The United Way of 1000 Lakes is now accepting applications for its 2026 Community Impact Fund.
Donor Name: United Way of 1000 Lakes
State: Minnesota
County: Itasca County (MN)
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 10/06/2025
Size of the Grant: $10,000 to $100,000
Grant Duration: Grant Duration Not Mentioned
Details:
United Way’s work is centered on people who are struggling to find support in the short term and prosperity in the long term, so that each person is able to feel a deep sense of belonging in their community of choice, with the resources to live, work, and thrive together.
Pillar Areas
- Ready Kids, Resilient Families – Impact Area Pillar: Ready Kids, Resilient Families
- Children and families are supported throughout the entire educational process.
- Access to quality early education and care programs that nurture and stimulate development to support the resiliency of kids and their families
- Access to quality afterschool and summer experiences that foster academic outcomes, leadership development, social connections, and future ready (ages 4 – 18).
- Provide support services and educational resources that strengthen positive parenting skills and promote a stable and nurturing home environment
- Healthy Minds & Bodies – Impact Area Pillar: Healthy Minds & Bodies
- Increase the opportunities for healthy lifestyle choices and promote overall health and wellbeing.
- Access to primary health services, including mental, behavioral, vision, and dental health care services.
- Support individuals’ resilience, social connectedness/capital, and independence.
- Provide support services and educational resources to help individuals make healthy choices that reduce risk and harm and prevent crisis.
- Family Financial Stability – Impact Area Pillar: Family Financial Stability
- Families overcome barriers to opportunity, develop economic mobility, and build generational resilience.
- Access to employment appropriate training, and job readiness skills and support to enter, remain, and advance in the workplace.
- Provide support services and educational resources to help eliminate barriers hindering the economic mobility of struggling households (i.e., stable housing, financial counseling, money management education, tax help).
- Safety Net – Ensuring a safety net for the community that emphasizes basic human needs
- United Way remains committed to the most vulnerable members of the community, centering investments and efforts within this impact area pillar to meet basic needs such as food, shelter, health, and safety, including community disaster response.
- Examples of potential work within Safety Net include, but are not limited to:
- Administering programs like the Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP)
- Health and hygiene drives
- Culturally specific food drives
- Other emerging opportunities to meet the needs of the community’s most vulnerable members.
Funding Information
$2,500 to $15,000.
Eligibility Criteria
Eligible organizations must meet the following criteria in order to be considered for funding
- Serve individuals, children, and/or families who may be vulnerable and/or marginalized with limited resources in Greater Itasca County, including: individuals at risk for multiple health problems and/or pre-existing conditions, children and adults facing educational and economic disparities, and individuals experiencing any form of discrimination (racial, ethnic, caste, gender, sexual orientation, disability, cultural, national, religious, etc.).
- Must be a nonprofit agency, including:
- Nonprofit agency designated as a 501c3 of the Internal Revenue Code with an active and responsible governing board, whose members have no material conflict of interest.
- Government agencies/units
- Faith-based organizations, provided they can demonstrate that there will be no explicitly faith-related content included in their programming and that there are no discriminatory restrictions on service recipients
- Community organizations without 501c3 status, provided they can document their relationship with a fiscal sponsor with 501c3 status
- Align with United Way’s Impact priorities:
- Ready Kids, Resilient Families
- Healthy Minds & Bodies
- Family Financial Stability
- Have substantial local presence and programming in the geographic area served by United Way of 1000 Lakes, which includes Itasca County and the surrounding communities of Hill City, the Leech Lake Reservation.
For more information, visit United Way of 1000 Lakes.
