Get excited with us about these new United Fund projects!
Our United Fund’s second round of grantmaking has wrapped up, and now United Way of Anchorage is introducing you to our new grant recipients. Our generous donors have made nine projects possible, which will build stronger futures across Anchorage. For our summer 2026 distribution, United Way awarded $130,000—a total of $250,000 in FY26. Like us, these nonprofits are advancing stability, health, and education for Alaskans.
Funding Opportunities
Nonprofits depend on flexible funding to meet the needs of people that they serve. For 70 years, United Way has offered grantmaking that provides that type of support. The 33 applications for grants from our United Fund reinforce how important our funding model is to local nonprofits. If you work at a nonprofit, please consider setting a reminder to visit our Grants webpage periodically to stay aware of upcoming grants.
Project Announcements
United Way chose nine short-term projects that accelerate change, connect people, build capacity, and strengthen impact. They create new opportunities, expand existing offerings, and focus on United Way’s impact areas, which include Financial Security, Healthy Community, and Youth Opportunity. Eight received $15,000 while one received $10,000 per its request. Learn how our United Fund advances these nonprofits’ work.
Abused Women’s Aid in Crisis (AWAIC)
Children’s Resiliency Advocacy Project
AWAIC shelters children who've been exposed to domestic violence (DV), and they make up about a quarter of their clients. Many of them have experienced other adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Because AWAIC operates Anchorage’s only emergency shelter for people fleeing DV, it can support these children by offering trauma-informed, developmentally appropriate services. Our United Fund is furthering the important work making Children’s Resiliency Advocates available.
Under the guidance of these advocates, AWAIC will help children during a critical point of intervention. Youth will learn how to establish trust, express emotions safely, and develop resilience. One-on-one support, therapeutic play, safety planning, group programs, caregiver-child activities, enrichment outings, and referrals to resources will help families address the long-term effects of DV exposure and ACEs on children.
Alaska Literacy Program (ALP)
Financial Literacy & Economic Empowerment Program
ALP will launch a program for immigrants, refugees, English-language learners, and adult-education students in Anchorage. Thanks to our United Fund, this nonprofit will provide culturally responsive workshops that are focused on increasing understanding about banking, credit, taxes, budgeting, consumer protection, and financial planning. The project will build the participants’ confidence and inform their financial decisions so that they can become financially secure.
Each year two six-workshop courses are offered by ALP. Now, they will integrate financial literacy into English classes and GED programs. Participants will learn how to build credit, open accounts, avoid predatory lending, plan for housing, and advance their education and careers. Connecting participants with local banks, credit unions, and community partners empowers them to move toward long-term financial stability.
Anchorage Neighborhood Health Center (ANHC)
Prenatal & Postpartum Support Kits Project
ANHC serves a linguistically and economically diverse population, and it recognizes the value of tailored treatment plans for patients. Our United Fund enables this Anchorage nonprofit to reduce its patients’ prenatal and postpartum risks and make care more accessible and practical for the soon-to-be parents by giving them support kits. In doing so, ANHC will help its prenatal patients better prepare for and navigate pregnancy, birth, postpartum stages, and their babies’ infancy.
This project has two parts. First, ANHC will translate its Pregnancy Wellness Guide and publish those versions so more of its patients can read parenting education materials in their primary language. Second, ANHC will provide important maternal and newborn supplies to families with the highest needs. Items may include postpartum and breastfeeding supplies, newborn items, and rear-facing infant car seats.
Camp Fire Alaska
Summer Camp Pop-Up Program: Mountain View
Camp Fire helps young people build confidence, relationships, and independence through hands-on learning and caring adult mentorship. A licensed day camp program at Tyson Elementary School will serve up to 20 youth on weekdays in July 2026. Our United Fund allows this nonprofit to run the program at no-cost to campers’ families—many of whom have limited summer care options. Camp Fire’s project gives Mountain View school-age youth safe, reliable care this summer.
The Summer Camp Pop-Up will offer nature-based learning, creative projects, physical activity, social-emotional skill-building, meals, and outdoor camp experiences. Camp Fire is partnering on activities with Anchorage School District, The Children’s Lunchbox, and National Wildlife Refuge. By removing cost as a barrier, families in Mountain View will be supported, children will be nurtured, and childcare access will be strengthened.
