A GOOD ANNUAL REPORT ISSUE NEIGHBOR The Project offers help and hope to a struggling community.

The Magazine of The Heinz Endowments

ARTIST OPPORTUNITIES HEALTHY CHOICES SECURE BONDS NIFTY BUSINESS

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The Heinz Endowments was formed state of knowledge and practice in from the Howard Heinz Endowment, the fi elds in which we work. Our fi elds established in 1941, and the Vira I. of emphasis include philanthropy Heinz Endowment, established in in general and the disciplines 1986. It is the product of a deep represented by our fi ve grant-making family commitment to community programs: Arts & Culture; Children, and the common good that began Youth & Families; Education; with H.J. Heinz, and that continues Environment; and Innovation Economy. to this day. In life, Howard Heinz and Vira I. The Endowments is based in Heinz set high expectations for their Pittsburgh, where we use our region philanthropy. Today, the Endowments as a laboratory for the development is committed to doing the same. of solutions to challenges that are Our charge is to be diligent, thoughtful national in scope. Although the majority and creative in continually working of our giving is concentrated within to set new standards of philanthropic southwestern , we work excellence. Recognizing that none wherever necessary, including statewide of our work would be possible without and nationally, to fulfi ll our mission. a sound fi nancial base, we also are That mission is to help our region committed to preserving and enhancing thrive as a whole community — the Endowments’ assets through economically, ecologically, educationally prudent investment management. and culturally — while advancing the

h magazine is a publication of The Heinz Endowments. At the Endowments, we are committed to promoting learning in philanthropy and in the specifi c fi elds represented by our grant-making programs. As an expression of that commitment, this publication is intended to share information about signifi cant lessons and insights we are deriving from our work.

Editorial Team Linda Bannon, Linda Braund, Donna Evans, Carmen Lee, Douglas Root, Robert Vagt. Design: Landesberg Design

About the cover Phylicia Ralph, 18, is putting some of what she’s learned at The Pittsburgh Project into practice as she paints the porch railings of a house that’s being renovated on the city’s North Side. Among the opportunities the organization offers young people to get their lives on track are academic assistance and building-trades training through its YouthBuild program.

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd c5 10/11/08 10:23:46 AM 6 Biz Kids A national entrepreneurship program is showing Pittsburgh high school students what it takes to be successful in business and in school. 12 Community Building The Pittsburgh Project strengthens students’ futures as it rebuilds their neighborhoods.

Volume 8 Number 3 Summer 2008 This issue of h magazine also includes the 24 annual report of our 2007 grant making. In Good Health Women in the Pittsburgh region are learning common-sense approaches to safeguarding their health and their families’ health. 30 Bond Shelter Some Pittsburgh foundations have joined a unique venture to help minority and women contractors get a larger share of local construction projects. 38 Individual Investment With foundation support, some Pittsburgh-area artists are attending programs that hone their talents and their goals.

2Feedback 3 Messages 45 Financial Summary 46 2007 Grants

Promising, page 12 59 History 60 Board and Staff

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Our Spring 2008 issue featured The Heinz Endowments’ Pathways

to Educational Excellence initiative that supports programs to improve The Magazine of The Heinz Endowments student performance in the Pittsburgh Public Schools. We also SHARPENING OUR SCHOOLS The Heinz Endowments partners examined efforts to protect state forests by managing deer populations with the Pittsburgh Public Schools, community organizations and other funders to craft new ideas to and highlighted robotic technology that will make driving safer and boost student achievement.

2 expand economic opportunities in the Pittsburgh region. ROAMING ROBOTS DEER ACCOUNTING

Wild Things of nearly 1.5 million acres of family-owned life. Pittsburgh teachers see every day what Jeffery Fraser’s article “Wild Things,” regarding forest land and timber-related income as research has documented: How a child lives over-populations of white-tailed deer, the property is converted to non-forest uses. outside of school has tremendous infl uence brought to mind an incident that occurred As we say at our foundation, “No cash fl ow, on how the child performs in school. to me some 20 years ago. As a newly hired no conservation.” In many respects, the programs forester for an eastern Virginia pulp and Hunters must understand that a science- described in O’Toole’s story represent both paper company, I was given an offi ce that based approach to herd management in the accomplishment and challenge for those was then serving as a makeshift archive for long run will mean sustainable forests and goals. Without question, the work done thus company memorabilia. As I was moving this sustainable wildlife populations. If not, they far by the foundation community to prepare material to another location, a yellowed may one day fi nd that their favorite hunting children for school, provide enriched cultural newspaper clipping fell from a fi le onto the ground is now a golf course, and I seriously opportunities, improve health and wellness fl oor. There on this 1930s clipping from a doubt that the duffers on the 14th hole will programs, and support the work of the edu- Tappahannock, Va., newspaper was the photo be very willing to let them play through. cation-advocacy group A+ Schools is already of a deer hoof print on a sandy road. In a Robert S. Simpson a success story. font so large most editors would have used Senior Vice President This success, however, also underscores it for announcing Judgment Day, the headline Center of Family Forests the seriousness of the challenges we face. read “Possible Deer Sighting.” American Forest Foundation For example, we know that a program like It’s hard to imagine that less than University of Pittsburgh’s K-Club, designed 100 years later white-tailed deer populations to prepare children for kindergarten, would pose a threat to the ecology of the country’s A Promising Path have much greater impact if 40 of the 50 Eastern forest. Pennsylvania’s issue with deer I have been fortunate to be involved with eligible families participated, instead of 10. We is not unique. Nearly every state east of the the Pittsburgh Public Schools for more than also know that the tremendous potential of Mississippi River is in some way dealing with 40 years, as a teacher, a parent of three the Pittsburgh Promise scholarship program deer over-population issues. As pointed out district graduates and a representative of the will be realized best only if we better prepare in Fraser’s article, deer have very discerning Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers. During our students for post–high school education tastes when it comes to browsing, and their those four decades, numerous campaigns and training — and we generate further chief preference tends to be for the young have been undertaken to improve student community and foundation fi scal support. shoots of commercially valuable species like achievement and enrich educational oppor- Some observers believe that the success oak, cherry and maple. tunities in our school system. of our schools can be gauged only by stan- The vast majority of Pennsylvania’s Some efforts were more successful dardized test scores. They are wrong. Public forests are owned by families, not by the state, than others, and we with longevity remember educators know that, while test results are the federal government or the forest industry. well when our district was held in higher important, we also must ensure that every As senior vice president of American Forest regard than it has been for several years. student benefi ts from an education that Foundation’s Center for Family Forests, I am While all campaigns to improve our schools enables growth of character, physical and well aware of the pressures family forest were important, the current one is crucial, emotional wellness, readiness for work, ability owners endure as they try to maintain their as the district is at a precarious juncture to interact and maturity. We hope the foun- ownerships. Our nearly 70 years of experience in its history. dation community will continue to support working with family forest owners has shown It’s obvious that we must improve the a richer education and improved quality of us that they will not continue to own and achievement of all students and stabilize our life for our students. manage their forests if they are not econo- enrollment. A third objective is also essential, John Tarka mically viable. This year in the United States, and, as described in “A Promising Path” by President deer overgrazing led to the permanent loss Christine O’Toole, philanthropies are playing Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers a key role in improving students’ quality of

Comments: The staff of h magazine and The Heinz Endowments welcome your comments. All print and e-mail letters must include an address with daytime phone number(s). We reserve the right to edit any submission for clarity and space. Published material also will be posted on The Heinz Endowments’ Web site, which offers current and back issues of the magazine.

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 2 10/11/08 10:23:50 AM message Barry Lavery

By Teresa Heinz Chairman, The Heinz Endowments

3 s I was reading through the stories in this annual report issue, I was particularly moved by one featuring Rebecca Elstner, a remarkably self-directed woman who started her own small contracting business but couldn’t quite break through the drywall ceiling of the construction industry to win larger jobs.

