Grantmakers › West Virginia

United Way of the Upper Ohio Valley Inc

Wheeling, WV · EIN 55-0479446. Reported 99 grants totalling $2,347,135 to 25 organizations across tax years 2020-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

25organizations funded
$24,124median reported grant
$2,347,135granted, 2020-2024
97%of grantees funded again the next year
9%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 Upper Ohio Valley Inc, 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. 25 distinct organizations, with 9% 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. 97% 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 $24,124. Half of what it reported fell between $12,933 and $31,809; the smallest was $947 and the largest $73,695. 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.
Under $5,000
1 grant
$5,000 - $10,000
18 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
34 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
43 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
3 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
Young Womens Christian Association of Wheeling WvWheeling, WV$206,291552024
Youth Services System IncWheeling, WV$197,115552024
Harmony House IncWheeling, WV$188,082552024
Wheeling Health Right IncWheeling, WV$181,273552024
Salvation Army - Ohio CountyWheeling, WV$141,035552024
Gabriel Project of West VirginiaCharleston, WV$140,619552024
Catholic Charities West Virginia IncWheeling, WV$140,235652024
Russell Nesbitt Services IncWheeling, WV$138,896552024
Upper Ohio Valley Sexual AssaultWheeling, WV$122,282552024
The Salvation ArmyWest Nyack, NY$109,334552024
Family Service Upper Ohio Valley IncWheeling, WV$94,994552024
Tri-County Help Center IncSaint Clairsville, OH$93,887332024
Seeing Hand Association IncWheeling, WV$86,150952024
Young Mens Christian Association of WheelingWheeling, WV$81,560552024
Brooke County Committee on Aging IncFollansbee, WV$78,637552024
Holy Family Child Care & Development Center IncWheeling, WV$76,257552024
Weirton Christian CenterWeirton, WV$73,695112024
Information HelplineWheeling, WV$62,054222021
Community Bread Basket IncWeirton, WV$43,743112024
Girl Scouts of Black Diamond Council IncCharleston, WV$33,663442024
Salvation Army National CorpAlexandria, VA$21,726332024
Brooke County LibraryWellsburg, WV$11,985222024
Hancock County 4-HNew Cumberland, WV$11,375112024
Hancock County Sheltered Workshop IncWeirton, WV$11,300112024
CASA for Children IncWheeling, WV$947112024

20 of 25 (80%) 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.

It also reported 4 groups of grants to individuals -- scholarships, emergency assistance and similar. Schedule I reports these by category with a headcount and never by name, so there is nothing here we could publish about the recipients even if we wanted to.

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 15 of 25 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
7 orgs
Mental Health
2 orgs
Employment
2 orgs
Health Care
1 org
Food & Nutrition
1 org
Youth Development
1 org
Crime & Legal
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202017$469,004$25,764
202118$407,726$25,074
202217$457,336$25,694
202320$413,320$19,339
202427$599,749$18,989

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

90% 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
$2.1M
New York
$109K
Ohio
$94K
Virginia
$22K

Down to the city

Wheeling, WV
$1.7M
Charleston, WV
$174K
Weirton, WV
$129K
West Nyack, NY
$109K
Saint Clairsville, OH
$94K
Follansbee, WV
$79K

Foundations that fund only organizations they pick gave to this one

4 private foundations that told the IRS they contribute only to organizations they select themselves reported 10 grants totalling $50,979 to United Way of the Upper Ohio Valley Inc. That is 14% of the 28 funders we can see giving to it. Those 4 foundations do not take unsolicited requests -- their own returns say so. The IRS classifies this organization as a federated giving programme.

3 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
Joanna Gusta Charitable TrWest Virginia$41,931442025
Elizabeth Stifel Kline FoundationWest Virginia$8,000112021
American Electric Power FoundationDelaware$816222023
Amazonsmile FoundationWashington$232332023

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 for the Ohio Valley11 shared recipientsAlbert Schenk III & Kathleen H6 shared recipientsEncova Foundation of West Virginia6 shared recipientsHess Family Foundation5 shared recipientsThe Wm M & a Cafaro Family Foundation5 shared recipientsBernard Mcdonough Foundation Inc5 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 $24,124 -- 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 the Upper Ohio Valley Inc'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.

Address of record on the latest return: 1307 Chapline Street, Wheeling, WV, 26003.

EIN 55-0479446 · 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.