GrantmakersNorth Carolina

United Way of Gaston County Inc

Gastonia, NC · EIN 56-0653356. Reported 61 grants totalling $1,658,265 to 22 organizations across tax years 2021-2023, on Form 990 Schedule I.

22organizations funded
$20,000median reported grant
$1,658,265granted, 2021-2023
92%of grantees funded again the next year
16%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 Gaston County 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. 22 distinct organizations, with 16% 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. 92% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 2 year-to-year transitions. That is well above the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and above the 67% private foundations manage. This list is close to settled, so a newcomer has to displace someone rather than fill a gap.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $20,000. Half of what it reported fell between $15,000 and $30,000; the smallest was $6,000 and the largest $100,000. 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
7 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
31 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
15 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
7 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
1 grant

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 Greater Gaston IncGastonia, NC$266,000332023
Alliance for Children and Youth Communities in Schools of Gaston CGastonia, NC$181,000332023
Gaston Literacy Council IncGastonia, NC$171,000332023
Cancer Services of Gaston County IncGastonia, NC$128,000332023
Adult Day Care CenterGastonia, NC$105,000332023
Salvation Army Boys and Girls ClubGastonia, NC$89,000632023
Dallas-High Shoals Christian Social Ministry IncDallas, NC$74,000332023
Gs Carolinas Peaks to PiedmontGastonia, NC$71,000332023
Heart Society of Gaston County IncGastonia, NC$69,000332023
Hospice of Gaston County IncGastonia, NC$63,533332023
Cherryville Area MinistriesCherryville, NC$57,000332023
Piedmont Council BSAGastonia, NC$50,000332023
American Red CrossGastonia, NC$47,000332023
Bessemer City Crisis CenterBessemer City, NC$44,000332023
Flynn Fellowship Homes of Gastonia IncGastonia, NC$42,000332023
The Arc of Gaston County IncGastonia, NC$41,000332023
Community Relief Organization of Mt Holly NcMount Holly, NC$37,000332023
Serving Our Community With Kindness in Springwood IncBelmont, NC$37,000332023
Other Grants Under 5000$30,830112023
Grants Under 5000$26,653112022
United Way of North CarolinaCary, NC$21,857112021
Dollywood FoundationSevierville, TN$6,392112022

18 of 22 (82%) received money in more than one year over the 3 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 3 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 kind of organizations it funds

By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 7 of 22 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.

Human Services
3 orgs
Mental Health
2 orgs
Diseases & Disorders
1 org
Philanthropy & Grantmaking
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202120$634,501$23,250
202221$612,454$21,409
202320$411,310$16,000

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

100% of its giving went to organizations in North Carolina. 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.

North Carolina
$1.6M
Tennessee
$6K

Down to the city

Gastonia, NC
$1.3M
Dallas, NC
$74K
Cherryville, NC
$57K
Bessemer City, NC
$44K
Mount Holly, NC
$37K
Belmont, NC
$37K

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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 the strongest signal available that two funders have overlapping priorities -- and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.

Gaston Community Foundation10 shared recipientsDuke Energy Foundation8 shared recipientsAmerican Online Giving Foundation Inc4 shared recipientsGaston Memorial Hospital Inc4 shared recipientsThe Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc4 shared recipientsAmerican Endowment Foundation3 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 $20,000 -- 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 North Carolina.
  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 Gaston County Inc's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 3 returns (tax years 2021-2023). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.

On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 30 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: Po Box 2597, Gastonia, NC, 28053.

EIN 56-0653356 · 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, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email hello@funderscope.com and we will correct it.