By Grant Oliphant
President and CEO

You did it.

In raising the bar for The Pittsburgh Foundation’s Day of Giving today, some of us were a little wary that we were asking too much, especially against the background of a bleak economy and all the uncertainty it entails. But the steadfast, generous and big-hearted spirit of our community has shone through on another rainy day in Pittsburgh.

By 2:00 p.m. this afternoon, we had already exceeded the total of $2.8 million in public donations received for last year’s Day of Giving – itself a magnificent achievement, which combined with 2010’s matching funds of $500,000, pumped a total of $3.3 million into the needy coffers of our nonprofit organizations.

As I write this early afternoon message, the total amount raised so far today stands at more than $3 million, which with the increased match pool for 2011 of $750,000 takes us close to the $4 million mark.

And the money is still rolling in; money that will sustain the critical work of our local charitable organizations; money that will ensure that vital programs continue to serve families and individuals in need, or which simply contribute to our community’s well-being for us all.

Stories around today’s acts of kindness are many and varied. Like the Pittsburgher working in Zimbabwe who contacted our office in the early hours of this morning, worried that – because he had not been able to log on to our PittsburghGives site – the match pool would be exhausted before he had chance to make his gift.

Like the Board member of a local nonprofit who independently pledged to match every contribution to his organization dollar-for-dollar.

Thank you all for your generous, compassionate efforts in digging deeper to help others and to support our community. And please keep the donations coming. This Day of Giving event that we developed as your community foundation has become a model for similar initiatives across the United States, and many will take encouragement from the outcomes in Pittsburgh today.

Running simultaneously with our PittsburghGives event is Westmoreland’s Day of Giving where donors had exceeded last year’s total contributions of nearly $200,000 by 1:00 p.m. today.

To make a gift through PittsburghGives please visit www.Pittsburghgives.org and for WestmorelandGives, www.westmorelandgives.org. The event closes at midnight tonight and all contributions will receive an equal pro-rated share of the matching funds.