Established in 1945, The Pittsburgh Foundation is one of the nation’s oldest and is the 15th largest of more than 700 community foundations across the United States. Since it was formed, The Pittsburgh Foundation has awarded more than $600 million in grants to charitable organizations in Pittsburgh, and throughout the U.S.

The Foundation’s first fund was created in 1945 by Chester and Vivian Lehman. Chester Lehman was a member of the founding family of the Blaw-Knox Company, and a supporter of the Boy Scouts movement.

Assets and Funds

As a community foundation, The Pittsburgh Foundation’s resources comprise endowment funds established by individuals, families, businesses and organizations. Endowment funds held by the Foundation range from $10,000 to $40 million, created by people with a passion for Pittsburgh and a deep commitment to their community.

Each fund exists in perpetuity – growing each year – in order to provide an ever increasing resource to benefit our community.

A total of 53 new funds were created in 2009 and many current donors added gifts to their existing funds. Combined, new funds, gifts to existing funds and other charitable gifts to the Foundation last year amounted to nearly $26.7 million.

The combined assets of the Foundation and its supporting organizations stood at nearly $600 million at December 31, 2009 and the number of individual funds grew to more than 1,300 at the end of 2009.

Grantmaking

The Foundation and its supporting organizations awarded grants of approximately $33.7 million in 2009, addressing many critical issues in our community.

Grantmaking benefits a broad spectrum of community life within Pittsburgh, across the United States, and internationally. Approximately 50 percent of the Foundation’s grantmaking is from unrestricted funds.

The Foundation’s policy governing its unrestricted or discretionary grantmaking was revised under the Foundation’s strategic plan in 2009, with the creation of three new funding categories designed to capture all of the community’s charitable programming needs.

Its five Target Areas of Impact introduced nearly seven years previously, were replaced by integrating the key issues of environment, economics, and social equity into its three new funding guideline categories:

• Self Sufficient Individuals and Families,
• Healthy Communities, and
• A Vibrant Democracy.

The first includes education, affordable housing, public transportation, healthy children and adults and job development.  Healthy Communities covers ecological issues, the creation of safe communities, cultural and racial diversity, creative arts and the encouragement of excellence in civic design. A Vibrant Democracy includes civic engagement and the research and dissemination of information around critical community issues, designed to inform and shape public policy.

Additional areas are included for grantmaking through the Foundation’s donor-advised, designated, fields of interest, scholarship, medical research and responsiveness funds.

These are explained as follows:

• Donor advised funds allow donors to specify individual or multiple organizations to receive grants.
• Fields of interest funds enable donors to make grants to specific charitable areas, such as education, children or the environment.
• Designated funds permit specific nonprofit organizations to be selected by donors to receive all grants from a fund.
• Unrestricted funds are as described – donors place no restriction on where grants are awarded to meet community needs.
• Responsiveness funds enable the Foundation to respond to crises and unexpected needs in the community. Examples would include the Foundation’s leadership role in the collaborative Neighbor-Aid emergency fund established in 2008 to support nonprofits dealing with unprecedented demand as the result of the economic crisis; the “Save Our Summer” campaign of 2004 which reopened municipal pools, recreation centers and food distribution sites for children and families in some of Pittsburgh’s most vulnerable communities; Flood Relief programs launched in 2004 and 2005 in response to the devastation caused by hurricanes Ivan and Katrina; and emergency relief efforts to support the victims of this year’s catastrophic earthquake in Haiti.

Scholarship funds benefit students across the United States, most frequently assisting high school seniors seeking post-secondary education; medical research funds are established by donors to support investigation into a variety of diseases.

The Pittsburgh Foundation is also the vehicle for Supporting Organizations which most closely mirror the operations of private foundations. Supporting organizations are specially designed to target the philanthropic goals of individuals or groups of donors creating funds of $2 million or more.

Note: The Pittsburgh Foundation’s Board of Directors has the ultimate authority to determine whether grant recipients meet IRS nonprofit requirements.

Our Community Foundation

As a community foundation, The Pittsburgh Foundation is a tax-exempt public charity serving people who share a common goal – to improve the quality of life for all citizens. The Foundation makes it possible for a wide range of donors to create permanent, named endowment funds to provide lasting support for charitable organizations.

Unlike a private foundation, which is established by an individual family, community foundations invest and manage a pool of permanent endowment funds established by individuals, families, businesses and organizations. Each fund exists in perpetuity to provide an ever increasing endowment for grant making.

Our Mission:

The Pittsburgh Foundation works to improve the quality of life in
 the Pittsburgh region by evaluating and addressing community issues,
 promoting responsible philanthropy and connecting donors to the critical needs  of the community.

June 1, 2010

For further information, please contact:
John Ellis, Vice President of Communications
Tel: 412-394-2647
Email: ellisj@pghfdn.org