In order to build on and appreciate the success of our recent Dodge County Community-Led Learning, United Way of Southeast Minnesota is releasing 4 grants at $5,000 each to support programs connected to the report's recommendations. We strongly encourage you to read through the report, recommendations, and rubric to strengthen your application. We will award one grant per recommendation focus area. Please choose the category and recommendation you feel most closely fits with the goal of your program or service. You are unable to click more than one category or recommendation.
Read the full Dodge County Community-Led Research Report and the Dodge County Community Learning 2025 Recommendations.
Eligible applicants are:
-
501c3 organizations or fiscally sponsored organizations that have a documented relationship with a 501c3
-
Government entities
-
School districts
AND
-
Providing a free or low cost service to low-income* Dodge County residents that is directly connected to the recommendations from our recent Dodge County community led learning project
Applications will be accepted from September 15th to October 17th, 2025 at 11:59 PM. If you have questions, please reach out to Sierra at sierrav@uwsemn.org
*We define low-income as living in the ALICE population, which is under 300% of the Federal Poverty Level. Learn more about ALICE ranges by household type.
-
September 15: application opens
-
October 17: application closes at 11:59 PM
-
October 20th-31: staff and volunteers review applications
-
November 7: applicants notified
-
November 15: fund disbursement upon receipt of financial documentation
All mini-grants must be spent before September 2026
Complete the application through our site or hit the “apply now” button above. You may download and review the Dodge County Community Resiliency Grants 2025 Application Questions.
After your application is submitted, you should receive an automated message confirming your submission via email and you will hear back from UWSEMN staff on the state of your application no later than 5 PM on November 7th, 2025.
We strongly encourage you to review our rubric to understand how your application will be reviewed.
All applications will be reviewed by staff and some of the original community led learning project team. Those who have a conflict of interest with any applying agency will not read or score that application.
How to use this rubric:
United Way of Southeast Minnesota takes a holistic approach to reviewing grant applications. This means reviewers consider how the overall application meets the criteria across all categories described below. The rubric intentionally does not connect one question to one rubric element as we know that a single answer can cover multiple criteria categories.
Our reviewers will score your applications across each of the 4 categories, noting what feels like exceptional alignment based on the (non-exhaustive) list of examples on the right. We provide these examples to help you better understand what we are looking for when reviewing applications. This is not a list of requirements!
Download a copy of the Dodge County Community Resiliency Grants 2025 Rubric.
- Funding is intended to be spent by December 2026
- Reporting metrics will be developed together alongside UWSEMN staff and typically consist of things you already capture for other funders or your own purposes. UWSEMN staff usually look to receive up to 4 outcome metrics from partners that help tell the story of their work’s impact. We ask that you capture demographic data of participants as you are able.
- Reporting will be a combination of quantitative data and storytelling amongst your funded peers during a group conversation to be scheduled in the Fall of 2026.