Community Investment

Report to the community 2023-2024

United Way of Greater Cleveland exists because too many families and children live in poverty in Greater Cleveland, with many more hovering on the edge of it, despite working full-time jobs.

We are committed to creating a region where everyone has an equal opportunity to build a good life.

United Way of Greater Cleveland exists because too many families and children live in poverty in Greater Cleveland, with many more hovering on the edge of it, despite working full-time jobs.

We are committed to creating a region where everyone has an equal opportunity to build a good life.

We focus on removing barriers to create opportunities that can lead to family stability and economic mobility.

Through strategic collaborations with our community partners in government, businesses, and other nonprofit organizations, we can bring solutions to market and scale them to achieve a greater impact that no one organization could achieve on its own.  

By working to ensure access to basic needs like food, shelter, and legal services; building systems and pathways to career and employment opportunities; helping families increase income and savings on their way to financial stability; and improving access to stable, affordable housing, we can create a region where we all succeed. 

Community Investment overview

  • Answered more than 193,000 calls for help, assisting callers with immediate needs and connecting them with community resources.
  • Ensured round-the-clock coverage for the City of Cleveland’s 311 Call Center and other vital regional and state-wide helplines for utility assistance, emergency shelter, and problem gambling. 
  • Pioneered a dynamic follow-up survey that improved client outcomes.
  • Expanded access to effective safety net services for more than 69,000 clients served through our grantmaking partners at 16 community agencies.
  • 50% of current grant funding is directed to BIPOC-led organizations.
  • Increased the availability of lead-safe rental housing for nearly 30,000 Cleveland families so far as a lead partner in the Lead Safe Cleveland Coalition. 
  • Expanded the availability of free legal representation through The Legal Aid Society among low-income families, resulting in more than 81% of eligible Clevelanders avoiding eviction. 
  • Provided financial assistance to prevent eviction or foreclosure to nearly 1,800 families through the Siemer Family Stability Initiative.
  • Provided safe, affordable housing for 40 parents who are college students and their children by helping to launch the Louise C. Stokes Scholar House, which is now fully occupied and operated by CHN Housing Partners. 
  • Delivered over 140,000 medically-tailored meals to socially isolated adults over age 50 with chronic illness.
  • Assisted over 1,000 Geauga County residents with benefits enrollment, referral services, counseling, and emergency financial assistance through the Geauga County Aging & Disability Resource Center.
  •  Launched a two-year pilot planning phase for a promising community-led solution called Universal Basic Employment, a bold initiative aimed at eliminating poverty through a federal jobs guarantee, in partnership with social entrepreneur Devin Cotten and the City of Cleveland. 
ART'S STORY
“I’M NOW A TRI-C GRADUATE, AND I HAVE MOVED INTO MY OWN APARTMENT.”

United Way 211

A unique safety net role

As the provider of United Way 211, we are uniquely positioned to identify gaps in the safety net that impact health, including food, shelter, and utility needs. This knowledge allows us to serve as a key partner in administrating the Cuyahoga County Emergency Food Contract, which uses Cuyahoga County Health and Human Services levy dollars in partnership with the Greater Cleveland Food Bank and the Hunger Network to provide funding for food at area pantries. 

Additionally, we administer the Cuyahoga and Geauga Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP) funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. As the local administrator, we staff an EFSP Advisory Board representing consumers, advocates, and social service providers.  

Collaborative Initiatives


“United Way of Greater Cleveland has extensive experience convening relationships and managing complex, multi-stakeholder initiatives to improve community outcomes. We act as a launching pad for promising new ideas that have the potential to address systemic issues.”

-Ken Surratt, Chief Development and Investment Officer, United Way of Greater Cleveland

Grantee Partners

At United Way of Greater Cleveland, we understand that creating conditions that allow people to move out of crisis and onto a pathway toward economic equity and mobility is an ambitious goal. We thoroughly believe this goal is imperative and achievable if we continue to invest in community partners who share the same sense of purpose. 

Our investment strategy, reinvented in 2021, provides financial assistance to allow our partner agencies to focus their work on programs that impact the community, and solutions they believe will work due to their experience working directly with clients in our community. 

2022-2023 grant cycle

The initial funding cycle for 16 community partner agencies – 12 in Cuyahoga County and four in Geauga County – concluded in December 2023

Providing stable funding over two years allowed our partners to focus their efforts on programs targeting economic mobility, housing stability, and health pathways and make a significant impact in the community.

Collectively, those initial grantee partners served almost 69,000 people

Impact Numbers

GRANTEE PARTNERS FOR 2022-2023 FUNDING CYCLE

44,426
People served by Economic Mobility programs
23,491
People served by Health Pathways programs

795
People served by Housing Stability programs

2024-2025 grant cycle

In January 2024, we began the funding cycle for our next round of 18 grantee partners. The selected agencies, with 50 percent of the funding directed to BIPOC-led organizations, exhibit an exceptional commitment to change and an alignment with our broader community impact strategies focusing on early childhood development, income pathways, housing stability, and health pathways. 

Each of our grantee partners receives an annual stipend for representatives from the organization to attend United Way’s Center for Excellence in Social Services, which provides educational programming and promotes best practices across the nonprofit community. The cohort-based curriculum offers topics focusing on Building Evaluation Capacity, Board and Leadership Development, Building a Culture of RDEI, and Lifting Up Leaders of Color. 

By working with our grantee partners in Cuyahoga and Geauga counties, we can collectively bring about sustainable and meaningful change to the symptoms and root causes of economic inequality that impact far too many of our community members daily.  

ASIA (Asian Services in Action) 

Doors of Hope (Geauga) 

Family & Community Services (Geauga) 

FrontLine Service 

Joseph and Mary’s Home 

Journey Center for Safety & Healing 

Lake-Geauga Recovery Centers (Geauga) 

Lexington-Bell Community Center 

May Dugan Center 

Ravenwood Health (Geauga) 

Spanish American Committee 

Starting Point 

Thea Bowman Center 

Towards Employment 

Youth Opportunities Unlimited 

YWCA of Greater Cleveland 

ASIA (Asian Services in Action) 

Black Child Development Institute 

Catholic Charities Group (Geauga County) 

Cleveland Rape Crisis Center 

Enterprise Community Partners 

Family & Community Services/Next Step (Geauga County) 

Food Strong 

Hunger Network 

Legal Aid Society of Cleveland 

Lexington-Bell Community Center 

Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry 

Milestones Autism Resources 

New Bridge Cleveland 

Passages 

Ravenwood Mental Health Group (Geauga) 

Spanish American Committee 

Towards Employment 

YWCA Greater Cleveland 

Read the 2023-2024 report by section

Community Investment

Resource Development

Be the Solution

By the Numbers

Community Investment

Be the Solution

Resource Development

By the Numbers

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