It was grossly unfair, considering that this is a woman with had ready access to some of the most experienced leaders on an extraordinary work ethic who knows her way around drywall. this issue. There was a series of convenings with a wide range of She began fi nishing it as an apprentice in the trade at age 17, stakeholders to collect ideas and information. Only then could and became profi cient enough in other construction skills to we as a community begin to develop a plan for a successful start her own business. training and bonding program. Staff from the Endowments and several other Pittsburgh So many of the 471 grants — a total of $84 million — that foundations knew well from their work around large develop- went out to the region last year involved our convening, or ment projects that most minority contractors and women like supporting grantees in their own convenings, to gather ideas, to Rebecca were being shut out because they lacked the capacity educate on complex issues and to build interest and enthusiasm to meet bonding and business-management requirements. in the community. For the foundations, building that capacity became the goal. Jim Canales, who worked at ground level for years as a We joined with a state government agency to create a training program offi cer before rising to become the president and CEO program, a $1 million bonding fund and a $2 million loan fund of the James Irvine Foundation, underscores why the power to to qualify more minority- and women-owned fi rms to bid on convene is so signifi cant: the most lucrative projects. “Foundations have the capacity to connect people and I encourage you to read the rest of the story to learn how institutions, to broker relationships and to unite parties around Rebecca has fared, and how the program is likely to become a common interests,” he said at a nonprofi t leaders summit several national model for removing similar barriers. years ago. “Moreover, in a society that can be so polarized and But this complex effort is emblematic of a key point about divided on some of the big issues facing us … foundations can, our larger philanthropy story from last year. While the power to consistent with their values, be an honest broker and provide a grant money is an essential tool to achieve measurable quality- safe space for people of varied perspectives to come together.” of-life improvements, an even more powerful tool is the power It has been our experience that providing the all-important to convene. “safe space” does not mean we must play it safe — either in terms In developing the structure for an effective assistance of the issues we decide to convene around, or in the positions program for women and minority contractors, foundation staffs we take relative to our grant making. Indeed, the need for us to

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convene such groups only increased last year, even though it As the story, “In Good Health” attests, the fi rst Pittsburgh was clear where we stood on any number of contentious issues conference on Women’s Health & the Environment changed related to our grant making. lives and altered behaviors more effectively and at less cost than Unlike government agencies or corporate entities, many program grants that could have been awarded for the foundations are uniquely positioned to be the conveners for same ends. The conference, sponsored with Magee-Womens addressing issues that are socially complex, technically Hospital of UPMC and modeled after my long-standing series challenging and often laden with historical baggage. A foun- in Boston, even inspired a spin-off organization, Women for a dation’s convening authority is earned from being hands-on Healthy Environment, which, in turn, has had its own series of in the work, having deep knowledge about a problem and public convenings — free workshops on air quality, food safety demonstrating the courage and capacity to address it. and pesticides. My late husband, John Heinz, recognized the need to earn Responses such as these and community demand have such authority from a young age, noting how his family’s prompted us, as the story reports, to sponsor another Pittsburgh convening authority in business and civic affairs depended on Women’s Health & the Environment convening in September the community’s respect for its values. As a congressman and that delved even further into the environmental health issues senator, he used such gatherings — town hall meetings were connected to air, water, food and personal care products.

Unlike government agencies or corporate entities, foundations are uniquely positioned to be the conveners for addressing issues that are socially complex, technically challenging and often laden with historical baggage.

chief among them — to shape legislation, and he made them a Hundreds of women have reported back through surveys standard part of the work in his leadership of the Endowments. on the two conferences and in e-mails and letters about how Convenings as part of our grant making last year were valuable the information was and how important it is to be instrumental in developing strategies for solving such intractable told about tools and practices to protect themselves and their problems as the rising rate of violence among young African- families. But they also have noted in each case that the convening American men. They led to the development of valuable new itself — a convention center ballroom packed with women, all educational opportunities such as the Pittsburgh Promise sharing information, analyzing and even debating — was as scholarship program for graduates of the city’s public school important a factor as the content. system. They helped neighborhoods develop the capacity to I am amazed that a one-day session on environmental health, secure community benefi ts agreements, as in the Hill District or a series of meetings investigating the barriers to women neighborhood’s sharing in opportunities created by a new hockey and minorities in the construction trade, can bring about such arena. They convinced leaders of major arts and culture institu- transformative change. tions to develop deeper ties with one another and their audiences. These and other examples from last year’s work remind me And one Endowments-sponsored convening last year that, while the power to grant money is the power that provides, awakened awareness and activism in thousands of women on the power to convene is the power that enables. h environmental issues affecting their health.

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By James M.Walton Vice Chairman, The Heinz Endowments

5

f readers of this annual report issue turn to the “fi ne print” performing arts organizations. section and scan the list of grants awarded by The Heinz The foundations and the cultural organizations decided Endowments last year, they will immediately sense the together on a pooled fund as the most effective strategy for help- signifi cant effect one foundation can have when the bulk ing these groups attract new audiences and avoid fi nancial dips. of its grant making is dedicated to one region. The fi rst project will improve marketing and ticket-selling INo doubt, those on the outside would be grateful to have capabilities of all six organizations. New hardware and state- such a philanthropic institution benefi ting their home commu- of-the-art Web sites will allow Web-based conveniences such as nities. But imagine how they would react knowing that south- printing tickets on home computers. Organizations will have a western Pennsylvanians live in the fourth-richest metropolitan new way to reach ticket buyers and track their interests. region in terms of foundation giving per capita, a ranking based There are many other examples of strengthening philan- on total foundation assets of nearly $10 billion. thropy, in which grantees develop new effi ciencies in operations What is arguably Pittsburgh’s most important “natural and become more effective in carrying out their missions. resource” springs from its historical good fortune as the cradle of From the Education Program, a $325,000 appropriation organized philanthropy. Beginning with Andrew Carnegie, there allowed for a restructuring and expansion of the Vira I. Heinz were dozens of industrialists and fi nanciers who amassed vast Scholarship Program for Women in Global Leadership. It began fortunes, then gave them away. as part of Mrs. Vira Heinz’s hands-on philanthropy in 1954, in One of these was H. J. Heinz, the founder of the legendary which she wrote the $1,000 checks for each winner. prepared foods business. His personal philosophy of hands-on- Now, the program centers on leadership-training and career- shoulders charitable work was all about strengthening people exploration components. Administrative costs have been and organizations — giving them the resources to solve their own reduced, allowing more money to go to travel stipends. Also, the problems and to take advantage of new opportunities. number of participating universities has increased from 12 to 15. That mindset was faithfully translated by his son Howard From the Children, Youth & Families Program, a $150,000 Heinz and daughter-in-law Mrs. Vira I. Heinz into the grant through the Forbes Funds will enable managers of after- Endowments that is doing so much good today. school programs the technical capacity to collect data that will What is impressive about last year’s grant making is that this help them improve the effectiveness of their programs. same strengthening philosophy was behind several strategies Also, a $12,500 Arts & Culture grant developed last year designed to help us meet community needs in more complex and just now being implemented will provide training for the times. Chief among them has been the effort to encourage more members of the City of Pittsburgh Art Commission. These collaboration among grantees. volunteers, who are responsible for reviewing some of the city’s Collaboration is at the heart of a strategic plan that requires most important projects, will learn how to develop sound us to do more with the same resources, and to do so on a faster policies, adopt best practices and collaborate more effectively timeline in several areas offering opportunities for progress. with other arts organizations in the city. The plan holds us to collaborating internally and with other At a time when foundations are being petitioned to do so foundations to the same degree we expect it from grantees. much more with limited resources, we cannot afford to create An impressive example of this last year was the Arts & Culture new organizations that duplicate the missions of those we are Program’s development of the $5.6 million Cultural District already funding. Grants that strengthen grantee capacity by Pooled Fund — $2 million of which comes from the Endowments. coaxing more collaboration stand a better chance of long-term Two key collaborations involved a foundations group — success. They also validate the wisdom of our looking back Benedum, McCune, Mellon and Pittsburgh — and a grantee frequently to study how those original donors rocked the cradle group, six of the downtown Cultural District’s highest-profi le of organized philanthropy. h

