Posted May 27, 2010 // 0 Comments // add yours
By Grant Oliphant
News that former Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editor John Craig died yesterday at his Sewickley home caught me off guard this morning. I had known John was critically ill, but the mere thought of him being gone from the Pittsburgh scene seems so alien and wrong.
I first met the “sometimes acerbic” journalist, as he has been described fondly by his friends and admirers, when I was working as press secretary to U.S. Senator John Heinz. We came in to meet with the Post-Gazette editorial staff, and John stood out for his good humor, skeptical manner and tough questions.
That mix was quintessentially John Craig. He was tough but fair minded, always probing, and always driven by grand ideas. Years later, when I was heading up strategy for a local ad agency, John came to me to talk about a project he wanted to pursue to transform Pittsburgh’s under-utilized and sadly abused riverfronts. I put him together with Max King, who had recently started as head of the Heinz Endowments, and a grand ambition–shared by Mayor Tom Murphy and Teresa Heinz, to transform Pittsburgh’s waterfront into a world-class amenity–was born.
Paul O’Neill, who led the Riverlife Task Force in its early days alongside John, has described him as its driving force. There’s little doubt he was one of its most essential dynamos, unabashedly and persistently pushing for quality development and happily willing to question anything he found aesthetically lacking.
Diplomatic niceties fell to other players on the task force; John was after greatness for Pittsburgh, and he wasn’t about to let anyone – be they property owners, developers, foundation executives or city officials – get away with cutting corners.
In recent years, John has been the driving force behind Pittsburgh Today, an initiative to help our region make smarter decisions about its future by using real data to measure how we are doing. John’s commitment to building a community marked by big ambitions and real information may seem an anachronism in an age when the “journalists” we know best are paid to shriek at each other on whatever media is available.
Maybe that’s why I’ll miss him even more. He may have pushed us hard sometimes, but the passion that drove him, his deep love for this community, was one we could all be proud to share.
Posted May 10, 2010 // 2 Comments // add yours
By Grant Oliphant
Powerful words from The Pittsburgh Foundation’s Board member Maxwell King in today’s Post-Gazette. He described the recent action by four Pittsburgh foundations, including The Pittsburgh Foundation, to secure an option on the sale of WDUQ as an example of “bold, proactive philanthropy.”
As anyone who knows him will recognize, those are not words Max is inclined to utter lightly. Max is the pure embodiment of that style of philanthropy. Translating big ideas into bold action is a hallmark of his whatever-it-takes brand of forceful leadership.
For me, his words are best understood less as a compliment than as a challenge. In my time with him, Max always led by the maxim that, when it comes to fighting for something meaningful in our community, we don’t get points for trying; we get points for making a real difference.
The real goal of the four foundations backing the WDUQ option isn’t just to “buy time.” It’s to give our community the chance to use that time to put a bold, transformative, and attainable vision for public media and community journalism on the table.
Posted April 30, 2010 // 0 Comments // add yours
By Grant Oliphant
Our nation’s community foundations are diligent when it comes to offering wise counsel to nonprofits about how they might become more efficient; how they might improve the delivery of vital services to the individuals, families and organizations that depend on them for support. It is a valid role, no question.
Collaborative alliances, partnerships and mergers are strategies that can help organizations become more cost-effective, operationally and programmatically, and reflect the economic prudence that has driven the commercial and industrial world for many years.
But is our community foundation sector as good at taking its own advice? In the Pittsburgh region, we are demonstrating that we are – and with the committed focus on creating benefit for our donors and nonprofit agencies and further enhancing the well-being of our broad community.
I am referring to the recent announcement about plans for our neighbors at the Community Foundation for Westmoreland County (CFWC) to merge with us at The Pittsburgh Foundation, something of an historic initiative for the philanthropic sector nationally and one which has received the enthusiastic and unanimous endorsement by the boards of both organizations.
Currently, few examples exist of mergers in our field, although I am certain we shall see more in the passage of time given the pressures and challenges on community foundations to better serve their constituents and fulfill their missions to build meaningful and lasting charitable legacies for future generations.
During our discussions leading to this agreement, our guiding principles have been to preserve the identity, staff, Board and local decision-making of the CFWC while we strengthen its presence and provide valuable resources and expertise to maximize local grantmaking impact, enhance services for donors and increase support for nonprofits.
County lines are artificial boundaries when we are considering human, social and cultural needs, and it is for this reason that the Board of CFWC has shown great courage and foresight. In recognizing the severe limitations of CFWC’s continued successful development they have assured its future as a vibrant, strong and resourceful organization with enormous potential to generate and inspire positive change.
CFWC is demonstrating selfless leadership which I hope and believe will become a model for many organizations like us that strive to help build better communities.
For more information on the merger please click here.
Grant Oliphant is President and CEO of The Pittsburgh Foundation.
Posted March 24, 2010 // 0 Comments // add yours
Yvonne Maher
In this economically challenging environment, The Pittsburgh Foundation is proud to report that our community continues to give generously to support others whose need is even greater in these times. As our forecasters around the country predicted doom and gloom for charitable giving, we were humbled by the kindness of our donors who continued to grow their endowments so that charities would have a stream of funding now and in the future.
In November 2009, 28 new funds had been established and expectations were that we would finish the year between 40 and 45. Deferred funds were tracking ahead.
However, what happened in a four-week window was unprecedented. The Pittsburgh community rallied at the end of the year and a flurry of activity was seen in the Development and Donor Services department. By year end, we were proud to report that:
- Against a target of 53 new funds…53 were established.
- Against a target of 40 deferred funds, donors established 41;
In terms of dollars, the Foundation closed the year at $26,661,908, which is a 13% increase over the prior year. This number included several significant legacy gifts including a $10 million bequest from Quentin and Evelyn Cunningham.
It is clear that the philanthropists who make up The Pittsburgh Foundation care deeply about the needs in our community. We thank all of our donors for their trust and dedication to the nonprofit community and for continuing to grow their funds and establish new funds at The Pittsburgh Foundation.
We look forward to a robust 2010.
Posted February 1, 2010 // 0 Comments // add yours
Few of you will have heard of him. Mr. Harris passed away in 1952. He was the former President of U.S. Steel’s Tubular Products, Inc.
But thanks to his daughter, who established a fund at The Pittsburgh Foundation in 1982 in memory of her father, Mr. Harris’ philanthropic spirit lives on – currently in reaching out to the men, women and children suffering in the terrible aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti.
From his fund, The Pittsburgh Foundation is today announcing $65,000 in immediate grants to support the relief effort in Haiti. Two of these grants, totaling $50,000, will go to organizations with strong Pittsburgh connections:
- Hôpital Albert Schweitzer, a gem of a clinic outside Port-au-Prince that was founded by Pittsburgher Dr. Larimer Mellon in 1956. The clinic was spared the devastation of the earthquake and is operating with full staff to treat casualties and provide life-saving care.
- Brother’s Brother, located on Pittsburgh’s North Side is amassing urgently-needed medical supplies for shipment to Haiti, including antibiotics, surgical packs, surgical instruments and other requested provisions. Its first shipment was airlifted to Haiti last week.
A third grant of $15,000 will go to Doctors Without Borders, an international humanitarian organization which receives strong support from medical professionals in the Pittsburgh region. The organization’s facilities in Haiti were severely damaged by the earthquake, but workers have established temporary clinics to treat the injured.
(Read more…)
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