United Way of Whatcom County
Bellingham, WA · EIN 91-0570788. Reported 72 grants totalling $2,440,972 to 30 organizations across tax years 2021-2023, 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. For United Way of Whatcom County, the IRS classifies it as a federated giving programme -- a United Way, Jewish federation, Community Chest or similar (NTEE T70Z).
- How spread out its giving is. 30 distinct organizations, with 8% 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. 87% 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 $28,950. Half of what it reported fell between $24,000 and $40,367; the smallest was $12,000 and the largest $96,564. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opportunity Council | Bellingham, WA | $193,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Northwest Youth Service | Bellingham, WA | $145,271 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Whatcom Family Young Mens Christian Association | Bellingham, WA | $145,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Services of Whatcom County | Bellingham, WA | $140,000 | 4 | 3 | 2023 |
| Whatcom Center for Early Learning | Bellingham, WA | $134,195 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Alternatives to Hunger | Bellingham, WA | $118,268 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Bellingham Childcare & Learning Center | Bellingham, WA | $116,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Other Organizations and Grant Initiatives | $110,966 | 2 | 2 | 2022 | |
| Dollywood Foundation | Sevierville, TN | $110,605 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Brigid Collins House | Bellingham, WA | $110,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Whatcom Council on Aging | Bellingham, WA | $106,500 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Lydia Place a Nonprofit Corporation | Bellingham, WA | $100,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Sun Community Service | Bellingham, WA | $94,900 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Whatcom Literacy Council | Bellingham, WA | $81,300 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Max Higbee Community Recreation Center | Bellingham, WA | $75,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| The Bellingham Public School Foundation | Bellingham, WA | $74,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Evergreen Goodwill of Northwest Washington | Seattle, WA | $72,500 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Mercy Housing Northwest | Denver, CO | $72,500 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Interfaith Coalition of Whatcom County | Bellingham, WA | $69,600 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Work Opportunities Inc | Lynnwood, WA | $67,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Futuresnw | Bellingham, WA | $50,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Arc of Whatcom County | Bellingham, WA | $44,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Compass Health | Everett, WA | $40,367 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Brigid Collins Family Support Center | Bellingham, WA | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Communities in Schools | Bellingham, WA | $40,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Lydia Place | Bellingham, WA | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Communities in Schools of Whatcom County | Bellingham, WA | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Ferndale School District Foundation | Ferndale, WA | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| ROAD2HOME | Bellingham, WA | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| The Whatcom Dispute Resolution Center | Bellingham, WA | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
23 of 30 (77%) 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.
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.
- Dolly Parton's Imagination Library
EARLY LEARNING AND LITERACY - Dolly Parton Imagination Library
NEW PROGRAM SERVICE DESCRIBED IN SHEDULE O
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 16 of 30 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 24 | $1,003,360 | $38,000 |
| 2022 | 23 | $740,166 | $27,000 |
| 2023 | 25 | $697,446 | $24,300 |
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
92% of its giving went to organizations in Washington. 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.
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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 $28,950 -- 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 Whatcom County'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 24 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: 1500 Cornwall Avenue 203, Bellingham, WA, 98225.
EIN 91-0570788 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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