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3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 6 10/11/08 10:23:55 AM WITH SUPPORT FROM LOCAL FOUNDATIONS AND BUSINESSES, A NATIONAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROGRAM IS TEACHING SKILLS TO PITTSBURGH- AREA HIGH SCHOOL 7 STUDENTS THAT CAN HELP IMPROVE THEIR he bell clangs inside the fl uorescent-lit hallways of Carrick High School on this bright spring morning, signaling a dozen students PERFORMANCE IN THE to scramble for their chairs at computer pods set up throughout CLASSROOMT AND the lab. 3 “Opportunity is all around you,” reads the sign in large ON THE JOB. blue and yellow letters above the blackboard, where a projector BY JENNIFER BAILS screen has been lowered for today’s class. 3 Some of the students PHOTOGRAPHY open Microsoft PowerPoint on their computers and furiously begin BY JOSHUA FRANZOS making last-minute changes to the presentations they must give this period. Others keep their heads down as they browse the Internet for their favorite music or chat online with their friends. Finished or not, no one wants to be called on to go fi rst. 3 Seated BIZ KIDS at the front of the class, quietly talking to each other, are fi ve suit- clad investment managers and market analysts from downtown Pittsburgh–based Fragasso Financial Advisors. Also with them is the fi rm’s president, Robert Fragasso. This morning marks the fourth visit made by Fragasso and his colleagues to this 10th-grade classroom, which includes students from some of the low-income neighborhoods in the southern section of Pittsburgh. During the past semester, these fi nancial professionals have invested their time and hope in the teenagers by working with each of them to write a business plan that provides a road map for how to launch a small business. 3 The project is the culmination of an innovative high school curriculum developed by the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, known widely by its abbreviated name, NFTE, pro- nounced “nifty” by participants and others familiar with the program. 3 Founded more than 20 years ago in New York City, the nonprofi t group has been steadily spreading its message of self-empowerment by reaching thousands of primarily disadvantaged youth with its entrepreneurship education program. Trade executive–turned–public school teacher Steve Mariotti started NFTE as a way to keep at-risk students in school and to improve their academic performance by helping connect their classroom experience with practical applica- tions to their everyday lives.

Jennifer Bails is a Pittsburgh-based freelance writer. This is her fi rst article for h.

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 7 10/11/08 10:23:57 AM Today, NFTE is an international organization with programs in 21 states and 14 countries, including a Pittsburgh regional offi ce that opened in 1995 with the help of grants from The Heinz Endowments and the Richard King Mellon, Scaife Family and McCune foundations. The Endowments has continued to support the program, awarding it 12 grants totaling more than $1.4 million since its arrival locally. This long-term investment is intended to help meet the Endowments’ goals of promoting the professional development of teachers and enabling students who face a variety of challenges in life to achieve success in school, explains Joe Dominic, who retires as the foundation’s Education Program director at the end of this year. Ultimately, he adds, the mean- ingful impact made by these grants could boost the quality and diversity of southwestern Pennsylvania’s workforce. As president of Fragasso Financial “We saw it as an opportunity to expand learning opportunities for children who Advisors in Pittsburgh, Robert Fragasso helps people make sound might not otherwise be exposed to entrepreneurship,” Dominic says. “And what we’re investment choices. He and betting on is that a number of these young people will go on to make contributions to colleagues from his fi rm also mentor Pittsburgh and its quality of life, either as business people or as leaders in their own way.” students at his alma mater, Carrick High School, through the National Here’s how the program works: Teachers are trained in week-long summer work- Foundation for Teaching shops to deliver the 40- to 80-hour NFTE curriculum as they would any other lesson Entrepreneurship, or NFTE, program. The business professionals show plan. Typically, the course is offered in schools in urban and often fi nancially struggling the teenagers how to develop a plan communities as an elective in business or computers. for launching a small business. Participants in the program — many of whom have had diffi culty in the traditional classroom — learn complex business and entrepreneurial concepts through hands-on, real-world activities such as participating in a wholesale buying trip and then selling their products in a makeshift school mall. In doing so, they build critical math, reading and technology skills — along with life skills of immeasurable value. Business teacher Yvette Cook, who taught the NFTE program at Carrick for almost a decade, says most of her students entered her classroom shy, unfocused and insecure. But going through the project-based curriculum gave them a renewed sense of self-worth and a belief in their limitless potential. Students who previously didn’t talk in class became the fi rst to raise their hands. Others joined sports teams and after-school clubs for the fi rst time. Some even gained the confi dence to run for student offi ce. “It defi nitely had a larger impact than anyone ever dreamed it would,” Cook says.

“NFTE gives young people an understanding of what it takes to risk one’s capital and invest one’s intellect and energies and time — and what the correct payback should be for people who take that risk.” Robert Fragasso, president, Fragasso Financial Advisors

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 8 10/11/08 10:23:58 AM “A major lesson that NFTE taught me at the age of 16 is the hard work that it takes to own your own business. You can kiss your social life goodbye, you are going to put in 80 hours a week, and you won’t be guaranteed a paycheck. ... But my job isn’t work.” Justin Strong, owner, 7th Movement Development Inc.

A 2002 study of the NFTE program conducted by the Harvard Graduate School of Education found that students taking the organization’s entrepreneurship course had a 32 percent higher interest in attending college than their peers who did not take it. After 9 the course, the study said, students’ interest in getting a job that required a higher level of education also rose 44 percent. An earlier study conducted by Brandeis University found that students who partici- pated in NFTE gained a knowledge and understanding of business that was 20 times

greater than that of their peers who had not been involved in the program. The partici- Justin Strong owns two popular pants also were 30 times more likely than their peers to start a business. And a follow-up nightspots in Pittsburgh and grew evaluation found that 8 percent of the program’s alumni had started businesses, com pared up in a family of entrepreneurs who operated a neighborhood dry with the national rate for minority adults of 1 to 3 percent. cleaning service. But he says it While new studies are just beginning to better analyze teacher feedback and track was at a NFTE summer BizCamp student progress, success stories continue to be told around the country. After attend- he attended as a high school senior that he learned the ing a NFTE business camp three years ago, high school student Fantashia Stevens of correct business concepts that Cleveland formed a company called Fizzalae Botanical Blends that manufactures bath complemented what he already and body products for people with sensitive skin like hers. Chicago 11th-grader Milan knew informally. Alexander was 15 when he started cutting hair to afford necessities such as school supplies and clothes. During his NFTE class in 2005, he created the business plan for Exclusive Cuts Barber Service, which he launched while fi nishing high school. Economy-boosting outcomes like these also dovetail with the strategy of the Endowments’ Innovation Economy Program, says Director Christina Gabriel. Pittsburgh was ranked just 48th on Entrepreneur magazine’s recent list of the 50 best large American cities for entrepreneurs, so clearly there is room for much- needed improvement. “We’re trying to stimulate the entrepreneurial economy in Pittsburgh, and NFTE is one way to do that,” Gabriel says. In 1995, Justin Strong attended a NFTE summer BizCamp while he was a senior at Taylor Allderdice High School, one of the top high schools in the Pittsburgh school system. Unlike many participants, Strong was no stranger to the world of business; his family has owned Strong Dry Cleaners & Laundry Service in the city’s Homewood section since 1945. But he says the program’s curriculum gave him the correct terms for what he already learned informally. Strong went on to use his newfound business skills — along with his inge- nuity and creativity — to establish 7th Movement Development Inc., which operates the Shadow Lounge and the adjoining AVA Bar and Lounge in the city’s East Liberty neighborhood. These highly popular nightspots have helped to spark the ongoing renaissance of what had been a downtrodden neighborhood by offering a showcase for culturally diverse music and entertainment. Strong regularly shares his inspirational story with groups of young participants, without sugar-coating the details. “A major lesson that NFTE taught me at the age of 16 is the hard work that it takes to own your own business,” he says. “You can kiss your social life goodbye, you are going to put in 80 hours a week, and you won’t be guaranteed a paycheck. … But my job isn’t work.”

