Grantmakers › Georgia

United Way of the Chattahoochee Valley

Columbus, GA · EIN 58-0572434. Reported 119 grants totalling $22.2M to 32 organizations across tax years 2020-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

32organizations funded
$157,176median reported grant
$22.2Mgranted, 2020-2024
96%of grantees funded again the next year
13%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 the Chattahoochee Valley, the IRS classifies it as a federated giving programme -- a United Way, Jewish federation, Community Chest or similar (NTEE T70Z).
  2. How spread out its giving is. 32 distinct organizations, with 13% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
  3. How much its list changes. 96% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 4 year-to-year transitions. That is well above the 56% median for grantmaking charities, and above the 67% median for private foundations. It describes the organizations it already funds, not whether it would consider a new one.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $157,176. Half of what it reported fell between $72,615 and $243,000; the smallest was $5,000 and the largest $607,000. 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
4 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
12 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
8 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
20 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
46 grants
$250,000 Or More
29 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
Boys and Girls Clubs of the Chattahoochee Valley IncColumbus, GA$2,872,799552024
Easter Seals West Georgia IncColumbus, GA$2,809,000552024
Girls Incorporated of Columbus and Phenix-RussellColumbus, GA$1,938,100552024
Feeding the Valley IncMidland, GA$1,865,000552024
Young Mens Christian Association ColumbusColumbus, GA$1,254,925552024
Family Center of Columbus IncColumbus, GA$1,242,970442023
Columbus Alliance for Battered Women IncColumbus, GA$1,209,300552024
House of T I M E IncorporatedColumbus, GA$1,038,000552024
Open Door Community House IncColumbus, GA$896,600552024
Boy Scouts of AmericaColumbus, GA$892,200552024
The Salvation ArmyBrookhaven, GA$812,400552024
Twin Cedars Youth and Family Services IncLagrange, GA$782,728552024
Girl Scouts of Historic Georgia IncLizella, GA$763,000552024
Chattahoochee Valley Jail Ministry IncColumbus, GA$728,682552024
American National Red CrossWashington, DC$719,210552024
Mercymed of ColumbusColumbus, GA$643,000552024
Russell County Child Advocacy Center IncPhenix City, AL$467,514552024
Teen Advisors IncColumbus, GA$391,115552024
Southwest Georgia Housing Opportunities IncColumbus, GA$182,500552024
St Anne Community OutreachColumbus, GA$148,050552024
Valley Healthcare System IncColumbus, GA$85,000222024
Ferst Readers IncMadison, GA$78,000442023
Stewart Community Home IncColumbus, GA$75,000112020
Columbus Hospice IncColumbus, GA$70,000112024
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta IncAtlanta, GA$50,000112024
Bridge of Columbus IncColumbus, GA$44,000442023
Chattahoochee Valley Imagination LibraryColumbus, GA$25,000112024
Pastoral Institute IncColumbus, GA$25,000112024
Georgia Center for Opportunity IncPeachtree Cor, GA$20,000222024
Tears Teens Empowerment Awareness With ResolutionsPhenix City, AL$15,861112020
Goodwill Industries of the Southern Rivers IncColumbus, GA$10,000112024
Urban League of Greater Columbus IncColumbus, GA$10,000112023

24 of 32 (75%) 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 18 of 32 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
6 orgs
Youth Development
3 orgs
Employment
2 orgs
Mental Health
2 orgs
Food & Nutrition
1 org
Religion
1 org
Health Care
1 org
Crime & Legal
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202024$4,221,650$153,980
202122$4,607,066$180,537
202222$4,444,706$179,550
202325$4,591,532$158,000
202426$4,300,000$138,000

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

95% of its giving went to organizations in Georgia. 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.

Georgia
$21.0M
District of Columbia
$719K
Alabama
$483K

Down to the city

Columbus, GA
$16.6M
Midland, GA
$1.9M
Brookhaven, GA
$812K
Lagrange, GA
$783K
Lizella, GA
$763K
Washington, DC
$719K

Foundations that fund only organizations they pick gave to this one

11 private foundations that told the IRS they contribute only to organizations they select themselves reported 84 grants totalling $1,125,453 to United Way of the Chattahoochee Valley. That is 34% of the 32 funders we can see giving to it. Those 11 foundations do not take unsolicited requests -- their own returns say so. The IRS classifies this organization as a federated giving programme.

10 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
Jw & Ethel I Woodruff Foundation IncGeorgia$485,000442024
Maxine R & Jack S Schiffman FamilyGeorgia$273,775332025
Lockwood Partners Foundation IncGeorgia$214,0001152025
The Cliboca Foundation IncGeorgia$79,500552025
Thornton Jordan Family Foundation IncGeorgia$35,000442025
Passman for People Foundation IncGeorgia$17,500222022
Smurfit Westrock US FoundationGeorgia$16,4584622022
The Cms Foundation IncGeorgia$1,500332025
The Patton Foundation IncGeorgia$1,500222025
Tr Ua Four-G S Charitable TrFlorida$1,000112022

The 10 largest by reported dollars, of 11.

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.

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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.

Community Foundation of the21 shared recipientsGeorgia Power Foundation Inc19 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund12 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc10 shared recipientsAmerican Online Giving Foundation Inc8 shared recipientsBradley-Turner Foundation 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 $157,176 -- 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 Georgia.
  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 the Chattahoochee Valley'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 26 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 0 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: 1005 Front Avenue, Columbus, GA, 31901.

EIN 58-0572434 · 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.