‘Open call’: United Way seeking pitches to prevent poverty in London area

United Way Elgin Middlesex has launched an open call to local charities working to reduce and prevent poverty through the next round of its Community Fund grants.

The non-profit says grassroots organizations and equity-seeking groups are encouraged to apply for the grants, which focus on providing aid to a wide range of diverse groups.

“Through the pandemic, it was laid bare that equity-deserving groups, people from marginalized and racialized communities were disproportionately affected, but also the effects of poverty overall,” said Kelly Ziegner, president and CEO of United Way Elgin Middlesex.

Launched in 2021, Zeigner said the Community Fund was created to “level the playing field for organizations.”

“Particularly those that are led by BIPOC groups, by Indigenous groups,” she said.

Zeigner added that when it first launched, “a lot of proposals came through the door.”

“Roughly $15 million in requests for about $5 million in funding. So, we were actually oversubscribed by a margin of, like, three to one,” she said. “That makes the job of our volunteers very difficult as they have to go through all those proposals, measure them against the criteria (and) do some ranking so that we come up with the list of who is successful.

“The ones that did not make it through is not for lack of being great programs, it’s just a lack of resource.”

Following the last round of grants, Zeigner said there was a 10 per cent increase in funding to Indigenous-led organizations.

“We had existing relationships with some agencies, like the N’Amerind Friendship Centre, for example. But there are new organizations like the Nshwaasnangong Child Care and Family Centre, which was a new, newly funded program for us,” she said. “It really was an opportunity for us to provide support to urban Indigenous folks in our community.”

Moving to an open call for proposals, she added that selected agencies will receive funding through the grant for two years, running from April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2026.

“Every two years we’re able to open the process up across the community so that more groups can apply and have access to those funds,” Zeigner said. “For us, it’s really about equity and reconciliation.”

Local charities can apply for grants to support one or two programs at up to $200,000 each. A maximum amount of $400,000 in grants is available to a single organization.

Zeigner said that all organizations – including those that previously received funding and those that have not previously accessed the Community Fund – are encouraged to apply for the grant.

“We anticipate between $4.5 million and $5 million will be available,” she said. “It’s really dependent on the fall fundraising campaign and all of our fundraising.”

Applications are being accepted until Nov. 3.

For more information on the Community Fund, visit unitedwayem.ca.