Kentucky · Nonprofit
UNITED WAY OF THE BLUEGRASS INC
UNITED WAY OF THE BLUEGRASS INC (Kentucky) receives grants from 55 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,917,165 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($764,301). 35 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 56% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.4M
- Funders on record
- 55
- Grants received
- $3.9M
- Net assets
- $3.4M
What United Way of the Bluegrass Inc does
Mission
United way of the bluegrass (uwbg) fights for the education, financial stability, health, and basic needs of every person in central kentucky for over 100 years. Uwbg focuses on improving lives by creating opportunities for all individuals to succeed through collaboration with community partners, local businesses, and volunteers, striving to build stronger communities and empower individuals to achieve self-sufficiency. Last year uwbg and our partners served over 116,000 individuals across central kentucky.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Supporting community programs: uwbg helps create opportunities for a better life for all. We make strategic investments in programs serving low-income and underserved central kentuckians in the areas of basic needs, education, and financial stability. We also serve as an incubator for new programs, and a convener of partnerships of agencies seeking to improve lives by working together. Uwbg serves ten central kentucky communities including: anderson, bourbon, clark, fayette franklin, jessamine, madison, montgomery, scott and woodford counties. Uwbg is a leader and motivator of change for long-term solutions for central kentucky communities. We invest donor dollars into programs that are making a difference and supporting low-income and underserved families and children. We have developed systems to evaluate the quality and success of the programs and partners that our investors help fund, so that they can be assured that their dollars will have maximum impact on their community. We believe that our communities can only affect long-term positive change by working together and living united. We are proud to serve as a vehicle through which members of our community can join together…
$720,733 spentof which $700,000 as grants$1,107,091 earned by the program33% of program spendingUnited way-airs 2-1-1: uwbg 2-1-1 connects people with resources that are available in their community via phone, chat, text messaging, mobile apps and the 211 website. 211 helps thousands of people in central kentucky each year. In addition to the work 211 is doing in central kentucky, the contact center has contracts that have expanded the reach of the uwbg 2-1-1 program. In partnership with the cabinet for health and family services for their kynect resources platform, uwbg 2-1-1 has gone live with the remainder of counties in kentucky that didn't previously have 2-1-1 service. 2-1-1 is now available to all kentuckians! Efforts are ongoing in partnership with other local 2-1-1 providers and united way of kentucky to promote the service across the commonwealth.
$754,624 spent35% of program spendingWaypoint: waypoint centers are the next step in the evolution of delivery of non-profit-based health and human services in lexington. Uwbg's waypoint strategy was born out of an in-depth analysis of our regional community and current demographics, and a meaningful understanding of what our community needs to evolve into a better, more resilient bluegrass. Waypoint's mission is to create a one-stop access point for families and individuals, and to provide vital programming to people living in underserved neighborhoods and communities of color. Waypoint centers coordinate an ecosystem of partners and programs to have the greatest impact on local families from a physical and place-based anchor in their communities. Uwbg has launched its inaugural three (3) waypoint centers in neighborhoods across our region where our help is needed most. The three centers are located in 1) lexington's west end (black and williams recreational center), 2) lexington's east end (marksbury family waypoint center at historic palmer pharmacy) and 3) in paris, kentucky at the bourbon paris ymca. In the year ended june 30, 2024, centro de san juan diego waypoint center opened and the waypoint center in…
$196,286 spentof which $68,070 as grants9% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$497,670 spent23% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,169,313.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2020 to 2021, from $2.8M to $3.9M (+42%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2017 8%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
63% of UNITED WAY OF THE BLUEGRASS INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (81% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Board chair
Dr Kenneth Jones
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 23 funders, grant income rose $145k → $827k.
17 of 55 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 56% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $297k from one payer (the same organization on both sides, largest United Way of the Bluegrass Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money UNITED WAY OF THE BLUEGRASS INC raised.
From the IRS filings of UNITED WAY OF THE BLUEGRASS INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 55 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
UNITED WAY OF THE BLUEGRASS INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
72% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund UNITED WAY OF THE BLUEGRASS INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 53% · 2018 47% · 2019 46% · 2020 25% · 2021 30% · 2022 33% · 2023 33% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
38% of UNITED WAY OF THE BLUEGRASS INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 64% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
56% of UNITED WAY OF THE BLUEGRASS INC's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $1.7M that is directly attributable, 53% of it comes from Kentucky funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.2M arriving through sponsors registered in 14 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
UNITED WAY OF THE BLUEGRASS INC's revenue fell 33% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 7,349 human services nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding UNITED WAY OF THE BLUEGRASS INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.9M on record.
- Department of the Treasury$1.5M
- Corporation for National and Community Service$314k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like UNITED WAY OF THE BLUEGRASS INC
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Kentucky
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
59% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
96%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for UNITED WAY OF THE BLUEGRASS INC: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds UNITED WAY OF THE BLUEGRASS INC?
- UNITED WAY OF THE BLUEGRASS INC (Kentucky) receives grants from 55 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,917,165 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($764,301). 35 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 56% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does UNITED WAY OF THE BLUEGRASS INC have?
- IRS filings report 55 organizations giving $3,917,165 in grants to UNITED WAY OF THE BLUEGRASS INC, 35 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of UNITED WAY OF THE BLUEGRASS INC?
- AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $764,301 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like UNITED WAY OF THE BLUEGRASS INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Kentucky. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 55 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing