2025-27 Community Impact Investments
For the 2025-27 Community Impact Investments, UWPC invested in programs and collaborations aligned with a single focus of increasing individual/household stability by breaking down barriers to self-sufficiency while ensuring a strong safety net of basic needs services. United Way does this work in partnership with organizations that share in the vision of lifting 15,000 households out of poverty and into self-sufficiency by 2028. Community Impact Investments align with these values:
- ‘Whole Person’ and ‘Whole Household’ approach – providing integrated services to address the whole person or family’s needs, starting with solving for the immediate crisis (basic needs) and then supporting people in moving to stability and into self-sufficiency.
- Client-Centered services – placing those being served in the center of our work in order to achieve service delivery that is respectful of and responsive to the preferences, needs and values of those receiving services.
- Collaboration – prioritizing collaboration as a method by which to move more individuals/households farther along the continuum toward self-sufficiency. Striving for innovation and looking for new ways of working together to develop solutions to community needs.
- Inclusion – creating and maintaining an inclusive environment that is curious about, welcoming to, and supportive of differences in the pursuit of shared community aspirations.
Food Security Fund
Our local emergency food system is facing a surge in need. The number of food bank visits has more than doubled since the pandemic, with rising costs for virtually every essential need pushing more and more households to seek out food pantries to help make ends meet. Our community has also become more and more diverse over the years, and with diversity comes a beautiful array of different ethnicities and cultures requiring different types of food to meet their unique needs. Immigrants, refugees, Native Americans, and people of color across the country struggle to find culturally appropriate foods, and the struggle only increases as levels of food insecurity rise.
The Food Security Fund supports community-based solutions to address food insecurity by making multi-year grants to community partners working to provide an accessible and culturally relevant food system. As UWPC leans into trust-based philanthropy principles, we are pleased to offer this low-barrier opportunity for those working in our local emergency food system.
The Food Security Fund supports:
Organizations that are grounded in equity and inclusion
Those that place the people most impacted by hunger at the center of their work
Focus on removing barriers to accessing nutritious and culturally preferred food
2025-27 Food Security Fund Investment Portfolio:
Asia Pacific Cultural Center
Eatonville Family Agency
Eloise’s Cooking Pot Food Bank
Emergency Food Network
Food Backpacks 4 Kids
GoodRoots NW
Korean Women’s Association
Nourish Pierce County
St. Leo Food Connection
The Salvation Army – Tacoma Corps
Impact Fund
United Way of Pierce County continues to focus on supporting struggling households in our community. For this Community Investment process, UWPC is building on the learnings from our journey, community data from multiple sources, and most importantly community voice. The Impact Fund will continue to support those who demonstrate solid, effective programming that is clearly aligned with UWPC’s bold goal and who are working to support a strong foundation of basic needs and supportive.
The Impact Fund is designed to support programs and projects that are effectively breaking down barriers to self-sufficiency. Impact Fund investments will be between $20,000 and $50,000 for a total of $325,000 to be invested.
The Impact Fund supports:
Organizations that are grounded in equity and inclusion
Clear and measurable connection to the bold goal
Proximity to need/geographic focus areas
Focus on whole person/household
Ability to provide disaggregated demographic and self-sufficiency data
2025-27 Impact Fund Investment Portfolio:
Associated Ministries
Cares of WA
CJK Community Homes
Living Access Support Alliance (LASA)
Making a Difference Foundation
Mi Centro
New Phoebe House
St. Vincent de Paul
Tacoma Community College
Tacoma Community House
YWCA Pierce County
Transformation Fund
As we work toward goals such as racial and economic justice, these are symptoms of more deeply embedded systems and structures that marginalize entire communities. To achieve systems transformation, we need to transform the way we work for change. Transformation is about bringing something new into existence, not just rearranging what exists. Transformation is about compassion and collaboration with intention.
The Transformation Fund investment supports:
Existing innovative and collaborative work providing excellent results in moving households toward self-sufficiency; or
A bold new idea that will result in measurable solutions to challenges and barriers facing ALICE households; and
Work that influences systems and policy change.
The Transformation Fund prioritizes:
Organizations that are grounded in equity and inclusion
Clear and measurable connection to the bold goal
Proximity to need/geographic focus areas
Focus on whole person/household
Ability to provide disaggregated demographic and self-sufficiency data
Collaborative – able to identify key partners and track shared outcomes
Innovative, human-centered approach or model
2025-27 Transformation Fund Investment:
Multicultural Child & Family Hope Center