How much does United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County Inc give?

United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County Inc reported 33 itemized grants totaling $3,395,824, out of $4,732,376 in total grant expense reported on the return in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 3 and 46 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.

What does United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County Inc fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Health (30%), Human Services (27%), Education (11%).

Who are United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County Inc's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church ($1.6M), YWCA of Asheville and Western North Carolina Inc ($716k), Pisgah Legal Services ($621k).

Does United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County Inc fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 33% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Which funders back the same organizations as United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County Inc?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Dogwood Health Trust, The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina Inc, Wnc Bridge Foundation.

Where is United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County Inc based?

United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County Inc is based in NC.

United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County Inc

United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County Inc at a glance Mostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County Inc

We mobilize and support a robust network of people, partners, and resources to co-create opportunities for every person in our community to live free from poverty and injustice.

$4.7M

Granted FY2025still arriving

Grants FY2025still arriving

States reached

$1.6M

Largest

01What it funds

01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Health$3.7MHuman Services$3.3MEducation$1.4MCrime & Legal$986kHousing & Shelter$686kYouth Development$575kFood & Nutrition$496kPhilanthropy$350kOther$0

02FY2025 · 33 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured

The 33 grants below total $3,395,824, the rows itemized in this filing. The $4,732,376 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $1,336,552 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2025

Under $10k1 grant · $7k
$10k–50k12 grants · $253k
$50k–250k18 grants · $1.2M
$250k+2 grants · $1.9M

$50,000

Median grant

States reached

$15M

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
GRACE COVENANT PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH	$1,557,800
GIVEDIRECTLY INC	$332,200
HAWK MARKETPLACE	$170,000
BUNCOMBE COUNTY SCHOOLS	$111,102
ASHEVILLE CREATIVE AVE	$100,000
CORE	$100,000
HEARTS WITH HANDS	$100,000
COLABORATIVA LA MILPA	$65,000
BIG IVY COMMUNITY CENTER	$50,000
YOUTH TRANSFORMED FOR LIFE	$50,000
OPEN DOORS ASHEVILLE	$50,000
REPARATIONS STAKEHOLDER AUTHORITY	$50,000
WHITE HORSE BLACK MOUNTAIN	$50,000
READ TO SUCCEED	$50,000
RACIAL JUSTICE OF ASHEVILLE INC	$50,000

02The need

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY17–25, $1.1M) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

How this is measured

Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.

How this is measured

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.

03Its grantees

repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

71%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$8.8M · 50 repeat orgs$3.7M to everyone else

50 repeat relationships: 8 still active in FY2025, 42 since wound down; 24 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$8.8M

$512k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+71%

+91%

Still filing today

82%

73%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 7% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $3.1M went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

Human ServicesHealthYouth DevelopmentEducationPhilanthropyCommunity ImprovementOther

How this is measured

First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

YO
YWCA of Asheville and Western North Carolina Inc
6× · 2017–2022 · $716k · revenue +36%
PL
PISGAH LEGAL SERVICES
6× · 2017–2022 · $621k · revenue +274%
HB
HOMEWARD BOUND OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA INC
6× · 2017–2022 · $489k · revenue +136%

Funded once

BR
BLUE RIDGE COMMUNITY HEALTH SERVICES INCgraduated
one grant, 2022 · $289k · revenue +63%
UW
UNITED WAY OF NORTH CAROLINAgraduated
one grant, 2019 · $53k · revenue +270%
SC
SHILOH COMMUNITY ASSOCIATIONgraduated
one grant, 2024 · $50k · revenue +62%

How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

Wnc Health Network Inc

WNC Health Network, Inc supports people and organizations to improve community health and wellbeing across Western North Carolina.

Health

Womens Resource Center of Greensboro Inc

To promote the self-reliance of women by assessing needs, providing services, and acting as a gateway to community resources; to seek solutions for unmet needs by providing strategic leadership through collaboration and partnerships within…

Human Services

Haywood Pathways Center Inc

Guided by faith, love, and respect, we provide food, shelter, and individualized supportive services for Haywood County residents.

Housing & Shelter

Avery County Long Term Recovery Group Inc

ACLTRG serves as the central coordinating hub for long-term recovery in Avery County, aligning nonprofit organizations, faith-based partners, volunteers, public agencies, and funders to reduce duplication, maximize resources, and ensure…

Public Safety & Disaster

North Carolina Community Health Center Assoc Inc

To promote community based primary health care systems in medically underserved areas.

Health

Asheville GreenWorks

Asheville GreenWorks inspires, equips and mobilizes communities to create an equitable climate-resilient future.

—

Community Industry Value Interactionist League

NC CIVIL is a nonprofit community impact organization that develops grassroots approaches to structural disparities. Our mission is to increase resident involvement, improve organization of resources, and help institutions partner…

Youth Development

Rebuilding Together of Greater Charlotte

The mission of Rebuilding Together of Greater Charlotte is repairing homes, revitalizing communities, rebuilding lives.We mobilize community volunteers and contractors to provide repairs that make homes safer and healthier for…

Housing & Shelter

Carolina Family Health Centers Inc

Carolina Family Health Centers, Inc. provides accessible and affordable health care with excellence...where patients come FIRST

—

Meals on Wheels of Asheville and Buncombe County Inc

Meals on Wheels of Asheville and Buncombe County is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the health, safety, and independence of homebound older adults by providing nutritious, home-delivered meals and meaningful moments of…

Food & Nutrition

Asheville-Buncombe Community Land Trust

To Provide affordable housing for low- and moderate-income households.

Housing & Shelter

Wnc Lighthouse Inc

The mission of WNC Lighthouse Inc is Changing lives, by being a light for Christ our Lord. Our vision is To be fully devoted to Jesus Christ, by opening our arms and providing Christian services to the underseved children, adults and…

Human Services

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Western North Carolina Community Health Services Inc; the most unlike its peers is Kl Training Solutions. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

04the grantee network

67 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 67 of the 85 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

63/67

Grantees still filing

55/67

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Other$7,748,277Human Services$1,593,594Philanthropy$727,227Health$688,469Crime & Legal$621,020Housing & Shelter$618,894Youth Development$448,003

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Dogwood Health TrustNC107.3× affinity53 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Dogwood Health Trust · The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina Inc · Wnc Bridge Foundation · Manna Food Bank Inc · Community Foundation of Henderson County Inc · Richard Eckerd Foundation Inc · Mission Hospital Inc · Pisgah Health Foundation · The Hedrick Family Foundation · The Cannon Foundation Inc · Walnut Cove Members Association Inc · Impact Health

How this is measured

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County Inc. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

0get no government money at all

37report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

0rely on government for over half their income

typical government reliance, FY20–25

How this is measured

Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.

Play a game based on United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County’s filings →

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions

grants reported with no recipient in the public record

The regranting layer

51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer

The DAF merry-go-round

$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds

The endowment market

who holds foundation money, and what just moved

The camps

funders cluster by geography, not ideology

By state

where grant money is based, and what stays home