Support the work of central Iowa nonprofits dedicated to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion.


United Way of Central Iowa is committed to addressing inequities and impacting disparities across our community. A donation to the UNITED FOR EQUITY Fund will help support the work of local nonprofits who are focused on improving diversity, equity, and inclusion in our community while advancing the work at the heart of the UNITED TO THRIVE strategic focus.

While equity is an embedded principle in our grantmaking, we recognize that it is more important than ever to ensure capacity-building for newer, and often smaller organizations who address inequities and are critical to our community's ability to deliver quality services that improve equity and reduce disparities.

In order to reduce inequities in the nonprofit sector related to access to funding and networks, organizations who receive UNITED FOR EQUITY funding may receive both programmatic and capacity-building support to help strengthen their organizations and programs overall.

The UNITED FOR EQUITY Fund:

  • Supports and strengthens organizations that serve marginalized populations – including organizations that are led by people of color and serve people of color – while advancing the work of UNITED TO THRIVE

  • Works to address the inequities related to the strong infrastructure, funding networks, data, and metrics more established organizations have

  • Provides programmatic support AND supplemental funding for organizational capacity-building and/or general operating costs to build sustainability for organizations

We recognize that equity is not only a moral and economic imperative for our community, but that it is central to our mission and our strategic focus of UNITED TO THRIVE. We also recognize we don't have all the answers. We are committed to convening groups to find solutions grounded in lived experiences, collaboration, and resourcefulness.