of its parts.
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Youth Opportunity > -
Responding to urgent needs today for a better tomorrow.
Community Resiliency is the operating backbone that holds everything else together — the navigation systems, the emergency response capacity, the coalition leadership, the volunteer infrastructure, and the nonprofit support that makes the whole ecosystem more capable than any single organization could be.
United Way builds and runs Community Resiliency. 211 operates 24 hours a day across 16 counties. The Volunteer Center and our online volunteer hub connect individuals, families, and corporate partners to meaningful service and mobilize hundreds of thousands of dollars in volunteer time every year. West Michigan’s largest corporate volunteer event, United Way’s Day of Caring, runs annually across the region. When disaster strikes, United Way's response infrastructure activates in hours. When grassroots organizations and ideas need a pathway to funding that traditional grantmaking has kept closed, the Opportunity Initiative and Opportunity Empowered provide it.
We also lead the systems that no single organization can carry alone. Fiduciary and anchor for the Kent County Coalition to End Homelessness (CoC) and the Essential Needs Task Force. Collaborator and convener of cross-sector partnerships that reduce duplication and expand what the whole community can accomplish.
Community Resiliency is what determines whether everything else works when it matters most. It is the infrastructure behind the scenes — the coordination, responsiveness, and capacity that allows a community to absorb shock and keep moving forward. United Way builds and leads that backbone so that when people reach out for help, the system is ready to respond.
The goal? A West Michigan where the systems that people depend on in moments of crisis are actually ready for them.
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Community Resiliency >
These four areas are a description of how poverty actually works and of what it takes to address it in a place as specific as West Michigan. Financial instability that leads to a housing crisis is also a health event. A child who doesn't have what they need to succeed in school is growing up in a household facing financial pressure. A community that can't coordinate its response to an emergency is one that leaves its most vulnerable residents most exposed.
United Way shows up across all four because that is the only way to address root causes rather than symptoms. The investments, the programs we operate, and the systems we lead are not separate efforts — they are one coordinated strategy designed to change how stability is experienced across West Michigan.
Every dollar raised through the annual campaign puts $3.10 to work across West Michigan. That is what happens when investment, direct programming, and community coordination work together as a system.