In The News

The philanthropic arm of KeyBank announced Wednesday that it will donate a total of $1 million over four years to the Pittsburgh Promise scholarship program. “As [Pittsburgh] newcomers, we were trying to identity a wonderful opportunity that aligned with our vision, mission and goals for the KeyBank Foundation, and this was on target,” foundation chair and CEO Margot Copeland said in an interview.

The Pittsburgh Promise honored UPMC on Thursday for making the last installment of its $100 million commitment to the scholarship program. “There has never been a gift of this magnitude to urban public schools,” said Saleem Ghubril, Promise executive director.

The Pittsburgh Foundation strongly supports the Council on Foundations statement opposing the executive order issued by the White House on Thursday to weaken the Johnson Amendment.

After seeing fundraising slacken through most of 2016, the community fund took in twice as much in the last two months of the year as in the previous November and December, with most contributions going into donor-advised funds, reports the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Pittsburgh Foundation CEO Maxwell King said donors were "hesitating and holding off" before the vote amid concerns about tax policy and the markets' direction.

The Delmot Library has received a $2,500 grant for an outdoor butterfly garden from the Michael J. and Aimee Rusinko Kakos Fund of The Community Foundation of Westmoreland County, which has provided gardening grants for eight libraries throughout the county.

The Pittsburgh Foundation, a community foundation that funds critical needs and other causes in the region, raised nearly $45 million in donations last year and handed out 22 percent more in grant money than it did in 2015.

In December alone, The Pittsburgh Foundation received cash donations topping $18 million, compared to $10 million raised in December 2015, a foundation report released Friday shows.

The Pittsburgh Foundation tells the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review it was worried about 2016 fundraising totals, which were significantly below those of the previous year. But that changed after the presidential election, when “charitable contributions came pouring in…so fast that the foundation took in donations at almost double the pace it did in the last month of 2015.”

Sometimes, a little money goes a long way. That is the idea behind The Pittsburgh Foundation’s Small and Mighty grants program, which provides modest sums to small nonprofits with big dreams.

The Pittsburgh Foundation aims to raise more than $1 million for the region’s hungry, homeless and other people in need through a one-day, online fundraising event set for May 23.