United Way gives $1.2M in grants to 22 agencies

United Way of Southern Nevada has awarded $1.2 million to 22 agencies across the region, as part of an initial investment of a $10 million donation from philanthropist and Amazon co-founder MacKenzie Scott.

The community impact grants are the first round of funding from Scott’s gift, the largest in the history of United Way of Southern Nevada. Grants were awarded for groups that addressed student success, workforce development and community support, the nonprofit announced Tuesday.

Aaron Krolikowski, interim vice president for community impact at the nonprofit, said it typically allocates program funding to seven or eight agencies annually through community impact grants. The gift allowed funding to be deeper and reach more nonprofits than previous rounds.

“This gift has enabled the United Way to expand the number of grants that we are making this year — the number, the amount as well as our commitment from a multi-year perspective,” Krolikowski said. “We’re able to do a lot more because of MacKenzie Scott’s gift.”

The average grant awarded for this fiscal year was about $50,000, he said. Some organizations have multiyear commitments, bringing the possible total to more than $2 million.

Funded programs include the Shannon West Homeless Youth Center run by HELP of Southern Nevada; 40 college scholarships for the 2021-2022 academic year through Project 150; professional attire suiting and workforce preparedness programs at Dress for Success of Southern Nevada and more.

For HELP, the $50,000 grant was a way for the shelter to diversify its funding sources. The nonprofit receives governmental grants, but this can extend aid to clients that may not fit into the restrictions of some funding, said Abby Quinn, chief community relations officer at HELP. The funding covers about 30 days of housing for 30 teens and young adults.

“It means that when a youth comes in and they don’t fit a certain bucket — so they’re not coming from juvenile justice, let’s say, or adult parole or probation where are those beds are funded — we have to put them in an unfunded bed, that’s where this type of a grant helps us,” Quinn said.

Some grant-receiving nonprofits said the funds come at a vital time. Services are returning to pre-pandemic operations while working to address needs many groups still face from the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic. Project 150 Exeuctive Director Kelli Kristo said that some of clients of her nonprofit, which serves homeless, displaced and disadvantaged high school students, had to delay college matriculation to work during the pandemic.

“I think it was really important that we help those kids to not put education on the back burner because, through many of our own experiences, the longer you wait, eventually you don’t go,” Kristo said. “(The grant) was important because these students are actually going to make the impact in Southern Nevada. They’re going to stay here and become our workforce.”

About 80 Southern Nevada nonprofits requested more than $17.5 million, United Way said. Officials are working to leverage Scott’s gift by challenging other donors to match it and help fund what couldn’t be picked up in this round.

“We’re doing our best to grow that $10 million: to challenge donors to match it, to challenge funders to match it, to keep a little bit in reserve so that we have that when a good opportunity comes up where maybe there’s a need for matching funds to bring in a big federal grant or something similar,” Krolikowski said. “We’re really trying to identify those additional opportunities that are still as a post-pandemic a little bit few and far between but they’re increasing in frequency.”

View the full list of agencies awarded a community impact grant at www.uwsn.org/everyone.

McKenna Ross is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Contact her at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mckenna_ross_ on Twitter.