Blog : Opportunity Fund

A collective funding effort hosted by the United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania

In today’s rapidly changing environment, nonprofits face unprecedented challenges from federal funding cuts, emerging crises, and evolving community needs. Traditional grant-making timelines often cannot match the urgency these situations demand. In partnership with The Heinz Endowments, The Pittsburgh Foundation, McAuley Ministries and Opportunity Fund, the United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania is taking a collective approach to addressing these emergent needs through the Meeting the Moment rapid response grant program.

Launched in February 2026, Meeting the Moment rapid response grants provide support to keep essential services running during natural disasters, community crises, policy changes, and other local emergencies. These grants are reserved for time‑sensitive, last‑resort needs where a delay in support would directly interrupt essential services.

If your organization is facing these challenges we encourage you to apply for a Meeting the Moment grant. Applications are reviewed on a monthly rolling basis. The next application cycles close July 31 and August 28, 2026.

To Apply for a Meeting the Moment Grant: 

• Visit https://unitedwayswpa.org/grant-opportunities/meeting-the-moment/ 
• Register for a United Way online grant system account, or log in to your existing account
• Complete the Meeting the Moment Eligibility Quiz

Please reach out to Sara Noel at Sara.Noel [at] unitedwayswpa.org if you have questions about the application process.

Meeting the Moment 2026 Grant Recipients (as of July 13, 2026)

FEBRUARY 2026

Catapult Greater Pittsburgh ($25,000) Bridge Support for Catapult Greater Pittsburgh’s Essential Services

Young Black Motivated Kings and Queens ($25,000) YBMKQ University Emergency Stabilization and Continuity Support

YouthPlaces ($15,000) YouthPlaces After School Meal Program

MARCH 2026

Ayudate Incorporated ($25,000) Mental Health in Spanish

Bhutanese Community Association of Pittsburgh (BCAP) ($20,000) Immediate Support for Immigrant and Refugee Community

Creative Citizen Studios ($20,000) Creative Citizen Studios Programming

I AM FOUNDATION ($20,000) Stabilizing Homewood: Rapid Harm Reduction Response

Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse ($8,000) Virtual Therapeutic Arts Activities for Latino Community of Pittsburgh

Willissae’s Agency for Vision and Empowerment ($25,000) Recognizing Everything Ain’t Done Yet (WAVE’s READY PROGRAM)

Women for a Healthy Environment ($20,000) Environmental Health Program Stabilization Following Facility Damage

APRIL 2026

Pittsburgh Conservation Corps (D/B/A Landforce) ($25,000) Landforce Financial Stabilization and Planning

The Open Door, Inc ($25,000) Bridge Support for Staffing Needs

MAY 2026

Café Momentum Pittsburgh ($25,000) Maintaining Continuity of Care for Justice-Impacted Youth

Domestic Violence Services of Southwestern PA ($12,000) Domestic Violence Services of Southwestern Pennsylvania/Fayette Safe House Updates

Ebenezer Outreach Ministries ($25,000) EOM Pharmacy Technician Workforce Training Program; Neighborhood Learning Alliance Summer Youth Program; Learn & Earn Summer Youth Program

Fayette County Community Action Agency Inc ($25,000) FCCAA Aging Department Meeting the Moment Project

Latino Community Center (LCC) ($25,000) Emergency Basic Needs Assistance & Youth Outreach

Mosaic Community Development Center ($7,500) MCDC Summer Transportation Bridge Initiative

JUNE 2026

Bridge to the Mountains ($25,000) Emergency Support for Street Outreach

Civically, Inc. ($20,000) Safe to Serve Security Upgrades

Garfield Community Farm ($25,000) Wicklow Street 160’ Retaining Wall Rebuild

Reflections on America’s 250th Anniversary by rev. yvette shipman, Program Officer/Repair, Opportunity Fund

On July 4, 2026, America turns 250 years old. This feels less like a celebration and more like a crossroads, and I have learned to trust crossroads. Crossroads are not comfortable, and approaching them means something is shifting. Crossroads are an invitation to choose. 

I am a Black woman and I have made peace with the fact that this holiday was not created with me in mind. America, while formed with lofty ideals, was built on the forced removal of Indigenous people and the theft and forced labor of Black bodies. We are witnessing our country continue the worst parts of its legacy in its slide towards authoritarianism, through mass deportations, detention centers, and surveillance. We are learning together what was always true for so many people, that the democracy currently being grieved by some was never fully real to begin with. It was a myth, one some of us were allowed to believe in longer than others. Yet today, with our eyes fully open, we are able to look past the myth and see the possibilities.

The America that once inspired the world, that beacon of possibility and collective care, we didn’t inherit that. We are that. This country’s founding documents may not have included me, but I was never waiting for an invitation. Neither were my ancestors. They dreamed futures into existence from the middle of nightmares. They bent time. They planted seeds in soil they would never rest in, for children they would never meet, who would one day stand here, transformed, still rising, tuned to something the architects of exclusion could never touch.

Our teachers know this. James Baldwin, Octavia Butler, Dr. Bruce Purnell, Audre Lorde – together they remind us that we have the power to transform emotional pain into purpose, to release the traumatic narrative, not forget it, but release it, and open our hearts to what comes next. They remind us that we are entangled. What diminishes you diminishes me. What liberates me clears a path for you, whether you know it or not. Collective care is not charity. It is the only way through.

In my work at Opportunity Fund my intention is to walk alongside the organizations doing this sacred work; those on the frontlines of social and economic justice, and the artists who, as Marc Bamuthi Joseph reminds us, “are the architects of a post-fear economy”.

So on this 250th year, approaching the choice this crossroads offers, I choose divine frequency. I choose truth, love, liberation, and living in my inherent dignity. I am venerating the dreamers. I am honoring the ancestors who held the future in trust for us.

America is also my home. I was born here, I can trace my ancestry back to the 1700s and I’m still working out what it means to me to be an American. And sitting in this complexity I mean it when I say: God bless America.

rev. yvette shipman, Program Officer/Repair, Opportunity Fund