Impact and Programs
Accomplishments
In 2023, we touched the lives of half a million people in our region — meeting urgent needs and making lasting change in each of our impact areas. Housing Stability: In 2023, 104,000 people accessed support through Greater Twin Cities United Way housing partners. Thanks to Home For Good volunteers, 1,400 families moving into stable housing received Welcome Home Bins filled with household essentials. Food Security: We made 51,000 culturally specific meals possible through Flavors of Our Community — a community-wide engagement initiative. We also supported nonprofit partners doing the most impactful work to provide emergency food services and connections to benefits so families can increase their food security. Educational Success: During the 2023 legislative session, we successfully advocated for the State of Minnesota to invest $2 billion in child care and education. Our 80x3 innovation initiative enabled more than 500 children and families to access trauma sensitive care. In support of career and future readiness, 14,750 young people accessed youth programs through our holistic grantmaking. Plus, more than 45,000 students went back to school with backpacks full of essential school supplies thanks to Action Day partners and volunteers. Economic Opportunity: We supported 29 organizations providing job training, supporting new entrepreneurs and promoting financial literacy for nearly 12,000 adults. These partners disbursed nearly $27 million in entrepreneurship grants to Communities of Color and Indigenous communities throughout the Greater Twin Cities. Furthering our goal of advancing equity, 85% of our economic opportunity partners reported having executive teams with majority BILAPOC-identifying leaders.
Current Goals
Greater Twin Cities United Way’s mission is to unite changemakers, advocate for social good and develop solutions to the challenges no one can solve alone. Our vision is a community where all people thrive regardless of income, race or place. To accomplish this, we collaborate with community partners to meet the day-to-day needs of our neighbors while transforming systems to create lasting change. Our aim is to ensure everyone in our region has access to healthy food, stable homes, educational success and economic opportunity. We focus on the following four areas that represent our community’s most pressing challenges: 1) Episodes of homelessness are rare, brief and nonrecurring. We support and advocate for eviction policy reform, holistic social services and housing assistance. 2) All instances of hunger are rare, brief and nonrecurring. We work to increase access to nutritious, culturally relevant meals while strengthening our regional food system so everyone has the food they need to thrive. 3) All children will be prepared to thrive academically, personally and socially. We work to protect, advance and expand early childhood, after school, summer youth and career pathway programs. 4) All adults will have the opportunity to participate in the workforce and advance toward family sustaining wages. We seek to remove system barriers that keep families and individuals from achieving economic independence. Toward each goal, we meet urgent needs and make the lasting change necessary to address the root causes of disparity. Additionally, we engage people throughout our community to give, advocate, and volunteer.
Community or Constituency Served
Greater Twin Cities United Way focuses on economic opportunity, educational success, and household stability, and serves people living below 200% of the federal poverty guideline in the nine county Twin Cities metropolitan area: Anoka, Carver, Chisago, Dakota, Hennepin, Isanti, Ramsey, Scott, and western Washington county of Minnesota.
Geographic Area Served
We serve the 9-county metro area, including Anoka, Carver, Chisago, Dakota, Hennepin, Isanti, Ramsey, Scott and western Washington counties.
