In The News

The August Wilson Center's new top executive faces an ambitious list of top priorities, including deepening the funding pool for the once struggling center. Janis Burley Wilson, 52, of Monroeville was named head of the center Thursday, though her familiarity with the center stretches back more than two years when it was taken over by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, where Burley Wilson spent 15 years as an executive.

Pittsburgh Magazine & The Pittsburgh Foundation Introduce #GiveBigPittsburgh. To participate, nonprofits must establish a profile by Oct. 24 and are urged to sign up now for a training session scheduled for Aug. 3.

As a successful entrepreneur or business leader, you build profitable enterprises that benefit workers, shareholders and consumers of your goods or services. Certainly, your company’s ability to meet payroll and turn a profit greatly benefits the community in which it operates. (The article is written by Maxwell King, president and CEO, The Pittsburgh Foundation.)

On June 15, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos made the unusual move of tweeting a “request for ideas” about how to direct his charitable giving. The tweet received ample media coverage and more than 40,000 replies on Twitter. In this open letter, leaders of 18 community foundations from around the United States, including The Pittsburgh Foundation President and CEO Maxwell King, respond.

With the state facing a $3 billion deficit, providers of essential human services are preparing for significant cuts, and several million Pennsylvania families who depend on them are fearing the worst. That is why we, as leaders of community philanthropies deeply engaged in funding essential human services, have developed #FamilyFirstPA, a statewide campaign to let legislators and Gov. Tom Wolf know that vital human services must remain a priority in the next budget.

The Allegheny County Homeless Advisory Board has a new plan to fight homelessness. The board’s plan is aimed to make the condition of homelessness “rare, brief and nonrecurring” in Allegheny County, and to ensure that various systems and social service groups are working together well. But before the plan is approved, the board is requesting feedback from the community.

It’s 11 a.m. in Judge Jeffery Manning’s courtroom. The attorneys are ready. The Allegheny County Common Pleas Court president judge is on the bench. The video screen comes alive to reveal the business of the morning, a series of people in orange, jail-​issue jumpsuits: One young man with a retail…  

A decade ago, the Promise was barely a dream. Now, executive director Saleem Ghubril said recently that he and his staff are working on a plan for the program’s next 10 years.

An online fundraiser to assist the region’s needy has generated nearly $1.3 million for agencies that provide basic needs including food, shelter and medical care. The Pittsburgh Foundation said #SafetyNetPGH, held Tuesday as one in a series of Critical Needs Alerts it has sponsored in recent years, raised $616,000 in public donations. The remaining $657,000 was pre-committed matching funds from the foundation and other donors.

The Pittsburgh Foundation said its Critical Needs Alert fundraiser received $616,000 in pledges Tuesday. Combined with $657,000 in matching funds from the foundation, the first-year event raised nearly $1.3 million to help about 100 nonprofits in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties that directly support people with needs related to child care, food and nutrition, physical and mental health, housing and transportation.