THE PITTSBURGH FOUNDATION PUERTO RICO COMMUNITY FOUNDATION GREATER HOUSTON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION When hurricanes struck Houston and Puerto Rico last year, Pittsburgh donors were philanthropic first responders. By Doug Root COMMUNITY FOUNDATION NETWORK MEETS EMERGENCY NEED PLACE-BASED PHILANTHROPY ISNOT PLACEBOUND I N S T I N C T I V E LY, C O M M U N I T Y F O U N D AT I O N S arefiercelydevotedtotheirlocal mandates. They are part of the regions they’re chartered to serve, and the boundaries of geographic reach and mission are clearly marked. Butincreasinglyoverthepastdecade,whenamajordisasterhasstruck the territory of one community foundation, others have responded as if they were located down the block. Donors have been primed, institutional funds have been activated and back-office staffs have sprung into action. In 2017 and into the summer of this year, The Pittsburgh Foundation provided those services as it extended its boundaries thousands of miles southwest and across ocean waters to respond to hurricane disasters. LastAugust,theFoundationmanagedanemergencyfundraisingeffort for the Houston region in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, which caused an estimated 75 deaths and tied New Orleans’ Katrina as the most damaging to a metropolitan area in the history of such record keeping. Thenextmonth,theFoundationledacommunitygivingcampaignto respondtoMaria,thesecond-deadliesthurricaneinthemodernhistoryof theUnitedStatesanditsterritories.ThatCategory5stormrandirectlyover PuertoRicoonSept.20,causingseveralthousanddeaths.Twoweeksbefore that, Hurricane Irma, a Category 4 storm, skirted the island and knocked out the electrical grid. Disaster recovery experts estimate the total cost of recovery from both storms at $140 billion. Even before Maria had dissipated, the Foundation’s systems and its familyofdonorswereshiftingintogeartorespond.Atotalof$177,500went directlytothePuertoRicoCommunityFoundation,including$50,000each from the Foundation and The Heinz Endowments, another place-based philanthropy in the region. That seed funding led to another $77,500 in public giving. “Communityfoundationsgivetoothercommunityfoundationsbecause theyknowthoseorganizationshavethedeepestconnectionsintheterritories 39 RE PO RT TO TH E CO MMU N ITY THE PITTSBURGH FOUNDATION