COMMUNITY INVESTMENT PROCESS

Empowering Nonprofits. Strengthening Programs.

At Heart of West Michigan United Way, we know strong communities are built on strong local organizations. Through our Community Investment Process, we provide multi-year funding to nonprofit partners working across our core impact areas: Financial Security, Healthy Community, and Youth Opportunity.

But this isn’t just a grant cycle.

It’s a long-term partnership built on shared outcomes, accountability, and deep local knowledge.

Our Community Investment Process allows us to:

Align funding with local needs and lived experiences

Foster collaboration instead of competition

Invest in results, not just activities

Support organizations that reflect and serve the diversity of our region

How It Works

Every three years, Heart of West Michigan United Way opens a community-wide grant process open to nonprofits across Allegan, Kent, and Ottawa counties. Our approach is designed to be transparent, community-driven, and rooted in partnership.

Applications Open: We issue requests for proposals aligned with our core impact areas: Financial Security, Healthy Community, and Youth Opportunity. Note — while an area of focus, RFPs will not be accepted for Community Resiliency programming.

Community Panel Reviewers Lead the Way: Funding decisions are guided by local volunteers, experts, and community members who evaluate applications based on impact and alignment with community needs. Interested in volunteering? Contact Us

Multi-Year Funding is Awarded: Chosen programs receive three-year investments to ensure stability, long-term planning, and measurable progress.

Support Beyond the Grant: We offer grantees capacity-building, networking, and collaboration opportunities, because impact grows when we grow together.

We’re not just funding programs. We’re investing in change.

Our funding philosophy is simple: people closest to the problem often hold the best solutions. That’s why we focus our investments on community-rooted efforts that both meet urgent needs and address the systems that create them.

We prioritize programs that:

  • Reach households living below the ALICE threshold

  • Reflect and serve communities historically excluded from opportunity

  • Are grounded in data and driven by lived experience

  • Collaborate across organizations and sectors

  • Are transformative solutions

Transformative solutions are more than effective programs, they’re catalysts for deeper change.

They are efforts that:

Address both symptoms and root causes of poverty

Strengthen systems, not just individual outcomes

Break down barriers—whether that’s access, cost, stigma, or policy

Elevate community voice and co-create change alongside those most impacted

Last beyond the grant term, because they build momentum and capacity

Whether it’s a youth mentorship program that also trains parent leaders, or a food access effort tied to job pathways and community health, transformative solutions don’t just respond. They reimagine.

This is more than grantmaking. It’s long-term investment in a stronger West Michigan, built by all of us.

    • Career Success Project 2.0
      Bethany Christian Services 

    • CoC Coordination
      Lakeshore Housing Alliance 

    • Community Center and Resource Hub*
      The Salvation Army-Holland

    • Community Housing Partnership
      Good Samaritan

    • Customized Workplace English
      Literacy Center of West Michigan

    • Domestic Violence Safe House and Supportive Services
      Sylvia’s Place

    • Emergency Financial Assistance
      Christian Neighbors SE 

    • Financial Wellness
      Community Action House

    • Gateway to Work: Connecting Immigrants and Local Employers
      Lighthouse Immigrant Advocates

    • Grand Rapids Financial Empowerment Center
      Amplify GR

    • Homeownership Program
      Habitat for Humanity of Kent County

    • Housing As You Are
      AYA Youth Collective

    • Housing Workx!
      Community Action of Allegan County

    • IDAs to Support Low-Income Homeownership
      ICCF Community Homes 

    • Master Leasing Family Shelter*
      Family Promise of the Lakeshore

    • New Pathways Success Center
      New Destiny Pathways

    • Pathway Home (PWH)
      Family Promise of West Michigan

    • Rural Affordable Housing Supportive Services
      Flat River Outreach Ministries 

    • The Bridge of Arbor Circle
      Arbor Circle

    • Transitional Housing*
      The People Center

    • Village Pathways to Childcare
      Vibrant Futures 

    • WMCAT Adult Career Training Program
      West Michigan Center for Arts & Technology (WMCAT)

    • Workforce and Leadership Development through Good Food
      New City Neighbors

    • YMF Financial Empowerment Program
      Young Money Finances (YMF)

    * 1-year Grant Programs

    • A Mother’s Touch

    • Addiction Recovery and Treatment Support
      Reach for Recovery

    • Adoptive Family Network
      DA Blodgett St Johns

    • Alano Club of Kent County 

    • Basic Needs*
      Harvest Stand Ministries

    • Beautifully Created 2.0

    • Bridging the Gap: Weekend Food Support for West Michigan Students
      Hand2Hand

    • Community Essentials
      MVILLAGE

    • Community Mental Health and Wellness
      A Glimpse of Africa

    • Court Appointed Special Advocates
      CASA of Kent County

    • Crisis Legal Services
      Legal Aid of West Michigan

    • Domestic and Sexual Violence Program
      Resilience Advocates for Ending Violence

    • Domestic Violence Emergency and Transitional Housing
      YWCA West Central Michigan

    • Ensuring Safe Housing for Migrant Workers
      Migrant Legal Aid

    • Family Preservation Services
      DA Blodgett St Johns

    • Food Security in North Kent
      North Kent Connect

    • Food and Resource Connections
      Community Action House

    • Fostering Mental Health and Awareness in the Latinx Women
      Puertas Abiertas

    • Holistic Approach to Family Support Services
      Hispanic Center of Western Michigan 

    • Mental Health Counseling*
      Mosaic Counseling

    • Migrants Overcoming Violent Environments
      Migrant Legal Aid

    • Neighborhood Grown Food Success
      New City Neighbors

    • Permanent Supportive Housing
      ICCF Community Homes

    • Recovery Housing Program
      70x7 Life Recovery

    • Seeking Safety for Black and Brown Males 14-24 Impacted by Violence
      Family Outreach Center

    • The Community Food Club and Food Reclamation
      Community Food Club

    • The Sheldon and Lakeside Clubhouse
      Cherry Health

    • Transitional Homes - Case Manager
      Sacred Beginnings

    * 1-year Grant Programs

    • Code on Wheels 

    • EPIC
      Boys & Girls Club of Greater Holland 

    • Rumble to Rise*
      I AM Academy

    • STEM Scholars
      STEM Greenhouse

    • Step Year at WMCAT
      West Michigan Center for Arts & Technology (WMCAT) 

    • Teen Leaders
      Grandville Avenue Arts & Humanities

    • Teen Life Internship Financial Security Program
      New City Kids

    • Teen Programs
      Camp Blodgett

    • Upward Bound
      Hope College

    • Workforce Readiness Program
      Grand Rapids Boys & Girls Club 

    • Youth Leadership Program*
      Tri-Cities Family YMCA

    • Youth Violence Prevention
      Safe Haven Ministries

    • Youth Workforce Development Program
      ESCAPE YFGK

    * 1-year Grant Programs