To unite our community to improve people’s lives.
UWSN Community Impact Grants
Apply for UWSN grant funding!
Community Impact Grants At-A-Glance
Each year, United Way of Southern Nevada accepts grant applications from nonprofits serving Southern Nevada. This funding opportunity enhances programs focused on Youth Opportunity, Financial Security, Healthy Community, and Community Resiliency.
The application for the 2026 Community Impact Grant program is now closed. Thank you for your interest!
Please note that organizations seeking funds to provide emergency food and shelter should apply through the Emergency Food and Shelter Program, a separate UWSN grantmaking program.
Watch the video to learn about our Community Impact Grant Application submission requirements.
Community Impact Grants Application Process
Applications must be submitted online through our application platform here.
In order to successfully apply for funding from United Way of Southern Nevada, your organization and program must meet the following eligibility criteria:
- Must provide services in Southern Nevada (Clark, Nye, Esmerelda, Lincoln Counties)
- Must demonstrate clear impact on UWSN funding priorities and objectives (see below)
- Must be a nonprofit organization, public charity, or supporting organization (501c3, 509a1, 509a2, 509a3)
- Must be licensed and in good standing in the State of Nevada
- Must include an organizational language access plan (either drafted or finalized)
- Must provide a complete and correct application
- Applicants must also provide financial statements from their organization. These do not need to be audited financial statements, but please provide the audited financials if your organization has secured them in the past 3 years
Frequently Asked Questions
Funding will be available to support agencies offering evidence-based programs in four key areas:
- Youth Opportunity, with a focus on early education, K-12 support, and college and early career
- Financial Security, with a focus on job training and workforce credentials, financial education and coaching, and access to public benefits
- Healthy Community, with a focus on health services, nutritious food access, physical activity programs, and community safety initiatives
- Community Resiliency, with a focus on crisis support, access, and inclusion
Proposal application packages must be submitted online via our online application platform. The application will request an organization contact form, a narrative describing the program you are requesting funding for, a program logic model, and a program budget. Templates for the logic model and budget are available via a link in the application.
The program narrative will include a program summary, details of your program’s past performance, a description of how your program aligns with UWSN’s goals for community impact, considerations for inclusion and equity, and your plans for long-term program sustainability.
The complete application package will also include a series of attachments confirming eligibility. Please review the application submission webpage for more information.
Applications will be screened for eligibility and referred to the UWSN Funding Review Committee, a community-based group of volunteers who will score each proposal with a standard rubric. Each application and related reviewer scores will be discussed by the Committee, which will make a formal recommendation.
Please note that there are many determining factors that may result in a funding recommendation, including rubric scores, Committee deliberations, application quality, financial statements, program performance, etc. The UWSN Board of Directors will review funding recommendations and provide final approval of Community Impact Grants.
Your work is important and we want to learn more about what you are doing. Please plan to submit your proposal by Friday, February 13, 2026 at 5pm (Pacific). Visit uwsn.smapply.org/prog/CIG2026 to access the application platform.
Organizations can submit one application per funding cycle. Applications must be aligned with one of the following areas: Youth Opportunity, Financial Security, Healthy Community, or Community Resiliency. Applications should request funding for one program.
No, the term of this grant is one year and will run from July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027.
Yes, the Funding Review Committee and UWSN Board of Directors may choose to award partial funding.
There are no limits or restrictions placed on first-time applicants. We encourage applying organizations to review the application for more information regarding past year awards.
No, there is not a limit to the number of times your organization can apply in consecutive years. UWSN welcomes all eligible applications during each funding cycle.
No, Women United is not a separate funding/grantmaking program. Community Impact Grants are typically funded by the generous undesignated contributions from donors at workplaces throughout Southern Nevada, corporate grants, and private philanthropic contributions, including members of Women United.
Grant funds are paid in quarterly installments. After the funding agreement is signed and the first quarterly payment sent, subsequent payments are contingent on receipt of a completed program report.
UWSN does not place a limit or restriction on the size of the funding request in comparison to the overall program budget.
Please describe how your grant request will be used to start, implement, expand, or maintain a specific program with clear set of program activities, objectives, and outcomes.
Yes, we accept applications for programs intended to serve Southern Nevada residents for any length of time between the funding year 7/1/26 to 6/30/27.
No, there is not a cap on administrative costs. Agencies are encouraged to request funds for all aspects of a program, including direct assistance, staff required to operate the program, and administrative costs necessary to support program operations.
