We recognize that philanthropy has played a role in perpetuating systemic inequities, and The Pittsburgh Foundation has the opportunity and the obligation to be the place where donors, nonprofits and leaders from businesses, government and foundations coalesce and work together to achieve life-improving social change.

Our region cannot afford to continue to leave so many behind if our aspiration is for sustainable growth. In 2023, The Pittsburgh Foundation adopted a strategic plan that includes a commitment to racial justice to advance fundamental systemic changes that eliminate policies, laws, practices, attitudes and cultural messages that result in differential outcomes by race.

Why is Racial Justice Important in Pittsburgh?

In the Pittsburgh region, there are significant racial disparities in life outcomes and access to resources and opportunities. Decades of racist policies have created systemic barriers to basic needs, including access to employment, transportation, affordable housing and education systems. For example, due to decades of race-based lending restrictions and home valuation practices, the Black homeownership rate in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area is 33.6%, while the non-Hispanic white homeownership rate is 74.7% and the Hispanic/Latinx rate of 48.0%.ⁱ

Our Approach

The call to action of our new strategic plan is to work to correct these imbalances by catalyzing and leveraging our resources – including discretionary grantmaking, public conversations, education programs, investments and advocacy for policy changes – and partnering with community leaders, donors and nonprofit organizations to advance solutions that lead to fundamental systemic changes. Our intent is to repair discriminatory practices, close opportunity gaps and support an environment in which all people have real potential to thrive. Ultimately, our goal is to improve the lives of our neighbors and seed a better future for the Pittsburgh region, because when we all rise, the region thrives.

Our Commitment to Racial Justice

Through our strategic plan, we are committed to taking steps to address racial disparities and working towards racial justice, both in our internal policies and practices and in our public-facing work.

We recognize that changing the way we work is a journey, and we will strive to share our progress with our community.

Our current commitments are outlined below. Beginning in spring 2025, progress made on these commitments will be reported annually. As we make future commitments, or as our racial justice work evolves, we will include those updates here.

• Commitment 1: The Foundation will invest $50 million of its unrestricted grant-making pool over the next five years (by 2027) to advance racial equity and racial justice. 
• Commitment 2: By 2027, at least 50% of unrestricted grants will benefit organizations led by and serving Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) communities.
• Commitment 3: Board, staff and leadership demographics relative to the population of those served (Allegheny County)ⁱⁱ will be made public, as demonstrated below. The following data is an initial overview of our demographics from 2023-2024. A more complete version will be made available at the start of 2025. 

ⁱ Prosperity Now Scorecard. 

ⁱⁱ According to the 2020 United States Census Bureau, Allegheny County‘s demographic data is reported as: 4% Asian, 13% Black or African American, 3% Hispanic or Latino, 5% 2 or more races and 76% white.