United Way of Greater Cleveland Request for Ideas

United Way of Greater Cleveland is soliciting ideas from qualified organizations innovating in the Investment Strategies of Thriving Families, Housing Stability, and Healthy Communities. Organizations are encouraged to address compelling needs in our community within the Investment Strategies outlined below.  
 
As part of its on-going streamlined investments, United Way will only accept one application/idea per organization. Organizations are encouraged to propose their most innovative, impactful idea to address one of the Investment Strategy below. Ideas may be a program that is already running, is just beginning, or the startup of a new program.      
  
Please note:  new and existing United Way grantee partners must apply through this competitive grant process. In addition, UWGC will not fund 100% of a program’s operational costs.   
 
Ideas must solve for a problem in the here & now, address an Strategy, and be an innovative approach to the identified Strategy.  
  
The response to the RFI consists of your answers to a brief set of questions that describe an innovative approach to address the here-and-now needs within a selected Investment Strategy. Such challenges may have arisen from, been exacerbated by, or are in response to the changed environment due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ideas may include any facet(s) of the three Investment Strategy. While you may collaborate with other nonprofits, United Way of Greater Cleveland will fund individual agencies for Ideas.  

 

United Way is deploying a new grantmaking process that includes three steps prior to award. instead of the traditional two-step process.  
 

GRANTMAKING PROCESS TIMELINE:  
March 3, 2021: RFI Released 
March 9, 2021: Center for Excellence RFI Technical Assistance Session 
March 31, 2021: Ideas Due to UWGC via Survey Monkey by 5 pm

May 4, 2021: Selected Organizations Invited to Submit Proposal 
June 1, 2021: Full Applications due to UWGC in eC-Impact by 5 pm
July 2021: Virtual Site Visits

October 2021: Funding Announcements

Request for Ideas
Organizations interested in being considered for this opportunity must send a project narrative using the form attached to this document describing the following. Only applications using this form will be considered. (5,000 characters maximum)

Program Budget   
Please note the maximum grant amount is $500,000 over a two-year period (or $250,000/year). No grant of less than $200,000 over two years will be considered (or $100,000/year). United Way will also not impose an administrative or operational cap on proposals. Please be clear about what is needed in those categories and why.