United Way Worldwide’s newest Innovation Case Study spotlights United Way of the Battle Creek and Kalamazoo Region’s efforts to center equity in every aspect of its work.

“The case study offers a comprehensive overview of our internal equity, diversity and inclusion work, equitable grantmaking practices, COVID-19 response, and Catalyzing Community Giving (CCG) work,” said Claire Michael, Community Engagement Associate. “The purpose of the UWW innovation case studies is to facilitate adoption by United Ways of promising practices and lessons learned to promote efficiencies and avoid pitfalls when embedding equity across our organizations.”

Having heard about the local United Way’s work, UWW approached staff in early summer to do a deep dive on the team’s equity work. The organization issued the case study this week.

While local progress is worth celebrating, much work remains, said Irene Muthui, Community Impact Associate.

“It’s called an ‘equity journey’ for a reason,” said Muthui. “We’re constantly learning, growing and evolving as individuals and as an organization.

“We are moving closer to shifting power and creating an ecosystem that is equitable and driven by those that have been historically underserved and underfunded,” she added. “It also means that our work, both internally and externally, in partnership with these communities is starting to bear fruit as we witness them take up space, receive financial resources and push for equitable change.

“That said, this reminds us of how much more work needs to be done as we support the elevation of social, financial and political positions of the marginalized.”

Here is an excerpt from the UWW case study:

In the past decade, this United Way has clarified its racial equity focus in the realms of funding, internal practices, sponsorships, trainings, and disaster relief. They have developed partnerships with groups like The Truth & Titus Collective (T&T) to examine their own internal procedures in efforts to better center equity in their mission. Last year United Way’s efforts were recognized with a Catalyzing Community Giving (CCG) Grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to better understand and support philanthropic activity in communities of color. Most recently, the United Way has supported Black, Indigenous, and people-of-color (BIPOC)-owned businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic through the Kalamazoo Micro-Enterprise Grants (KMEG) program, a partnership with the City of Kalamazoo.

You can download the full study here.