United Way of Thurston County
Olympia, WA · EIN 91-0713462. Reported 71 grants totalling $4,718,561 to 32 organizations across tax years 2020-2023, on Form 990 Schedule I.
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:
- What kind of organization it is. The IRS has no activity classification on file for this one, so we cannot tell you whether it is a community foundation or a single-institution support fund. The recipient list below is the better guide.
- How spread out its giving is. 32 distinct organizations, with 19% 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.
- How much its list changes. 38% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% private foundations manage. A list that turns over this much is one a newcomer can realistically join.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $17,840. Half of what it reported fell between $10,000 and $60,000; the smallest was $2,000 and the largest $647,500. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
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.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thurston County Food Bank | Olympia, WA | $913,427 | 4 | 2 | 2022 |
| Senior Services for South Sound | Olympia, WA | $664,936 | 5 | 3 | 2022 |
| Boys and Girls Clubs of Thurston County | Olympia, WA | $613,368 | 4 | 3 | 2022 |
| South Sound Young Mens Christian Association | Olympia, WA | $559,387 | 3 | 2 | 2021 |
| Family Support Center of South Sound | Olympia, WA | $438,372 | 3 | 2 | 2022 |
| Interfaith Works | Olympia, WA | $312,500 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Catholic Community Services of Western Washington | Seattle, WA | $230,750 | 3 | 2 | 2022 |
| South Puget Sound Community College Found | Olympia, WA | $149,723 | 4 | 3 | 2023 |
| Community Action Council of Lewis Mason and Thurston Counties | Lacey, WA | $97,597 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Rochester Organization of Families | Rochester, WA | $85,900 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Behavioral Health Resources | Olympia, WA | $61,250 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Community Youth Services | Olympia, WA | $60,000 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| Safeplace | Olympia, WA | $51,825 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| Garden Raised Bounty | Olympia, WA | $50,250 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| Thurston County Chamber Foundation | Olympia, WA | $50,000 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| Together | Tumwater, WA | $44,453 | 4 | 3 | 2022 |
| The Reading Foundation | Lacey, WA | $37,800 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwest Washington | Olympia, WA | $30,625 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Family Education and Support Services | Tumwater, WA | $26,250 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Rochester School District | Rochester, WA | $25,110 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Rainier School District No 307 | Renton, WA | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Tumwater School District | Tumwater, WA | $24,825 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| North Thurston Public Schools | Lacey, WA | $22,500 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Habitat for Humanity International Inc | Tumwater, WA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| The Child Care Action Council of Thurston County | Olympia, WA | $19,500 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| Yelm School District No 2 | Yelm, WA | $17,873 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Tenino School District No 402 | Tenino, WA | $17,840 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Pizza Klatch | Olympia, WA | $17,500 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Cielo Project Radio Ranch | Olympia, WA | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Griffin School District | Olympia, WA | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Olympia School District Education Foundation | Olympia, WA | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Thurston Economic Development Council Center for Business & Inno | Lacey, WA | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
19 of 32 (59%) received money in more than one year over the 4 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.
- Senior Services for South Sound
COMMUNITY INVESTMENT GRANTS - Family Support Center of South Sound
AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN ACT GRANTS - Together Frye Program
COVID-19 NON-CASH GOODS DISTRIBUTED
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 19 of 32 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.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 35 | $2,733,077 | $17,840 |
| 2021 | 17 | $1,150,713 | $20,000 |
| 2022 | 17 | $760,048 | $15,000 |
| 2023 | 2 | $74,723 | $37,361 |
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
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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.
How to approach this grantmaker
- 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.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $17,840 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Washington.
- 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 Thurston County's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2020-2023). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
Address of record on the latest return: 3525 7TH Ave Sw 201, Olympia, WA, 98502.
EIN 91-0713462 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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