The Foundation for Edmonds School District was one of four non-profit organizations in South Snohomish County that received grants from the United Way and Greater Everett Community Foundation.

The four nonprofits, all working in education and leadership development, received capacity-building grants to help address intergenerational poverty.

Foundation for Edmonds School District will use their $5,387 grant to upgrade their database and improve their online giving portal. Academic Link Outreach will use their $4,400 grant to improve the capacity of its board of directors. Farmer Frog will use their $10,000 grant to upgrade and build out their website. Latino Educational Training Institute will use their $9,656 grant to expand English language instruction and create a computer skills training center.

A total of 20 nonprofits are receiving $160,000 in grants from United Way of Snohomish County and Greater Everett Community Foundation this year.

This is the second year that United Way and Greater Everett Community Foundation have supported this work and the first time they approached the decision making through a joint process.

“Since we were doing similar work, we decided to coordinate our efforts this year,” said Dennis Smith, president and CEO of United Way of Snohomish County. “It’s been a great partnership. We are thrilled with this year’s capacity building grantees,” he added.

“These nonprofits will get the benefit of working with both of us,” said Maddy Metzger-Utt, president of the Greater Everett Community Foundation. “Our overall goal is to strengthen our community and help these nonprofits do a better job of providing services for their clients.”

The two agencies will jointly offer technical support, training and opportunities for grant recipients to collaboratively identify solutions to common problems. Funding for capacity-building projects and staff training will eventually help more Snohomish County families escape intergenerational poverty.

Decisions were based on demonstrated need and readiness for capacity building, total available dollars, and whether investment in the project was deemed the best way to achieve the greatest impact.

Details about the next round of capacity-building funding will be released later this year.

A full list of grantees is available at uwsc.org.