The United Community Services of Metropolitan Detroit has its origins in the establishment of the Detroit Community Union in 1917. The Union was reorganized into the Council of Social Agencies of Metropolitan Detroit in 1932, and merged with the Detroit Community Chest in 1951 to become the United Community Services (UCS). UCS operated alongside the United Way for Southeastern Michigan (United Foundation until 1989), which was primarily a fundraising organization. They merged to form the United Way Community Services in 1995, which merged with the United Way for Oakland County to become the United Way for Southeastern Michigan in 2005. UCS was an umbrella organization for a wide range of social welfare agencies in the Metropolitan Detroit area, and sought to promote social services (including child care, family, health, recreation, and community planning) through the centralized planning, coordinating, and budgeting of those agencies. The Budget Department was responsible for reviewing budget requests from agencies, making an annual proposal for funds to the United Foundation, and allocating funds to individual agencies associated with UCS.

The United Community Services Budget Department Records consist mostly of reports from agencies to the UCS Central Budget Committee and reports from UCS to the United Foundation. The collection also contains some minutes from the budget committees of UCS predecessor organizations and statistical information detailing historical allocations to participating agencies.