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 9 10/11/08 10:23:59 AM 20x NFTE participants had a 20 times greater knowledge of business than students not in the program. Of course, not every student who completes the program will become Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates or even Justin Strong. 10 Jerry Cozewith, executive director of NFTE of Greater Pittsburgh, says the true power of the program can’t be measured by counting how many graduates start their own businesses. At a time when more and more Americans are becoming self-employed or 32% working for small businesses, it is crucial that schools teach students the basics of our Students in the NFTE economy and show them what place they can have in it beyond minimum wage, program had a 32 percent Cozewith says. Most important, he explains, NFTE gives young people the self-esteem higher interest in attending and knowledge they need to access and create opportunities to improve their own lives. college than their peers Twenty-year-old Ciera Dempsey participated in the program three years ago when who were not in family troubles led to her living at the Three Rivers Youth group home on Pittsburgh’s North the program. Side. The nonprofi t agency serves abused, neglected, runaway and homeless children. During the class, Dempsey created a business plan for Obsessions Braided Creations hair salon that took fi rst place at NFTE’s regional competition. “It was the fi rst time I was able to really have my own ideas and create something on my own, which was exciting,” she says. Growing up on the crime-ridden streets of northwest Philadelphia, Dempsey was a 30x poor student who never dreamed of a future beyond high school. “Getting by enough to graduate” was the best she ever hoped would happen. If she were lucky, she thought, NFTE students maybe she would fi nd a job styling hair that paid better than minimum wage. were 30 times more Now, Dempsey is studying psychology at Community College of Philadelphia and likely to start a hopes to use the business skills she learned through NFTE to open a private therapy business than their practice one day. “NFTE showed me that, regardless of the circumstances that you are in, non-participating peers. you can still do something important and move forward,” she says. Still, getting Pittsburgh-area schools to buy into the program’s mission has been a challenge. One major obstacle that the staff has encountered has been the school require- ments under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The regulations emphasize reading and RETURN ON INVESTMENT math test scores and leave little time for less conventional instruction. Recruiting and retaining teachers who are already overworked is another hurdle. It also has been diffi cult to attract busy professionals to volunteer as coaches and guest speakers for NFTE students. Yet, through the support of foundations and other charitable donors, the program now reaches more than 500 students each year in southwestern Pennsylvania, working through the Pittsburgh Public Schools as well as several private and charter schools and community organizations. The latest NFTE initiative is intended to better enable students like Dempsey to use the program as a true bridge to a career path, rather than simply as one more abstract high school course. A recent Endowments grant of $50,000 will help the organization adapt the curriculum for middle school students and deepen the involvement of Pittsburgh’s business leaders and community colleges. “We have this dream here in Pittsburgh that one day this program will be so well regarded and so well delivered that employers will look upon a NFTE certifi cate as truly saying something about a person’s readiness for life after high school,” Cozewith says.

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 10 10/11/08 10:24:00 AM That dream is starting to take shape in places like Carrick High School, where the volunteer coaches from Fragasso Financial Advisors serve as judges by listening to the students present their business plans and rating their work. The top fi nalists in the school contest will qualify for NFTE’s annual regional competition in which the winners are awarded $2,000. On this morning, each of the Carrick students nervously shuffl es to the front of the classroom to share his or her business plan with Fragasso and his fellow judges in eight-minute presentations that they have toiled over for the past several months. Fragasso grew up as the son of a tailor and graduated from Carrick in

1963. His fi rm has been one of the underwriters for the Carrick NFTE Kaiyla Shuey, 15, hopes to take program during the past two years, and he says returning as a successful advantage of her family’s top-secret entrepreneur through the program helps to show students at his alma mater that they lady locks recipe by selling the sweet dessert through her have the opportunity to infl uence their own futures just as he did. company, Kaiyla’s Kookies, for “NFTE gives young people an understanding of what it takes to risk one’s capital and which she developed a business invest one’s intellect and energies and time — and what the correct payback should be for plan in her NFTE course. people who take that risk,” says Fragasso, who was recently named chairman of the local organization’s advisory board. Potential risk-takers at Carrick include 15-year-old Kaiyla Shuey, who tells the judges that she aspires to sell homemade lady locks, made from a top-secret family recipe, for 25 cents apiece through her business, Kaiyla’s Kookies. “My short-term goal is to fi nish high school, and my long-term goal is to fi nish college,” she says. “And my business goal is to sell my lady locks at coffee shops and restaurants.” Classmate Nick Hilgert aims to use his computer skills to provide typing and printing services to his fellow students in need of help with their schoolwork, while another student, Dominique Dobbins, plans to sell iced tea at prices that undercut the school vending machines. Each of the students talks in the universal business language of profi t and loss, startup costs and selling prices. They break down their marketing research and describe their products and target consumers. And one by one, the novice public speakers all manage to make it through their presentations and gracefully fi eld diffi cult questions from the judges. “This is not necessarily about how many kids will go on to open the next Apple Computer or Fred’s Deli,” Cozewith says. “It’s that they know they could. Or someone says to them that they should consider it, and they see the power of ownership.” h

“My short-term goal is to fi nish high school, and my long-term goal is to fi nish college. And my business goal is to sell my lady locks at coffee shops and restaurants.” Kaiyla Shuey, student, Carrick High School

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 11 10/11/08 10:24:00 AM SEVERAL NEIGHBORHOODS ON PITTSBURGH’S NORTH SIDE COULD BE KNOWN PRIMARILY STEERS MANY YOUTH AWAY FROM THE VIOLENCE OF THE STREETS

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 12 10/11/08 10:24:02 AM Neighborhood boys trot down Morrison Street on a sunny day without an apparent care in the world. It’s an image of tranquility that The Pittsburgh Project labors to nurture in struggling communities on Pittsburgh’s North Side.

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communitybuilding

FOR GANGS AND POVERTY. BUT THIS IS WHERE THE FAITH-BASED PITTSBURGH PROJECT AND INTO PROGRAMS THAT IMPROVE THEIR LIVES BY ANDREW PETERS PHOTOGRAPHY BY JIM JUDKIS

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 13 10/11/08 10:24:11 AM Aging homes, like these row houses on Charles Street, blanket the North Side, where The Pittsburgh Project has set down roots.

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 14 10/11/08 10:24:13 AM n the summertime, Pittsburgh’s Charles Street is dotted with infl atable kiddie pools and clusters of girls arguing about hopscotch. But the community 15 along the steep, two-mile stretch between Brighton Road and Perrysville Avenue also has seen more than its fair share of hardships. This section of Perry South has more gangs than city blocks, and gunfi re is an all-too-familiar sound at night. In 2003, the main intersection, North Charles Street and Perrysville Avenue, Iwas the site of what then-Attorney General John Ashcroft proclaimed the largest drug ring in western Pennsylvania’s history. The combination of poverty, antiquated infrastructure and mostly century-old housing stock means many residents struggle to fi nd the money to keep the water turned on, heat their homes in the winter or provide their families with three meals a day. This is the neighborhood that 20-year-old twins Justin and Josh Reid call home. The Reid family moved from the East Hills section of the city to the North Side’s Perry South when the brothers were 9. The family wanted to be near relatives, all of whom live within a block of each other on Maple Street. In a community where the quality of your life depends a lot on who you know, it was the faith-based Pittsburgh Project that helped the Reid brothers stay out of trouble.

Andrew Peters, an Endowments summer intern, is a senior majoring in ethics, history and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University. This is his fi rst story for h.

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The Pittsburgh Project’s campus includes the red brick building in the center foreground above, a former Catholic school that’s been converted to classroom and offi ce space. The gray building to the left is the LEED Gold-certifi ed, 324-bed guest house, where summer staff and volunteers stay. And in the background on the right is a former church, which contains a 275-seat, multi-purpose performance space; a commercial kitchen; and a 150-seat dining hall. Next to the dining hall is the Charles Street Café, shown below, which provides employment for students and helps support the organization’s youth development programs.

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 16 10/11/08 10:24:18 AM Elementary school youngsters, shown above, take a break from the Project’s summer educational programs by playing a card game as their instructor, Bruce Pittman, center, watches. At left, La’Jaya Windbush, 9, waves her arms victoriously while next to her Shyann Glover, 10, is slightly less exuberant. On the right, Nasjeia Graham, 9, foreground, and Mikala Lindsey, 9, continue to focus on their cards. Below, a boy from the community who does not attend Project programs gives a winning grin after a dip in the Fowler Park pool, which the organization operates.