Covenant House Alaska
ACEs Aware 7 Stress Busters: Listen/Partner/Connect
Covenant House will implement a holistic care initiative grounded in the ACEs Aware 7 Stress Busters framework to serve young people facing trauma, housing instability, disrupted relationships, and chronic stress. Because of our United Fund, this nonprofit will shift from crisis response toward proactive skill-building that supports long-term stability. This project will teaches how to apply resiliency strategies to better manage stress, strengthen relationships, and improve wellbeing.
Using the Listen/Partner/Connect model, Covenant House will embed resilience-building practices into its daily programming. It will help youth identify strengths, develop coping strategies, and engage in activities that support relationships, sleep, mindfulness, physical activity, healthy eating, and nature. The nonprofit staff will also create holistic care plans and track youth confidence in managing stress over time.
Girls on the Run Southcentral Alaska
Heart & Sole
Girls on the Run creates safe, inclusive spaces where participants move, reflect, and connect. This nonprofit project will support middle school girls from Title I schools and underserved communities in the Anchorage area during a critical stage of adolescence, thanks to our United Fund. This physical, activity-based, positive youth-development program will build confidence, coping strategies, healthy relationships, and social-emotional skills with no one turned away for inability to pay.
Heart & Sole will run for 10 weeks. Girls on the Run’s trained volunteer coaches will host 75-minute sessions and oversee small teams through movement-based lessons, group discussions, and team-building activities. Beyond physical activity, participants will learn how to manage emotions, resolve conflict, set boundaries, resist peer pressure, and build support systems—skills with lasting impacts on mental health.
Rural Alaska Community Action Program, Inc. (RurAL CAP)
AmeriCorps Seniors Program Expansion
RurAL CAP connects adults aged 55 and older with service opportunities through AmeriCorps Seniors. It will use our United Fund resources to extend its reach in targeted Anchorage neighborhoods. First, RurAL CAP will expand AmeriCorps Seniors’ presence by recruiting older adult volunteers to support youth and aging-Alaskan community members. Second, it will create Senior Support Groups to reduce isolation, build trust, and create pathways for intergenerational support.
The Senior Support Groups will occur five times each week. RurAL CAP will facilitate memory cafés, walking groups, craft projects, and discussion groups and will encourage participants to offer suggestions. Adults aged 55+ will strengthen their social bonds by working with RurAL CAP staff to identify their volunteer interests and match with community needs that help them, other Alaskans, and our community thrive.
Volunteers of America Alaska (VOA)
Promoting Behavioral Health Services for Youth, Young Adults, and Families
VOA offers prevention, early intervention, and outpatient services as well as higher levels of behavioral health care for youth and young adults. With United Fund support, it will launch a community-wide marketing initiative to increase awareness of its behavioral health services. By expanding its communications infrastructure, VOA will highlight pathways to care and improve behavioral health access so that young people and their families can find the right level of care at the right time.
A youth-friendly continuum of care framework and culturally responsive materials will be developed by VOA. It will engage in school and community outreach, improve its website, and make referral partner toolkits. This clear, coordinated, and targeted messaging will help families, schools, healthcare providers, and community organizations understand VOA’s available services for youth and young adults before needs escalate to crisis.
YMCA of Alaska
Youth Enrichment Program
The YMCA is expanding its childcare and youth development programs in Anchorage, made possible by our United Fund. They're doing so to address the ongoing shortage of affordable childcare in Anchorage, so that youth can be nurtured during critical developmental years. This expansion will make programming year-round and keep it affordable. The YMCA will be better able to support parents and caretakers in our community while helping youth thrive during out-of-school hours.
This nonprofit estimates that it will serve hundreds of youths in Anchorage through its new summer and afterschool programs. Opportunities for physical recreation, academic support, outdoor exploration, STEM projects, and social engagement will help youth stay safe, be active, build relationships, and engage in meaningful learning. The YMCA will offer financial assistance for families with kids in kindergarten through eighth.