Batavia Community Chest aka Batavia United Way

Batavia United Way is a 501c3 charity charged with raising funds and disbursing them in a fiscally responsible manner to programs which directly benefit our community. Specific attention is dedicated to the areas of building a healthy community, youth opportunities, financial security, and community resiliency. We believe every community should be healthy and strong, every child should have a good education, and that every individual should feel financially stable. We support area nonprofits who act upon these beliefs
by striving to increase the public’s awareness and need to support social services by acting as a conduit for a collection of community contributors and by directing funds to the most effective area nonprofits. Examples of some of the programs we fund include suicide prevention services, veteran resource fairs, homeless & domestic abuse services, counseling services, prescription drug support, and free health and dental clinic for low income families. We also implement our own initiatives and programs based on the needs of our community. We offer Success By 6 Preschool Scholarships, providing early learning opportunities to children that otherwise would not have the ability to afford them. In addition, we administer and fund Batavia's Dolly Parton Imagination Library which provides high quality, age-appropriate books mailed to registered children between birth to 5 years at no cost to the family. We provide emergency financial support to residents experiencing a crisis through our Community Assistance Fund. We activate volunteers through our Day of Caring events, various food and cleaning supply drives, our Snow Angels volunteer snow shoveling program, and various community engagement projects. We also facilitate the Adopt-A-Family program, providing holiday support and food to local families who are struggling financially.
Batavia United Way (formerly Batavia Community Chest) was formed over 95 years ago by local individuals that wanted to provide extra support to neighbors in need, and several years ago, Batavia Community Chest became a United Way affiliate, known as Batavia United Way. We raise funds to be distributed to area non-profit agencies that provide programs and services for Batavians. Each non-profit applies annually for a grant for these programs and the Batavia United Way Board of Directors reviews each submission for financial stability, quality programming, and a full menu of other criteria to make sure we are good stewards of donated funds.
Additional detailed information is available upon request or you can visit our website at www.bataviaunitedway.org.