Pittsburgh Foundation

Programs: Healthcare, families, youth and special needs populations grantmaking supports organizations that meet the basic needs of vulnerable populations in allegheny county and assures that individuals and families have access to critical resources to move out of poverty. Grantmaking also focuses on assuring that the region's neighborhoods and communities are safe places where families can live in a secure environment without fear. This begins by supporting those organizations that work with at-risk youth to reduce truancy, to intervene in family situations that put children at risk, and to provide alternatives to diminish the impact on families of drug and alcohol addiction. Grantmaking also emphasizes the need to assure access for all residents to high quality, affordable healthcare, with a special emphasis on children and seniors and on those who are uninsured or underinsured. The foundation supports rigorous medical research with the goal to add to the body of knowledge around the causes and cure of a wide variety of human diseases afflicting the general population.

in this area, the foundation supports high quality, public education for students in pre-kindergarten to twelfth grade, to assure that all students can achieve at their highest potential. Grantmaking targets the pittsburgh public schools and other low-resource school districts by supporting projects that seek to improve educational achievement for all students and narrow the racial achievement gap. Education grants are also made to nonprofit organizations that work in partnership with school districts to provide professional development for teachers and out-of-school programming for at-risk youth.

arts, culture and humanities grantmaking supports small and midsized arts organizations in allegheny and surrounding counties that provide performances and exhibitions to local audiences. Particular attention is focused on those arts organizations that are community based and that serve underserved audiences.

community development and the environment grantmaking supports organizations that provide affordable and transition housing to individuals in need, provide job training to assure that all have the potential to earn a family-supporting wage, and provide low-cost, public transportation in order to assure that families who do not own a private car have access to school, work, and healthcare providers. In this area, the foundation also seeks to foster awareness and activism on behalf of clean air and water, and to increase the community's understanding of the role each individual can play in protecting vulnerable populations from environmental toxins. Grantmaking includes a focus on vibrant democracy to encourage civic engagement around critical issues facing the community. The pittsburgh foundation carries out this work by supporting rigorous and timely research on issues that impact the lives of citizens in the region and disseminating this research to policymakers, community activists, and others interested in positive change. Other program services also include grantmaking that seeks to increase the effectiveness and capacity of the nonprofit sector to encourage the highest level of performance by the sector and technical assistance to help nonprofits design ways to evaluate and report on their individual outcomes.