ALICE Pathway to Prosperity Request for Proposal
In 2014, United Way of Southeast Louisiana launched our Blueprint for Prosperity with a mission to eradicate poverty in Southeast Louisiana. For more than 10 years, UWSELA has been working toward a vision of equitable communities where all individuals are healthy, educated, and economically stable, advancing our Blueprint’s four broad outcomes: Stability Today, Prosperity Tomorrow, Personal Wellness, and Vibrant Communities. In addition, we broaden our definition of poverty to include ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed). United Way also expanded how we addressed poverty with an emphasis on the Blueprint’s four I’s; Invest, Inform, Inspire, and Initiate.
About the Grant
We are excited to announce that after ten years of learning, growing, and providing funding and service to individuals living below the ALICE Threshold – those who are unable to afford the cost of living in their community – we have set a new Bold Goal: place 100,000 individuals living below the ALICE Threshold on a pathway to prosperity by 2035. This new opportunity supports partners that advance progress along the new ALICE Pathway to Prosperity, a continuum of services that supports and uplifts individuals living under the ALICE Threshold through a structured, multi-tiered approach. This approach addresses immediate needs and promotes wellness, while also fostering financial security and enabling long-term prosperity.
Our new ALICE Pathway to Prosperity Grant Request for Proposal (RFP) process integrates collective impact and trust-based philanthropy principles to ensure a collaborative and relationship-centered funding process.
Focus: Advancing individuals living below the ALICE Threshold along the ALICE Pathway to Prosperity
Purpose: Deploy flexible and collaborative funding that accelerates movement across the ALICE Pathway to Prosperity
This grant process integrates elements of collective impact and trust-based philanthropy (TBP) to strengthen a coordinated, communitywide ecosystem, supporting individuals and families living below the ALICE Threshold. Funding prioritizes organizations that contribute to shared goals, center on case management, demonstrate commitment to collaboration, and advance measurable progress along the Pathway for Prosperity. We are seeking organizations that can collaborate with United Way to help 10,000 individuals living below the ALICE Threshold reach a pathway to prosperity each year, successfully contributing to our 2035 Bold Goal.
Organizations must demonstrate alignment with at least one stage on the pathway, center case management, data sharing, and a willingness to coordinate with the broader Prosperity Network ecosystem.
- Grant Type: Program support
- Funding Term: 12-month grant cycle with potential for multi-year renewal
- Use of Funds: Programmatic with 10% of grant contract to support administrative needs (e.g., audit, insurance, accounting, marketing)
- Capacity-Building Support: Ability to share client data in UWSELA data systems, evaluation support, and organizational strengthening
Funded partners will participate in the Prosperity Network’s coordinated ecosystem designed to accelerate economic mobility. Requirements include: Contributing to shared goals and ecosystem-level outcomes. Participating in quarterly learning sessions and peer convenings. Engaging in shared measurement aligned to pathway indicators. Collaborating with United Way staff for data tracking, referrals, service coordination, and continuous learning and improvement.
United Way commits to:
- Streamlined application and reporting processes
- Transparent communication, clear expectations, and timely feedback
- Allowance of 10% of grant funding to reduced administrative burden
- Ongoing support, technical assistance, and capacity-building opportunities
- Power-sharing with community partners
- Eligible applicants include: 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations providing services to households living under the ALICE Threshold
- Organizations must serve one or more parishes in UWSELA’s region, including Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, and Washington parishes, and commit to Prosperity Network participation
- Organizations must have a case management system in place or a formal relationship with an organization that provides case management for your program participants and that you are closing the loop and be willing to submit client data in United Way’s secure database
- Must have a track record of serving ALICE and uplifting ALICE voices
- Nonprofit organizations, 501(c)(3), or Organizations with a fiscal agent, providing health & human services to ALICE households.
- Organizations without a 501(c) 3 or fiscal agent and organized primarily for religious, educational, fraternal, governmental, political, cultural, or animal welfare purposes or to redirect funds are not eligible for funding through UWSELA.
- ALICE Pathway to Prosperity RFP – January 2026
- Applicants must complete and submit the ALICE Pathway to Prosperity RFP via portal below
- Partnership Meetings (March – April)
- United Way staff will meet with invited agencies to discuss the RFP and explore a potential collaborative partnership
- Minimal attachments
- UPDATED Budget summary (template with directions)
- Proof of 501(c)(3) nonprofit status
United Way staff will develop funding recommendations to be reviewed and approved by the United Way’s Community Impact Committee and Board of Trustees.
Review and selection to be based on the following:
- Alignment with ALICE needs and pathway outcomes
- Contribution to collective impact goals
- Creates impact opportunities for all, especially for populations and communities disproportionately ALICE
- Organizational readiness and collaboration capacity
- Potential for measurable impact
- Financial review of cost/budget/financials
- Number to be served
United Way staff designed reporting with an intentionally light-touch, including quarterly learning check-ins and an annual outcomes report aligned with shared indicators.
