SAFFORD — The United Way of Graham and Greenlee Counties recently completed its fourth-quarter grant cycle, reviewing almost three times as many grant requests as normally come in.
The first three quarters of the year focus on specific areas of community engagement — education, health and the economy — while the fourth quarter is saved for requests that don’t typically fall into those three categories.
“We’re a lot more flexible with our rules of what we fund in quarter four. Of course, we still couldn’t fund a for-profit agency; that’s just part of the rules we just can’t change,” said Adam O’Doherty, CEO for United Way of Graham and Greenlee Counties.
“It was real exciting and, actually, it was kind of weird. You’d see all these grants come in, and even though you know they’re not really tied into education or the other areas, in a way, it seemed like almost all of them were some way linked to one or the other if not all of them.”
First quarter 2022 will focus on economic development, followed by education in the second quarter and health in the third quarter.
To help as many applicants be as successful as possible, United Way of Graham and Greenlee Counties is in the process of hiring a grant manager, who will help applicants refine their applications, conduct group trainings and assist the grants review committee.
“I think it will be really helpful for both counties to have that person they can contact and say, ‘I have a grant idea, but I don’t know if this is something you guys are even entertaining of funding,’ and walk through that process with them,” O’Doherty said.
In addition, volunteers are being sought for the grants review committee. To volunteer, e-mail aodoherty@grahamgreenleeunited.org.
