Tulsa Area United Way: Social Innovations Grant

The Tulsa Area United Way's Social Innovations Grant provides one-time funding for 501(c)(3) organizations to test innovative ideas that enhance services, improve internal capacity, and address community gaps. It aims to support proposals that are creative, impactful, and focus on key areas like Youth Opportunity and Community Resiliency. This competitive grant also prioritizes applications addressing significant inequities and those that seek to learn and grow from the proposed activities.

TAUW’s Social Innovations Grants are one-time funding for organizations to test innovative ideas to boost internal capacity, enhance services, address gaps and expand impact in new and creative ways. As an open and competitive funding application, TAUW’s Social Innovations Grants are also an opportunity for TAUW to address gaps in our funding portfolio, expand our network and better understand the community.
Description of Innovation
New, creative, and innovative ideas are important to meet the changing needs of communities, technology, staffing and other areas of nonprofit work. Innovation can present in many ways, including but not limited to:
Testing changes to processes, technologies or staffing to improve organizational efficiency or improve quality of services and outcomes.Testing ways to reach a new community or address a gap in services.
Testing new ways to recruit, train, support or retain staff or volunteers.
Testing a revenue generating service to increase funds for programming
Accommodations
Accommodations will be provided as needed. Accommodations may include but are not limited to receiving the application materials in alternative formats, submitting the application in another language, or submitting the application in another format.
Priority Areas
The Committee will use the following items to prioritize applications that will move forward in the process:

• Annual operating budgets under $2 million.
• Proposals that address the most significant inequities or disparities within the proposal’s focus area.

Applications that can articulate what the organization hopes to learn from the activities outlined in the proposal and how the learnings may benefit the larger community.
Leadership (staff, board) with lived experiences that resonate with the work or clients identified in the proposal.

Eligibility

Applicant organization must be a 501(c)(3) nonprofit or currently sponsored by a fiscal agent that has 501(c)(3) status.
The majority of clients benefited by the proposal must be located within one or more of the six-county service area of TAUW: Creek, Okmulgee, Osage, Rogers, Tulsa, and/or Wagoner counties.
The proposal must be innovative, meaning it is a new solution to a gap, barrier, or challenge faced by your organization or the community you serve.
The Innovative idea must impact one of TAUW’s four key focus areas: Youth Opportunity, Healthy Community, Financial Security, and Community Resiliency.

Ineligibility

Funds cannot be used to cover expenses incurred prior to 2026.
Funds cannot be used to supplant other funds.
Funds cannot be used for capital campaigns, endowment campaigns, or fundraising events.
Funds cannot be used for land purchase, construction of new facilities, or renovating of existing facilities. Nor should the bulk of funds be used for decorating facilities.