Posted March 23, 2009 // 0 Comments // add yours
By Grant Oliphant
Recently I was asked by the Women’s Funders Group to participate on a panel discussing the surge in domestic violence that has occurred in our region since the economic crisis began. Women’s shelters in western Pennsylvania are finding themselves overwhelmed as increasing numbers of women and their children seek refuge from abuse at home.
The temptation is to see this as a “temporary” problem, which in some respects, it is. Domestic violence tends to increase during periods of economic stress. Our community must respond to this near-term crisis of frightened women being denied the shelter, counseling and protective services they want and need. (Read more…)
Posted March 17, 2009 // 1 Comments // add yours
By George Heidekat
Aiming to energize civic dialog and encourage a conclusive referendum on city-county consolidation, The Pittsburgh Foundation is developing a multifaceted public education campaign.
“The issues are just too important to ignore,” said Grant Oliphant, the Foundation’s President and CEO. “The community needs to confront them, and we’re willing to take the leadership role.”
In April last year, Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato announced a plan to merge the city and county governments. The proposal’s roots stretched back to 2006, when Ravenstahl and Onorato asked University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Mark Nordenberg and a blue-ribbon panel of citizens to scrutinize the two governments in the light of similar consolidations in other parts of the country.
(Read more…)
Posted March 10, 2009 // 0 Comments // add yours
The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy recently published a paper, Criteria for Philanthropy at its Best®: Benchmarks to Assess and Enhance Grantmaking Impact, examining how philanthropy- which it considers to be underperforming in achieving “social benefit or impact”- should re-align its funding programs.
In response, Paul Brest, President of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation published this article at The Huffington Post.
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