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 17 10/11/08 10:24:22 AM “In the same fi ve block radius that has 1,500 kids, there are seven gangs. We have worked like crazy to ensure that [our] little campus ... 18 “Coming from a different neighbor- is kind of like Switzerland.” hood to the North Side, there was a lot of Saleem Ghubril, former executive director, The Pittsburgh Project tension against us because we were not from there,” says Josh Reid. “[Fitting in] is about knowing your neighbors. Coming work at the Project and received job But Jones adds that Ghubril might be to The Pittsburgh Project, you see these training, mentoring and, ultimately, exactly what the fl edgling Promise needs people every day. …[It] was a place where scholarships to higher education. to succeed. “Saleem will bring an added all the kids from Perry South came and “The Pittsburgh Project paid for sense of legitimacy to the Promise because got along. Kids got to know kids from my fi rst guitar, which I still have today,” he is real and honorable and has a track different parts of the North Side who he adds. “I’ve been playing for fi ve years. record of tenacity and creativity through went to different schools. For those three Without the opportunities that [the his work at the Project.” hours after school, everyone put their Project] gives, a lot of people wouldn’t The Rev. Ron Peters, director of differences aside to coexist.” have anything.” Pittsburgh Theological Seminary’s Metro- Not that there weren’t constant Students and community leaders Urban Institute, believes that the change temptations to make poor choices. Some give much of the credit for the impact the Copyright © Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2008, all rights reserved. Reprinted with permission. also is a well-considered and important of the Reid brothers’ neighbors and family organization has had on the Perry South one for Ghubril to make. members were involved in gang activity community and its residents to former “It’s an understandable move on and drawn into the drug trade. When Executive Director Saleem Ghubril, a 47- his part, and I think it’s a healthy one,” their older brother started selling drugs, year-old ordained Presbyterian minister says Peters, who has known Ghubril for the twins decided it was an example they who immigrated to the United States 16 years. “In leaving, he strengthens [the] would not follow. With encouragement from war-torn Lebanon when he was 16. Project. Unless organizations can stay true from their parents, the brothers chose Ghubril left the Project in September to to their main goal, they rise and fall on what Justin calls “the hard way,” keeping assume leadership of a new youth initia- the strength of a particular personality. … up with their studies, staying clear of tive, the Pittsburgh Promise, a scholarship He has put something together there drugs, and often working two or three program designed to motivate city public that will be well able to transcend his jobs at a time to help support the family. school students to get good grades and to departure. The Bulls didn’t collapse [after] The Project helped by offering alter- encourage families to stay in the district. Michael Jordan.” natives that made it easier for the Reids to His departure comes after his two-decade The Project allocates more than resist the lure of the streets. From seventh commitment to the neigh borhood $2 million every year to provide a safe grade through high school, the brothers successfully helped turn a couple of environment in which young people can attended after-school programs where dilapidated city blocks into a neighbor- work, play and serve. It runs after-school they received daily homework assistance friendly haven for hundreds of children. programs for about 400 children every and supplemental academic help. In the “After 23 years, it’s going to be hard year; operates playgrounds, parks, meet- summer of 2004, Josh Reid also became a to disentangle Saleem from the Project. ing spaces and a swimming pool for Perry Leader-In-Training, an opportunity to Everyone loves him. People’s faces light up South’s 5,276 residents; and manages its when you mention his name,” says Wayne own Charles Street Café and summer Jones, a Children, Youth & Families pro- gram offi cer for The Heinz Endowments, which has granted the organi zation more than $1.1 million since 1995.

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 18 10/11/08 10:24:27 AM Above, high school students along with home repair volunteer Jim Olson, center, load up a truck outside The Pittsburgh Project’s colorfully painted warehouse with supplies for the houses they will work on that day. Below, a summer volunteer relaxes in one of the 20 dorm rooms in the organization’s Guest House. Each room has seven sets of bunk beds, and each of the two fl oors containing the dorm rooms has a central bathroom. Not pictured are the building’s 11 suites with private bathrooms.

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 19 10/11/08 10:24:28 AM building communities, building homes

The Pittsburgh Project’s home repair ministry extends beyond its immediate neighborhood. The red dots on the chart to the right represent homes that the organization’s teams have repaired since 1985, with the heaviest concentration on the city’s North Side. But work also has been done on homes throughout the city.

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smoothie stand, which offer employment The Project’s origins can be traced to through 2005, Perry South and neigh- opportunities to children in the com- the summer of 1986 when Ghubril started boring Northview Heights accounted for munity. The organization also offers an bringing together groups of teenagers to nearly 12 percent of all of Pittsburgh’s academic-assistance and job-training help fi x Perry South’s dilapidated homes. homicide victims during that period. program called YouthBuild that helps Though some newspapers reported that In the fi rst six months of this year, the 18- to 24-year-olds in the community the organization began as a program community had seen 96 felonies and obtain their GED, learn building-trade created by a coalition of Presbyterian 229 misdemeanors. skills and gain life experiences to become churches, Ghubril says it started when he The human losses behind the statistics productive adults. and two friends just wanted to help out hit home for Project staff most recently Its home repair ministry has provided in the community. That summer, 60 high in January when program participant and free home repairs annually to more than school students from three different middle school student Jolesa Barber was 150 residents who are elderly or who churches spent their time repairing homes gunned down while visiting her sister qualify under federal poverty standards in in the neighborhood. in a nearby North Side neighborhood. Pittsburgh. This summer, the organiza- “There is not a shortage of people The 12-year-old’s death sent waves of tion drew 2,500 teenagers from more who are willing to work with kids in sadness and frustration throughout than 25 states to repair the homes. They settings that are comfortable and safe and the community. worked every day from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. well-paying,” says Ghubril. But his early “In the same fi ve-block radius that and lived in the Project’s new “green” mentor, Tony Campolo, then a sociology has 1,500 kids, there are seven gangs,” says dormitory. Complete with recycled rain- professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Ghubril. “We have worked like crazy to water for irrigation and sanitary systems, encouraged him to go where he was most ensure that [our] little campus … is kind solar power, radiant heating and natural needed, and to “think about not just kids of like Switzerland. This is neutral ventilation, the dormitory’s emphasis on in general, but kids in particular who territory.” sustainability is rooted in the organiza- lack the resources that all kids deserve to And even with these efforts, residents tion’s goal of being stewards of both the have in order to grow up healthy and, are cautious. Ghubril relates a story about community and the Earth. hopefully, with a [promising] future.” trying to rally attendance at a block party One-third of the group’s income comes Ghubril decided to focus on Perry earlier this year. His staff went from house from foundations and corporations, while South because, in the mid-1980s, he to house inviting neighbors to come. tuition payments from students involved worked at a church in a suburb north of When responding to questions about in the home repair ministry or participat- Pittsburgh that had an outreach to the safety, the staffers said that there would ing in after-school or summer programs community. And if he was looking for not be police protection at the party, and account for 25 percent. Seventeen percent a setting that was less than safe and some people — including those who lived is from individual donations, and only comfortable, he found it in Perry South. close to the Project — refused to come. 3 percent comes from churches. Eighteen The neighborhood is deeply impover- They were unwilling to walk even two percent is generated from revenue sources ished, with nearly 50 percent of its house- blocks through a rival gang’s territory to such as the café and the smoothie stand, holds earning less than $25,000 per year the organization’s campus. with the remaining 4 percent coming and 45 percent of its children living below Ghubril believes that establishing from a variety of contributions. the poverty line. With an average of three close, working relations with youth and to fi ve homicides annually from 2002

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 20 10/11/08 10:24:32 AM adults was the most challenging part of his work with the Project. He says it took about 13 years before he felt like he was not a stranger, even though his family “Saleem had to adjust to this School of Government, says the Project lives three blocks from the organization’s community,” says Lunsford. “He had is “a faith-based organization that doesn’t headquarters in the old Annunciation to meet the community’s needs for seem like a faith-based organization.” Roman Catholic Church on Charles Street the people who live here.” He explains that, unlike most faith- and his children graduated from Perry For Lunsford, that moment came based groups, which usually are attached High School. in eighth grade, when Pittsburgh was to congregations, the Project is separate “Why did it take so long to earn trust?” experiencing a spike in gang activity. His from a specifi c church or denomination. Ghubril muses. “There has been so much friend Norvel Jennings was shot and killed Compared with its peer organizations, traffi c in and out of communities like in a gang fi ght only three blocks from the it also is focused much less on explicit this … so many great, brilliant ideas pitched Project. After Jennings died, Lunsford religious or devotional rhetoric. Hall and marketed, but so few lasted. So the knew he had to decide whether or not to puts it in the same mold as Habitat for perception here was, ‘You’re going to be follow his friends into gangs. It was the Humanity and the American Friends another one who comes in with his good organization’s infl uence that helped him Service Committee, both faith-based idea, and you’ll do your thing until you to realize he didn’t have to do everything groups with Christian values but an get something better and you won’t last.’ ” his friends were doing. emphasis on human services rather than Despite initial tension between “It’s defi nitely a place that saved on proselytizing. the Project and local residents, Ghubril my life,” he says. “If it wasn’t for [The Peters believes Ghubril and The eventually earned the neighborhood’s Pittsburgh Project], I’d either be dead Pittsburgh Project have tapped into a respect, says Keith Lunsford, 27, who or in jail.” rich American tradition of faith-based was involved with the organization as Peter Dobkin Hall, senior research organizations serving at the forefront a youth and now is on staff. fellow and an expert on nonprofi t of most social movements, including the organizations at Harvard’s Kennedy

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 21 10/11/08 10:24:33 AM The Project’s YouthBuild program requires students to use the building-trade skills they’re learning to provide affordable housing in the community. Above, Beverly Hardrick, 21, is helping to tear down a wall in a donated house that is being gutted and renovated by students. The work is scheduled to be completed this fall, and the house will be sold at cost to a family that lost its home in a fi re. Below, Hardrick, front, and Todd Thomas, 17, remove debris from the same house.

