Grantmakers › West Virginia

United Way of Central West Virginia

Charleston, WV · EIN 55-0402755. Reported 32 grants totalling $3,479,746 to 29 organizations across tax years 2020-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

29organizations funded
$19,625median reported grant
$3,479,746granted, 2020-2024
80%of dollars to its largest recipient

Does this grantmaker accept applications?

Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.

Three things in the filing do bear on it:

  1. What kind of organization it is. For United Way of Central West Virginia, the IRS classifies it as a federated giving programme -- a United Way, Jewish federation, Community Chest or similar (NTEE T70).
  2. How spread out its giving is. 29 distinct organizations, with 80% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is extreme concentration. A grantmaker sending three quarters of its money to one organization is in practice a support fund for that organization, whatever its classification says, and an unsolicited request is very unlikely to go anywhere.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $19,625. Half of what it reported fell between $12,000 and $45,000; the smallest was $5,600 and the largest $772,950. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
$5,000 - $10,000
6 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
12 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
7 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
3 grants
$250,000 Or More
4 grants

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
Various Partner AgenciesCharleston, WV$2,794,696442023
Religious Coalition for Community Renewal IncCharleston, WV$70,000112024
The Salvation ArmyBrookhaven, GA$65,000112024
YWCA of Charleston West Virginia IncCharleston, WV$60,000112024
American National Red CrossWashington, DC$45,000112024
Recovery Group of Southern West VirginiaLogan, WV$42,000112024
Childrens Therapy Clinic IncCharleston, WV$40,000112024
West Virginia Health Right IncCharleston, WV$38,000112024
Bob Burdette Center IncCharleston, WV$36,250112024
Kanawha County Dental Health Council IncCharleston, WV$35,000112024
Heart and Hand Outreach MinistriesS Charleston, WV$27,000112024
Gabriel Project of West VirginiaCharleston, WV$23,100112024
Appalachia Service Project IncJohnson City, TN$21,000112024
Kanawha Valley Fellowship Home IncCharleston, WV$18,250112024
Hero HouseMadison, WV$17,000112024
Kvc Behavioral Healthcare West Virginia IncOlathe, KS$16,750112024
Big Brothers & Big Sisters of the Tri-State IncHuntington, WV$15,000112024
Daymark IncCharleston, WV$15,000112024
West Virginia CASA Association IncCharleston, WV$14,000112024
Bible Center ChurchCharleston, WV$13,000112024
Childrens Home Society of West VirginiaCharleston, WV$12,000112024
Goodwill Industries of Kanawha Valley IncCharleston, WV$10,000112024
Rea of Hope Fellowship Home IncCharleston, WV$10,000112024
Branches-Domestic Violence Shelter of Huntington Wva IncHuntington, WV$8,500112024
Union Mission Ministries IncCharleston, WV$8,500112024
Kanawha Valley Senior Services IncCharleston, WV$7,500112024
Arts in Action IncHurricane, WV$6,000112024
Catholic Charities West Virginia IncWheeling, WV$5,600112024
Habitat for Humanity International IncCharleston, WV$5,600112024

1 of 29 (3%) received money in more than one year over the 5 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.

What the money was for

Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.

What kind of organizations it funds

By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 21 of 29 recipients we could match to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's, not ours -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.

Human Services
11 orgs
Health Care
4 orgs
Mental Health
4 orgs
Housing & Shelter
2 orgs

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
20201$772,950$772,950
20211$650,375$650,375
20221$673,452$673,452
20231$697,919$697,919
202428$685,050$16,875

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.

Where its money goes

96% of its giving went to organizations in West Virginia. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.

West Virginia
$3.3M
Georgia
$65K
District of Columbia
$45K
Tennessee
$21K
Kansas
$17K

Down to the city

Charleston, WV
$3.2M
Brookhaven, GA
$65K
Washington, DC
$45K
Logan, WV
$42K
S Charleston, WV
$27K
Huntington, WV
$24K

Foundations that fund only organizations they pick gave to this one

9 private foundations that told the IRS they contribute only to organizations they select themselves reported 21 grants totalling $141,466 to United Way of Central West Virginia. That is 24% of the 37 funders we can see giving to it. Those 9 foundations do not take unsolicited requests -- their own returns say so. The IRS classifies this organization as a federated giving programme.

6 of them gave in more than one tax year, which is the only durability signal the filings carry.

What that does not mean. It does not mean an application here reaches that money. A grant from a closed foundation is often a designated gift or a donor-advised fund earmarked by whoever gave it, and has nothing to do with any open programme this organization runs. Neither tax return says which, so neither do we. The list below is who put money in. It is not a route to it.

FoundationStateReportedGrantsYearsLast
Arthur and Joan Weisberg FamilyWest Virginia$75,730332024
Slw Foundation IncFlorida$25,000552025
Hb Wehrle Foundation Stephen D Wehrle TteeWest Virginia$20,000222025
Wells Fargo FoundationMinnesota$20,000112024
Amazonsmile FoundationWashington$289332023
Jpmorgan Chase FoundationNew York$150332024
The Labcorp Charitable FoundationNorth Carolina$130222024
Csx Foundation IncFlorida$90112025
Baird Foundation IncWisconsin$77112024

A linked name has a page of its own. We publish one for a foundation that takes no unsolicited requests only when a real share of its giving goes to organizations that make grants themselves, and that page opens by saying it does not take requests.

Every foundation in the table above files Form 990-PF, which reports every grant it made and asks outright whether it funds only organizations it picks. That answer is what puts it on this list; no other form asks the question. The grants this organization reports making are on Form 990 Schedule I, which only requires listing recipients paid more than $5,000. Two different populations, so the money in and the money out on this page are not two halves of one figure and must not be added or compared.

Both the count and the total are floors. A foundation appears here only where its return named this organization clearly enough for us to match the name to an EIN, which we manage for about two thirds of 990-PF grant rows. There are more; we cannot name them.

Get funders for your state and cause by email

We email you funders that gave to organizations in your state and cause, up to five at a time each week and never the same one twice, from their own IRS filings. Free. The weekly email has not started yet.

Unsubscribe in one click from any email. We never sell or share your address. To match on your organization and typical grant size too, keep a private profile.

Funders that support the same organizations

These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are a sign of overlapping priorities and nothing more: they do not show that any of these funders would consider a new organization. Each page says what its filings show.

The Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation19 shared recipientsEncova Foundation of West Virginia11 shared recipientsTruist West Virginia Foundation Inc9 shared recipientsAmerican Online Giving Foundation Inc9 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund8 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc7 shared recipients

How to approach this grantmaker

  1. Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
  2. Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $19,625 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in West Virginia.
  4. Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from United Way of Central West Virginia's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2020-2024). Grant figures are from its returns. Recipient classifications, the concentration and retention figures and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations from them, described in how we build this.

On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 27 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 1 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.

Address of record on the latest return: 1 United Way Square, Charleston, WV, 25301.

EIN 55-0402755 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email [email protected] and we will correct it.