- Partners submit client data in United Way’s client database to ensure there is no duplication
- Partners participate in quarterly Prosperity Network meetings, data-sharing activities, evaluation support, and continuous improvement through shared learning and problem-solving.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did UWSELA choose to focus the Bold Goal on ALICE households?
Because ALICE households represent the majority of struggling families in Southeast Louisiana. They earn above the federal poverty level but still cannot cover the basic cost of living. By supporting ALICE households, we strengthen entire communities and reduce the number of families at risk of falling into crisis.
What does “on a pathway to prosperity” mean?
It means ensuring households have the financial, social, emotional, and structural supports necessary to move from instability to long-term well-being. This aligns with the Blueprint for Prosperity outcomes of Stability Today, Personal Wellness, Prosperity Tomorrow, and Vibrant Communities.
How will we measure progress toward the Bold Goal?
Our team is working with The Data Center to identify key poverty indicators, map out clear pathways to prosperity, and develop a tracking and reporting plan. This ensures transparency, accountability, and real-time learning as we advance the goal.
How does this Bold Goal change my day-to-day work?
The Bold Goal provides clarity around organizational direction. While your core responsibilities might not change, the way we coordinate efforts, measure success, and collaborate across teams will evolve to ensure our work collectively drives toward this long-term outcome.
Why are we revamping the grants process?
Because our grantmaking must fully support the Bold Goal. Our updated approach will help us better simplify processes for partners, allocate funding more strategically, and support efforts that address both urgent needs and systemic issues.
What role do community partners play in achieving the Bold Goal?
A central one. United Way cannot reach 100,000 individuals alone. Our partners expertise, reach, and relationships are essential to addressing healthy communities, youth opportunity, financial security, and community resiliency across the seven-parish region.
Why is systems change such a major focus of the plan?
Because programs alone cannot solve poverty. To break generational barriers, we must address structural challenges, including policies, practices, access gaps, and inequities that keep families from thriving.
How will the strategic priorities support achievement of the Bold Goal?
Each priority plays a unique role. Generating Sustainable Resources ensures we have the financial foundation to power long-term change. Strengthening the Team builds internal capacity. Telling Our Story energizes supporters and amplifies impact. Addressing Urgent Needs stabilizes families today. Driving Systemic Change ensures long-term solutions take hold.
What is collective impact?
Collective impact is a strategy that brings people together in a structured way to achieve social change. It is a network of community members, organizations, and institutions learning together and aligning and integrating their actions to achieve population and systems-level change.
Collective impact initiatives utilize five conditions to guide and support their work. The five conditions are:
- Ground the work in data and context, and target solutions
- Focus on systems change, in addition to programs and services
- Shift power within the collaborative
- Listen to and act with community
- Build leadership and accountability
What is trust-based philanthropy?
Trust-based philanthropy alleviates the inherent power imbalances between funders, nonprofits, and communities. With a commitment to shifting power and building mutually accountable relationships, trust-based philanthropy positions funders as collaborators working alongside nonprofits to meet the needs and dreams of communities who are most removed from conventional power structures.
What is Grant Guardian?
Grant Guardian uses AI to streamline the financial review process for both grantmakers and nonprofits. Grantmakers receive customizable analyses of their grantees’ financial position, while nonprofits simply submit their existing financial documents without having to enter their data into multiple funder-specific forms. This approach helps both parties focus on what matters most, their shared mission of creating impact.
What is case management system?
A case management system can be:
- A collaborative process of assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation to coordinate services and ensure individuals receive the support they need to navigate complex medical, social, and behavioral needs.
- A Prosperity Center approach where there’s a comprehensive, client-centered process that provides individualized support, coaching and coordinated services to help individuals and families achieve stability, remove barriers, and build long-term economic mobility.
- Any type of formal Coordination, Service Coordination, Client Management, Support Management, Patient Navigation, Care Navigation, Case Coordination conducted by a social worker, case worker or other appropriate staff.
What is a Logic Model?
A logic model is a visual roadmap or diagram that maps a program’s resources (inputs) to its activities, outputs, and expected outcomes (short-term, mid-term, long-term), showing the step-by-step cause-and-effect relationships for achieving a desired impact, used widely in planning, evaluation, and for stakeholder understanding in nonprofits, education, and health.
- Key Components
- Inputs: Resources needed (staff, funding, materials, etc.).
- Activities: The program’s actions and services.
- Outputs: Direct results of activities (e.g., number of people trained).
- Indicator: a specific, observable, and measurable piece of data (like participation rates, behavior changes, or test scores) that shows if a program’s planned activities are leading to the desired short-, medium-, or long-term outcomes, serving as evidence of success or progress within the model’s framework. Indicators provide the “how we know” for each step, connecting actions to results and making program effectiveness tangible.
- Outcomes: Changes in participants (short, mid, long-term knowledge, skills, behaviors, conditions).
- Impact: The ultimate, long-term goal or societal change.
Grant Cycle Timeline
Application
Submission Instructions
- Your ALICE RFP must be submitted via this portal.
- Questions or technical assistance requests may be sent to Grants@UnitedWaySELA.org by NOON – Friday, Jan. 30
Applications closed at 5:00 p.m., February 6, 2026.