Pittsburgh Foundation Unveils New Grant-Making Approach

The Pittsburgh Foundation has revamped its grant-making approach, creating three broad-based grant categories that officials said will give the group more opportunities for advocacy and greater flexibility in setting priorities, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports.

The new plan follows 15 months of meetings with community leaders, including donors, foundation heads, and nonprofit executives. It will focus on three goals — creating self-sufficient individuals and families, healthy communities, and a vibrant democracy — to replace its previous structure, which had five narrower goals.

“The general feeling was the foundation had narrowed its scope of activities so much over time, there were lot of people who wished it would become more broadly representative of the community,” said Grant Oliphant, who took over as the charity’s president last year.