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 22 10/11/08 10:24:33 AM “I think to understand [The Pittsburgh Project’s] impact, you need to imagine 23 Abolition Movement, Prohibition and the Civil Rights Movement. He has a special what that neighborhood name for the type of work the Project performs: public ministry. If the role of would be like without the the church is to call people together to pray, he explains, then the role of public presence of that institution.” ministry is to call them together to work Gregg Behr, executive director, the Grable Foundation and serve. “It is out of this tradition that clergy like Saleem get a sense of passion and Ghubril and the Project’s team have $1 million in grants. “I think to under- urgency,” Peters says. “The bottom line for embedded themselves in the Perry South stand its impact, you need to imagine [the Project] is really getting people to and Perry Hilltop neighborhoods in a way what that neighborhood would be like know one another, so that the elderly — few other community organizations have without the presence of that institution,” rather than sitting in dilapidated houses matched. In addition to Ghubril and his says Behr. behind closed doors with a leaky ceiling family, two-thirds of the staff members As Ghubril assumes a new role in and a toilet that doesn’t work, and fearing live within walking distance of the organi- the city, he leaves behind a homegrown the young people outside — can actually zation’s campus, allowing them to under- group of young leaders to carry on his remember that there are young people stand the community, its residents and its work in Perry South. They include the who are not intimidating, who are willing challenges on a personal level. Reid brothers, who recently returned from to help.” “They have high ideals and high a tour of duty with the U.S. Marines in The organization is guided by the visions, but then at the same time, the Iraq and spent the summer working with philosophy of John Perkins, a Mississippi- organization’s staff and board are well middle and high school students as born minister recognized in many grounded,” says Hank Buekema, executive Project staffers. religious circles as an expert on applying director of the McCune Foundation, one “You’re not [doing this] because of Biblical principles to community of the Project’s supporters. “They are the paycheck. You do it because this is development efforts in impoverished realistic: They don’t lose track of who they what you want to do,” says Josh Reid. areas. Perkins’ approach is based on what are, what they are doing and who the He and his brother believe that they have he calls “the three R’s” of community people are that they work with. Saleem to give something back after benefi ting development: relocation into communi- brings some unique qualities to that work. from Project opportunities. But that also ties of need; reconciliation between God Other people put it up on the chalkboard, means that, at some point, the twins will and people and among individuals across but they don’t execute it the way he does.” have to part with the organization again, racial, ethnic and economic lines; and Gregg Behr, executive director of the at least temporarily, as they make plans redistribution of resources to benefi t Grable Foundation, puts the organization to attend college. low-income areas. on a par with successful community “There’s no way you can come programs like Harlem Children’s Zone through The Pittsburgh Project,” says in New York. Since 1994, Grable has Justin Reid, “and not be motivated to do supported the Project with more than something in life.” h

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 23 10/11/08 10:24:38 AM 3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 24 10/11/08 10:24:38 AM o the famous cosmetic conundrum— “Does she … or doesn’t she?” 25 — Sheila Fine answered in the stylish affi rmative for over a decade. But on April 20,2007, the 68-year-old Pittsburgher summoned the courage to say goodbye to dye. • Fine knew the over- the-counter cream that regularly turned her gray hair brown added more than conditioners and color. Analysis by a cosmetic safety database had linked it to cancer, neurotoxicity and chemicals that disrupt hormonal function, and warned that the effects lingered in body tissues. • “When I would sit there getting my hair colored, the chemicals would soon turn dark brown, and they dyed my scalp, as well as my hair. And the rest went down the drain. Just think about all the products we put on our skin: hormone replacement therapy patches, acne creams, antibiotic creams, cor- tisone creams,” says the Fine Family Foundation board member. “I didn’t like the idea of this dye entering my system.” • The event that pulled the trigger on Fine’s decision to ditch the dye was Pittsburgh’s fi rst conference on Women’s Health & the Environment, held last year. She was among 2,300 participants who eagerly crowded Pittsburgh’s convention center to learn about the environmental hazards women are exposed to every day — even in their cosmetics — and the immediate actions they can take to protect themselves and their families. The conference was co-sponsored by Teresa Heinz, The Heinz Endowments, the Johnson Family Foundation and Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC. • “We did not just talk about being smarter consumers. That’s important, but we wanted to make it clear that we could not shop our way out of this crisis,” says Teresa Heinz. “We need smart science and smart policy, as well as smart consumers. And on all three fronts, we wanted women to feel empowered — as individuals and as a group.”

Nobody wants to believe that deciding to use a popular perfume or munch on a tasty snack could make you sick. But a growing body of research is now available to show women how to make healthier choices for themselves and their families. Those in Pittsburgh also have had the chance to learn more at two “new science, new solutions” conferences held in the city. By Christine H. O’Toole

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 25 10/11/08 10:24:41 AM Personal Care Products Synthetic chemicals can cause reproductive and systemic problems, and can be diffi cult to avoid because of their prevalence in products such as plastic containers, cosmetics and hair dyes.

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The conference jump-started John Peterson Myers, a speaker at 18 months of grassroots efforts to last year’s conference and founder and encourage women who attended the CEO of Environmental Health Sciences, event to continue making choices that notes that diseases he refers to as “today’s protect their health. Organizers of these activi- epidemics”— hormone-related cancers, ties have seen an increased desire among women in endometriosis, infertility, obesity, diabetes and the Pittsburgh area to learn and do more to live healthier. asthma — are being linked to this process of bioaccumu- This work was amplifi ed at a second regional conference held in lation. Also of concern are endocrine disruptors, which are Pittsburgh in September. synthetic chemicals that act like natural hormones in the body, “Mrs. Heinz recognized that the fi rst conference motivated but can trigger a variety of reproductive and systemic problems. women in southwestern Pennsylvania to get involved with Found in products like plastic containers, cosmetics, hair dyes, environmental health concerns that were not being adequately fl ame retardants, pesticides and herbicides, their prevalence addressed,” says Caren Glotfelty, director of the Endowments’ makes it diffi cult for a consumer to dodge their effects. Opening illustration by Jessica Allen; spot illustrations Janell Genovese Environment Program. “This next conference enabled us to “We are beginning to understand that very low doses at the build on that energy and momentum with information on the wrong time, even early in embryonic development, can have most up-to-date science and public policy and with even more profound effects,” says Devra Davis, director of the Center for practical measures women can take to protect their health.” Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Fine agrees that the women’s health conference last year Institute. She cites research presented at a recent conference, helped solidify some of her thoughts about taking steps to which reported four cases of infertility in granddaughters of improve her health, including the resolution to no longer dye women who took the synthetic hormone diethylstilbestrol, or her hair. “Why keep contributing to something that is putting DES, during their pregnancies. The drug had already been proven toxins in my body and our environment?” to impair the reproductive system of the women’s daughters, but She’s stepping back from an all-American belief in better the new study showed that its effects persisted decades later into living through chemistry, and her simple personal decision feels a third generation. At the same conference, researchers reported right. “It would be obsessive and diffi cult to ‘cold-turkey’ every- cases of ovarian cancer in pre-pubescent girls as young as 10. thing,” she argues. “But if we do some homework and slowly “That, I think, has been really shocking but not surprising,” adjust what we use and purchase for ourselves and our family, says Davis, who also was a speaker at both women’s health change is very workable.” As for her image transformation, conferences in Pittsburgh. “We could make sense of those rare from “bottle brunette” to all natural, she says with a laugh, events, because we had prior evidence on DES. That is a signal “It’s the most liberating thing I’ve ever done.” that there may be other serious long-term hazards out there, and Environmental health researchers say toxins that enter we must pay more attention. We’ve made progress in stepping the human body at very low levels — what scientists call back from the paradigm that says the only proof [of environ- “physiological levels” — can persist over time, triggering disease mental hazards] that we can accept is sick or dead people.” or change at the cellular level years or even generations after Ann McGuinn, a board member with the city’s Children’s initial exposure. Institute, is among those who see the need for more consumer information as a call to action.

