The Park City Community Foundation’s Women’s Giving Fund program annually awards high-impact grants to help local women and children. A record $150,000 was given out this year on Tuesday, July 15.
Wasatch Immigration Project received the grand prize of $90,000. It’s a nonprofit law firm that provides no-fee or low-fee legal services to people in the Wasatch Back navigating the immigration process.
Peace House, which aims to end family violence and abuse, and SOS Outreach, which helps kids feel like they belong through outdoor-based mentorship, each received $30,000.
Grant recipients were selected from a field of 25 applicants by a committee of 11 Women’s Giving Fund members. In 2024, grants totalling $125,000 were awarded.
Wasatch Immigration Project Executive Director Maggie AbuHaidar said the team was emotional when they received the grant.
“At a time when immigration rights are under attack, immigration is such a hot political topic, to sit there and look out into that sea of people and realize that they understand the value of the work we're doing, but they also see and value the people we represent,” she said on KPCW's "Local News Hour" July 16.
The organization started as a volunteer-only, but the team soon realized they couldn’t provide aid for everyone in need with volunteers alone.
“We've tried to move away from just solely a volunteer-driven organization toward a professional organization with paid employees,” AbuHaidar said. “We just realized that that was the only way we were going to truly, reliably expand capacity.”
So, the nonprofit hired its first staff member in June 2024 — a part-time community engagement director. This year, the community engagement director is full-time and the law firm was also able to hire its first full-time attorney in March and its first full-time paralegal in May.
AbuHaidar said the grant will be used to hire two additional attorneys and expand the firm’s services. Her team asked the foundation to distribute the funds over three years so the firm can create a multi-year budget and have set long-term funding.
AbuHaidar said over 65% of the Wasatch Immigration Project’s clients in 2024 were women and children. That’s in part because the nonprofit does not handle criminal, family law or employment visa cases. AbuHaidar said the firm instead focuses on humanitarian cases as they are more in need.
“We see mostly folks who have experienced persecution in their home countries or have experienced violence in the United States. And unfortunately, the majority of those folks are women and children,” AbuHaidar said.
She said those who have immigration attorneys in the system have a five times greater likelihood of gaining an immigration benefit or avoiding deportation.
Using the grant, AbuHaidar hopes the nonprofit can continue to be a resource and give trustworthy advice to people trying to navigate the immigration system.
