2027 Targeted Fund Application is now open!

United Way of Greater St. Louis began accepting applications for its 2027 Targeted Fund Cycle on September 11, 2026 for programming to occur for one year beginning in 2027. Targeted Fund application submissions will be due via United Way’s grant application portal on October 12, 2026.

United Way’s Targeted Fund Cycle is offered to provide flexible funding to support nonprofits that are best positioned to address identified targeted needs by implementing programs that use an emergent or innovative approach to an existing community challenge requiring additional investment of time, capacity and resources across United Way’s 16 counties served.  

Targeted Fund awards are considered one-time grants (non-renewable) with a one-year implementation timeframe for United Way investment for programming that aligns with the focus area for the cycle. Proposed programs should have existing sources of funding where United Way’s investment is leveraged to ensure sustainability beyond the Targeted Fund’s one-year grant time frame.

Desired Approaches:

An emergent approach addresses an identified community need using a promising practice or adapted method that is in development or the early stage of implementation to advance service delivery.

An innovative approach addresses an identified community need using a new method, model, or practice that is designed to significantly transform service delivery.

Real Time Response to Community Needs

This year’s assessment included feedback gathered from both regional and national data sources as well as insights on needs from residents of the 16-counties serviced by United Way via calls received from the 211 information and resource helpline. The identified needs align with one or more of United Way’s impact areas:

• Basic Needs
• Health and Well Being
• Community Stability and Crisis Response
• Jobs and Financial Mobility
• Early Childhood and Youth Success

United Way annually assesses real-time community needs and gaps based upon the result from its community needs assessment, community landscape reports, United Way’s 211 Counts Dashboard data source, and additional relevant secondary data sources.

Data from this year’s community needs assessment illustrates an ever-increasing demand for food access within the Basic Needs Impact Area. The 2027 Targeted Fund Cycle focus area aims to expand food access across the region by identifying nonprofit organizations that are working directly to reduce hunger or improve access to food at the aggregate level through scalable and impactful solutions.

Successful Targeted Fund cycle applicants will demonstrate practical approaches that address food insecurity within one or more counties across United Way’s 16 county footprint by expanding direct access to nutritious food options for individuals and families by strengthening community-based hunger relief infrastructure.  Sample activities could include:

• Provision of prepared meals or shelf stable meals
• Distribution of food to populations/neighborhoods with limited access to nutritious foods options 
• Expand access to populations/neighborhoods with a high likelihood of food insecurity
• Purchase fresh produce/dairy/poultry for community/neighborhood level distribution
• Efforts to boost long-term access to healthy food

Additionally, potential applicants have opportunity to participate in virtual office hours on October 2^nd to ask questions about the cycle in preparation for their submission. Virtual office hours are offered as a courtesy to applicants as they develop their applications for this funding cycle. UWGSL will not vet applicant eligibility or alignment in advance of the formal application review process. Available slots will be scheduled on a first come first serve basis. Email [email protected] to request an available 15-minute slot. Once slots are filled all other inquires can be submitted to [email protected] and one of our staff will respond to your inquiry. 

Interested applicants are invited to attend an informational webinar to learn about the requirements and expectations of the Targeted Fund Cycle prior to submitting an application. A recording of the informational webinar is available below.

PLEASE NOTE: Safety Net Member Agencies are not eligible for Targeted Funding cycle consideration.