Through its Community Fund, The Pittsburgh Foundation distributes grants to nonprofits in five targeted areas for impact. Below are grantmaking stories from our 2005 Annual Report that highlight our work in each of these areas.
Terry Bruce (left) is a student at the Minority and Women Educational Labor Agency.
ASSET (Achieving Student Success through Excellence in Teaching) Inc. works to improve student performance in science through hands on learning, professional development and ongoing assistance for teachers.
The racial achievement gap in Greater Pittsburgh schools is wide, and it translates later into similar discrepancies in employment. For the past three years, the Career Literacy for African American Youth Program (CLAAY) has worked with high school students to improve their performance and future.
By any measure — artistic discipline, culture, race or the scope of the activities it hosts — East Liberty's Kelly-Strayhorn Theater has become a symbol of a successful, diverse community working together. With that success, the nonprofit running the theater needed a full-time executive director, and The Pittsburgh Foundation, through a two-year, $75,000 grant from the Scott Fund, has made that possible.
When a city is fortunate enough to have a distinguished university performance program within blocks of a similarly oriented city high school, the synergies can abound. One such venture got under way in the 2005-2006 school year between Point Park University and the Pittsburgh Public Schools' Creative and Performing Arts High School (CAPA).
Reinforcing some of its other grants and efforts, The Pittsburgh Foundation is helping build a bridge between women and minority workers and the local construction industry. The need is obvious. Several large publicly financed construction projects are under way, yet the percentage of women and minority workers on these projects generally tends to be low.
Rather than pass along grant money and hope for the best, a program through the Pittsburgh Partnership for Neighborhood Development (PPND) is rewarding community groups when they make an impact. This new strategy underscores the growing need for nonprofits of all kinds to produce measurable results in an era of increasingly tight funding.
The Pittsburgh Foundation made grants to the University of Pittsburgh to support the Healthy Black Families Project as well as advancements in cancer research.
In 2005, Action Housing, which oversees the government-funded Family Savings Account program, got a one-week notification that the government funds needed for staffing would be cut. Without the staff, the Family Savings Account program would end. A two-year, $112,500 grant from The Pittsburgh Foundation helped to keep it running.
There's a universe of benefits for low-income families, but often those who need the help don't know what's available to them. The situation can be a frustrating one to those who need help and to the agencies seeking to help. Enter Benefit Bank, designed to make the process easier and more efficient for both sides.