Christine O’Toole is a Pittsburgh-based freelance writer and frequent contributor to h. Her most recent story for the magazine, published in this year’s Spring issue, was about the Endowments’ Pathways to Educational Excellence initiative benefi ting the Pittsburgh Public Schools.

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 26 10/11/08 10:24:42 AM Joshua Franzos

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“We were all at a tipping point,” recalls McGuinn of her Endowments-supported informational sessions on practical strategies impressions after the fi rst Pittsburgh conference. “We were like for protecting health sparked lively discussions throughout the spring and summer in Pittsburgh. Among the speakers at a June 25 session spokes of the wheel, coming from different directions to the called “Safe Air Quality: Is it OK to Inhale?” were Caren Glotfelty, top same conclusion: that toxicity in our environment has dramati- left, the Endowments’ Environment Program director; Rachel Filippini, top center, executive director of the Group Against Smog and Pollution, cally affected family and women’s health. So that [conference] or GASP; Conrad Schneider, bottom center, advocacy director for Clean was a pivotal moment, to have this information presented Air Task Force; and Ashleigh Deemer, bottom left, program organizer without sugar coating. But the speakers also talked about solu- for Clean Water Action. To the right, audience members at the meeting discuss the presentations. tions — that struck all of us. They’re not just worrying about air and water, women’s cancers and decreasing fertility for men and women — which all make perfect sense, once you understand Magee sends home tips on environmental health with the what’s happening with the chemistry — but suggesting ways that families of all newborns — a massive audience, since half of all we can protect ourselves.” Pittsburghers have been born at the hospital. Its safe cosmetics McGuinn has taken the helm of an ad hoc women’s network workshops are attracting teenagers, and it is developing an online on the environment and women’s health to organize more public tool kit for obstetricians to use to understand environmental information sessions and to ask public health offi cials, school health risks. administrators and legislators to respond to these issues, stressing This year, the hospital also is partnering with the Endowments concrete solutions. to offer small-scale information sessions that tie today’s alarming Magee-Womens Hospital offi cials have folded environmental headlines to research updates and safe, practical strategies for pro- issues into patient and staff education programs since 2005. The tecting health. More than 100 savvy consumers have turned up at hospital is a member of the network and coordinated plans for each of the weekday-evening meetings to ask pointed questions. the second citywide conference (see sidebar “The Next Chapter”). Organizers of the May 15 safe food session must have seemed In recognition of its early leadership on environmental issues prescient. Just fi ve weeks later, a salmonella scare squashed sales (see “Nature and Nurture,” Winter 2007, h magazine), Magee of fresh tomatoes nationwide. The federal government warning shared a national award from the Environmental Protection to avoid certain tomatoes was lifted in July, though offi cials Agency last year with Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC. continued to caution against eating hot peppers into August. They were two of only 10 organizations that received a Children’s But in the spring, those fi lling the audi torium at the Carnegie Environmental Health Excellence Award for outstanding commit- Science Center auditorium weren’t worried about tainted ment to protecting children from environmental health risks. produce. They were seeking “reasonable choices for healthy Joyce Lewis, Magee’s director of community families,” as the program was billed. and governmental affairs, says she’s noticed that consumer knowledge is already increasing. “In our pre-natal and baby Air Quality basics classes, folks come in with There’s no question that Pittsburgh’s skies more information — especially are a lot clearer than they were more than 50 years ago. But the region’s level of when there’s an item on the news,” microscopic pollutants is so high that an she says. “People are calling our American Lung Association study found it education department and had the worst 24-hour soot levels of any metropolitan area in the country this year. enrolling for workshops. They’re paying attention.”

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 27 10/11/08 10:24:42 AM Diet As a growing number of families become more conscious about the quality of their food, nutrition experts are touting the advantages of locally grown produce, vegetables cultivated without pesticides and antibiotic-free meat.

Colorful handouts from humans. “MRSA [methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus] Pittsburgh’s Rachel Carson now kills more people than AIDS. The national estimate for 2005 Institute offered suggestions for was more than double the MRSA prevalence of 2000.” growing native plants, a primer on While an individual response might be to become vegetarian, pesticides and an overview of endo- a common-sense community response is a change in food safety crine disruptors. Everyday action tips included admonitions such regulations. Audience member Jeanne Clark of PennFuture, an as, “Do not give young children soft plastic teethers,” and “Grow environmental action group, gave participants an update on more vegetables to reduce your shopping bill, increase the quality pending Pennsylvania legislation that would ban the use of anti- of the food you eat and reduce global warming” by reducing biotics on healthy animals in livestock factories and volunteered the energy consumed by trucking produce across the country. a Web site address, www.keepantibioticsworking.org, which The pamphlets emphasized common-sense solutions to could provide background on the issue. growing problems. Another national health issue with regional implications, David and Theresa Kantz of Wexford settled into their seats, safe air, was discussed at a session on June 25. The Endowments’ seeking ways to raise their garden vegetables without pesticides. Glotfelty introduced the program with a rueful acknowledge- Theresa, a nurse with Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, a large ment: “Once again, Pittsburgh is right there at the top of the list regional health insurer, says she’s also buying more organic of metro areas with the worst air quality.” foods and is taking classes in macrobiotic cooking. From 2003 to 2005, the region’s air-quality monitors Sitting a few rows away and equally vigilant about her recorded the nation’s highest levels of fi ne-particle pollution, family’s diet was Karina Winters-Hart, with sons Andrew and which can pass invisibly into human lungs and bloodstreams. Alex in tow. Andrew, age 7, has a nut allergy, which makes him Pollution, too, is a women’s health issue: Long-term exposure part of a growing demographic. In the past fi ve years, the inci- to fi ne-particle air pollution is associated with a higher incidence dence of peanut allergies has doubled, according to the Food of cardiovascular disease and death among post-menopausal Allergies and Anaphylaxis Network, and research is investigating women. And overall, southwestern Pennsylvania leads the nation whether environmental factors may be a cause. in deaths linked to particulates from coal-powered power plants. Due to what George Washington University nurse practi- “I work as a respiratory therapist, and I have a respiratory tioner Barbara Boston calls the “focusing” of contemporary diets, problem,” says Brenda Patrick, 50, who lives in the Pittsburgh our immune systems are less able to deal with the constant infl ux suburb of Penn Hills. “My husband, my daughter and my son of the same foods. The more a pregnant woman eats certain all have respiratory issues. I was surprised [to learn] about the processed foods, particularly those with known allergens like nuts, particulate problem. We ignore the problem when we can’t see it. the more likely her fetus may become sensitized to that food. That has to change.” The speaker that evening was Lance Price, director of the The desire of Patrick and the others to learn more and to Center for Metagenomics and Human Health at the Translational protect their patients and families is a trend that the Center for Genomics Research Institute in Phoenix, Ariz. The center applies Environmental Oncology’s Davis believes has become wide- fi ndings of the Human Genome Project to the development of spread, increasing the need for sharing practical ways to make diagnostics, prognostics and therapies for cancer, neurological healthier life choices. disorders, diabetes and other complex diseases. “The preventive thrust hits home with a lot of people,” Price delivered an arresting statistic to the group in his says Davis. “We are asking, ‘Isn’t it time for us to build fences to discussion of the links between antibiotics used in industrial keep people from falling off the cliff?’ There’s a sense that we’re meat production and the leap in antibiotic-resistant infections in fi guring out how to build those fences.” h

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 28 10/11/08 10:24:45 AM Top and bottom right: Hundreds of women snapped up all the materials they could on protecting their health and were enthusiastically engaged in the presentations at last year’s conference. Co-sponsor Teresa Heinz, bottom left, urged women in the audience to work together on addressing environmental health risks.

Conference Highlights 29 Last year, Pittsburgh’s fi rst Women’s Health & Othe Environment7 conference drew nearly 2,300 people to listen to experts from around the country discuss the best thinking in health, public policy and advocacy.

