Winnipeg is under immense strain right now.
We see it when we look out our windows on our drives to work; we see it in the issues our neighbours are facing across our city, from food insecurity to housing to mental health; we see it in the growing pressure on organizations that support our communities; and we hear it from community partners working tirelessly to meet rising needs.
United Way Winnipeg is reviewing its funding framework to address and alleviate that strain. It would be natural for you to hear that and have a few questions arise: What is a funding framework? Why is it under review? How will an updated framework help us to better respond to our city’s needs?
Frontline agencies are already responding every day. United Way Winnipeg has a responsibility to ensure that the way we invest community resources keeps pace with the realities they face and remains flexible. This is a process we have undertaken for generations to reflect on the generosity shared through the Community Fund and to discuss how best to allocate those resources.
What is a funding framework?
In 2025-26, United Way Winnipeg invested over $30 million into community agencies, programs, and services. A funding framework is the guide that helps us make informed decisions about where your dollars are invested to have the greatest impact. It sets out what is funded, why, and how those decisions are made. It also defines our funding priorities, eligibility criteria, and application and reporting requirements. A funding framework is an excellent accountability tool that enables us to support a transparent and consistent funding approach rooted in our community’s needs.
What isn't changing?
It’s important to emphasize that this review of the framework does not signal a move away from the Community Fund model. Our role in supporting our network of 125+ agency partners, programs, and services remains central to our work, and the review focuses on how to do this better, not on whether it should continue.
Multi-year funding also remains our default approach. Reliable funding relationships are important to the organizations that depend on them, and this review is intended to strengthen how that commitment works, not move away from it.
This is also not a budget exercise. The review itself will not determine which organizations receive funding or how much. Those decisions will continue to be led by our community investment volunteers—Winnipeggers who have a strong understanding of the challenges our community faces—guided by this revised framework.
Being honest about what needs to change
There is no single solution to the challenges our city is facing. Community organizations have different experiences, responsibilities, and perspectives on what is needed, and a funding approach that works well in one situation may not be the right fit for another. We need to truly understand those differences.
Many of the crises affecting Winnipeg right now are systemic and require long-term funding and strategy, but there are also issues our neighbours are facing that need more immediate care and attention.
Our funding framework needs to support both.
When you give to United Way Winnipeg, you deserve a full understanding of how community resources are invested and why. Community organizations should clearly understand how funding decisions are made, and the people they serve should be at the centre of the conversation.
Trust comes from honesty and from not shying away from saying that our current framework could be better. We will continue to strengthen that trust by listening, explaining our decisions, and being transparent about what we learn. As neighbours and members of this community alongside you, we share in your heartbreak over the ways those around us are struggling right outside our doors, and we continue to believe that our trust-based philanthropy approach, built on mutual accountability, is vital to finding the best ways forward.
Listening before deciding
We won’t arrive at a stronger framework by making assumptions about Winnipeg’s needs. We need to hear from the people who know this work from different perspectives: agency partners, donors, volunteers, staff, community organizations, and others with experience to share.
The review will involve listening and discovery, analysis, and ultimately reporting back to the community. Your input will help shape the framework options and recommendations before they are submitted to our Board of Trustees for approval.
Winnipeg’s challenges are real. By reviewing and updating our funding framework, we are taking an important step toward meeting our community’s needs. By taking an honest, comprehensive look at our approach now, we can work toward a funding framework that is clearer, more responsive, and better equipped to support the people and organizations that make our city stronger.
Community input is vital to this process and key to strengthening our funding framework. Use the link below to provide feedback and know that it will be reviewed thoughtfully and carefully by your neighbours at United Way Winnipeg.