Please note that UWSN does not provide funding for capital projects, real estate development, fundraising events, individual requests, elections, political candidates, political campaigns, proselytization, or to organizations that discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender, sex, sexual orientation, or disability.
A budget template is provided in the application. Applicants are encouraged, but not required, to use this template. The template allows you to communicate with other funding sources and show how UWSN funding will fit into your overall program budget.
No, match funding is not required.
Past program performance is a required part of the program narrative form. Please explain any challenges and lessons learned through recent years of implementing your program.
UWSN has not identified a minimum or maximum number of grants in this cycle, however we understand the need for a frame of reference. To assist with this, we have embedded a hyperlink within the funding request section of the application. This link leads to a summary of our award portfolio from the last three years.
UWSN typically receives over 150 applications for Community Impact Grant funding and currently has 16 community impact grants active in Southern Nevada.
Yes, please review the application instruction video for this grant above and on YouTube
Please share as much information about your program as you can. If you do not have metrics yet, please share how you plan to develop them through the grant period.
Programs funded under Youth Opportunity support students from Pre-K through College & Career. Programs funded under our other pillars provide services to people of all ages. For more information, please review the instructional video for this grant.
Health-related programs are typically funded as part of the Healthy Community pathway.
In the Youth Opportunity impact pathway, parents play an incredibly important role in furthering their child’s education. Parent education refers to empowering and enabling parents to be partners in their child’s academic and life success.
Special Populations include people in low-income communities or areas of concentrated poverty, refugees and immigrants, people with disabilities, veterans and military families, new or long-term unemployed people, victims and/or survivors of human trafficking, and people who do not speak English as a primary language. This list is expansive and includes young people in foster care (e.g. people in low-income communities).
An Organizational Language Access Plan is now required to be eligible for funding through this grant program. Eligible applicants must provide either a finalized version or a formal draft currently in development.
Yes.
Due to the volume of applications received, UWSN will not accept additional documentation as part of your application package. Please plan to summarize your program’s past performance as part of the Program Narrative Form.
UWSN anticipates that each application will be reviewed by at least 4 people on the Community Funding Review Committee.
Each application will be reviewed on its own merits. UWSN has not placed any restrictions on organizations based on previous impact grant status.
The Language Access Plan should be a policy that has already been adopted by your organization and is a required document for submitting a complete application. Organizations that do not have a Language Access Plan will not be eligible for funding through the Community Impact Grant program.
Yes, all applicants are welcome to request feedback after the funding process is complete and grants have been awarded.
Yes, the Survey Monkey Apply platform allows applicants to save applications and return to them at a future time.
Yes, the Survey Monkey Apply platform will allow you to use a single set of login information for all UWSN funding opportunities, including EFSP and Community Impact Grants.
Program reports are due approximately 10 days after the end of the quarter.
No, there is no invitation code required for this grant opportunity.
You can invite as many people as needed to work on your application. Please use the ‘invite collaborators’ option on the application platform.
Yes, character limits are included in the application narrative (where applicable). These range from 2,000 to 5,000 characters per response.
UWSN does not provide Community Impact Grant funding for capital projects, real estate development, fundraising events, individual requests, elections, political candidates, political campaigns, proselytization, or to organizations that discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender, sex, sexual orientation, or disability.
The only restriction is that programs must be serving Southern Nevada residents residing in Clark, Esmeralda, Lincoln, and Nye Counties.
Nonprofit agencies that manage grant funds often use an accounting system and software. The software might be Excel, Quickbooks, or a more advanced system if your organization is big enough. Please see this section from the Community Tool Box for more information on Managing Finances: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/finances/managing-finances.
“The terms “audit” or “audited financial statements” refer to the work product resulting from the independent examination of a nonprofit’s financial records by a licensed certified public accountant (CPA). An independent audit is an examination of the financial records, accounts, business transactions, accounting practices, and internal controls of a charitable nonprofit by an “independent” auditor. “Independent” refers to the fact that the auditor/CPA is not an employee of the nonprofit but instead is retained through a contract for services, and hence is “independent.”
Your program budget should be for the term of the grant (07/01/2026 to 06/30/2027).
United Way of Northern Nevada and the Sierra serves the northern counties of Nevada. Please refer to uwnns.org for more information.
UWSN does not refer nonprofits to grant writers in the community. Our best recommendation is to reach out to partnering agencies for references and referrals.
Applications are limited to one application per organization per funding cycle. Each organization should have its own point of contact and account to manage its proposal, from the application submission through the review process and subsequent quarterly reporting.