Joshua Franzos

Pittsburgh’s second “Women’s Health & Among other speakers were Charlotte THE NEXT the Environment: New Science, New Brody, executive director of Commonweal, Solutions” conference was held Sept. 25, a California environmental health and CHAPTER 2008, at the David L. Lawrence research group; Jane Houlihan of the Convention Center. More than 2,100 Environmental Working Group; Bruce Hill, people showed up to continue the senior scientist for the Clean Air Task discussion about envi ronmental health Force; Conrad “Dan” Volz of the University risks and the pro tective steps women of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of can take that was launched during the Public Health; and Carolyn Raffensperger fi rst standing-room-only conference at of the Science and Environmental the convention center. Organizers of Health Network. that inaugural event turned away “Because women use more cosmetics 400 would-be participants. This year’s and personal and household products conference took a more in-depth look than men, we have greater exposure to at environmental hazards in air, water, chemicals that cause cancer and other food and personal care products. illnesses,” notes Teresa Heinz, who again Keynoting the all-day session was co-sponsored the conference along with Nancy Nichols, a Boston journalist and The Heinz Endowments and Magee- pancreatic cancer survivor whose book, Womens Hospital of UPMC. “Because “Lake Effect: Two Sisters and a Town’s of our physiology, we are especially Toxic Legacy,” will debut this fall. vulnerable to those exposures. And Moderating the morning and afternoon because of our gender, medical science sessions was Bev Smith, a popular radio until recently had little interest in the commentator on the American Urban unique ways in which our bodies react Radio Networks. Diane MacEachern, to various types of medicine, chemicals author of “Big Green Purse: Use Your and pollutants. … Our goal with this Spending Power to Create a Cleaner, conference was to link what we know Greener World,” delivered the day’s about the challenges facing women’s closing address. health with actions we can take to meet those challenges.”

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 29 10/11/08 10:24:45 AM AFTER YEARS OF BEING SHUT OUT ON MAJOR BUILDING CONTRACTS IN PITTSBURGH, SOME MINORITY- AND WOMEN-OWNED FIRMS ARE FINALLY GETTING A BIGGER SHARE OF LOCAL CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS. A FOUNDATION-SUPPORTED PROGRAM IS HELPING THEM OBTAIN THE BONDING THEY NEED SO THEY CAN BID BONDON THE JOBS THEY WANT. BY JEFFERY FRASER PHOTOGRAPHY BY TERRY CLARK SHELTER 30

Contractor Rebecca Elstner examines an emergency roof repair that her fi rm has completed at the U.S. Army Reserve Center in Washington, Pa. On the roof are Dave Horvat, left, and John Biggio, inspectors from the 99th Regional Readiness Command of the Army Reserve in Coraopolis. As a woman contractor, Elstner had to overcome many obstacles to get her company off the ground, including diffi culty in obtaining the bonding needed to bid on projects.

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I COULDN’T GET A BIG JOB. I WAS STUCK DOING A WHOLE LOT OF LITTLE STUFF AND JUST RUNNING CRAZY BECAUSE I COULDN’T GET BONDING TO BE THE PRIME [CONTRACTOR]. Rebecca Elstner, president, Elstner Construction Co.

Rebecca Elstner and Army Reserve staff Dave Horvat, left, and John Biggio take their inspection of the U.S. Army Reserve Center in Washington, Pa., indoors. In addition to roof repairs, Elstner’s construction company completed renovations of the facility that included painting, removing asbestos and installing new fl ooring throughout. It’s the type of large-scale project her fi rm now bids on because she can get bonding with the help of a foundation-supported program.

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ebecca Elstner had just graduated from high school when she got into the construction industry at age 17. She learned to fi nish interiors while on the job, working long hours on back-aching tasks until she was able to fi nish drywall with the best of the men who worked alongside her.

She started her own company in 2000 to allow for a more A performance bond guarantees that the contractor will complete fl exible schedule after she was granted custody of her grand- the contract according to its terms, including price and time. daughter. More than once, she fashioned a playpen from plastic Most minority- and women-owned companies in south- buckets so she could watch the child while completing a job. western Pennsylvania haven’t acquired the levels of experience She sold her Harley-Davidson motorcycle — “the dream of my and fi nancial capacity necessary to be considered for large jobs life” — to buy a house she hoped would make her more fi nan- as prime contractors. And contractors short on experience cially stable in the eyes of surety companies, whose blessing she and capacity are not likely to secure the bonding many of those needed to secure the bonding necessary to bid as a prime con- jobs require. tractor on jobs that could ease her struggle to make ends meet. “You’ve got to bid to win, and you’ve got to have a bond And yet, time and again, bid and performance bonds — and to bid,” says Clarence Curry, senior diversity coordinator with the commercial construction jobs that required them — eluded the Sports & Exhibition Authority of Pittsburgh and Allegheny her. “I couldn’t get a big job,” says Elstner, a lifelong Pittsburgher County, which is overseeing construction of the new $300 million whose parents came to the city from Mexico. “I was stuck doing a hockey arena in the city’s Hill District neighborhood. The arena whole lot of little stuff and just running crazy because I couldn’t is part of a recent citywide building boom that also includes get bonding to be the prime [contractor].” construction of the August Wilson African American Cultural Bonding is a hurdle most of the estimated 400 minority Center and a tunnel beneath the Allegheny River connecting and women contractors in the region are unable to clear, leaving downtown to Pittsburgh’s North Shore. them on the outside looking in when contracts for large com- For Marc Little, being denied a performance bond on a mercial or publicly fi nanced projects are awarded. A bid bond contract worth about $1.5 million to his company, Lorraine guarantees that a contractor will honor the bid he or she submits. Construction, was an eye-opener. “I knew then I had limitations,”

Jeff Fraser is a Pittsburgh-based freelance writer and frequent contributor to h. His last article, published in this year’s Spring issue, was about the science-based methods used to manage deer populations in Pennsylvania.

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says Little. “I knew I’d be in a subcontractor role for most of my Seventeen bonds were issued to those contractors for construc- business career without the right surety and the proper fi nancing. tion jobs they were awarded. The total value of those contracts “Every high-profi le project that we wanted to bid on that exceeded $7.4 million. required a bond was a hurdle for me. I tried everything I could To help cash-strapped contractors pay their bills at the as a business owner in terms of joint-venture relationships, in start of a job, the program includes a $2 million loan fund with terms of building equity in my company by performing jobs. the nonprofi t Community Loan Fund. Another partner, the But it was to no avail. I couldn’t build up enough quickly University of Pittsburgh’s Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of enough. I had to seek other options.” Business, designed a building trades–specifi c curriculum for Those options included creating the Minority & Women contractors that includes instruction on issues ranging from Educational Labor Agency, a nonprofi t focused on improving basic bookkeeping to strategies for growing their business. the participation of minorities and women in the building Twenty-one contractors graduated from the program in July. trades. Last year, the organization began a sheltered bond pro- “Foundations, in particular, feel a need to fi nd ways to lift all gram to address issues that block companies like Little’s and boats and address issues to make sure there is opportunity for Elstner’s from growing, even when most multi-million-dollar all people in the economy,” says Christina Gabriel, director of public projects embrace goals for hiring fi rms like theirs. the Endowments’ Innovation Economy Program, which gave The program is built around a $1 million bond fund that $200,000 to support the sheltered bond program last year. “We surety companies can count as a fi nancial asset of the 25 selected saw this [program] as a way to remove a barrier to participating contractors in the program. Sureties are responsible for paying in the construction industry — a critical industry in the claims against a contractor they’ve bonded who fails to satisfy a region — for a socially diverse group of people who need jobs contract or honor a bid. They look for assurances that contrac- and who would benefi t from economic development.” tors have the experience and resources to complete the job. The private foundation support the sheltered bond program They require collateral, and they investigate a contractor’s work receives also sets it apart from similar efforts across the country experience, the company’s fi nancial stability and the contractor’s that usually rely on government funding. Few foundations in the personal fi nances, including home ownership, credit scores, United States have ventured into the arena of helping minority- and bill and tax payment histories. and women-owned fi rms secure bonding, making the Minority & The sheltered bond program addresses these issues by Women Educational Labor Agency’s approach uniquely compre- helping each participating contractor build up to $1 million in hensive. Little says he’s been talking with state offi cials about bonding capacity backed by the fund, which was created through expanding the program statewide. grants from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and “I wish every contractor who wants to jump into the fray Economic Development and philanthropies such as The Heinz would have access to something like it,” says Don Morse, surety Endowments and the Pittsburgh and Richard King Mellon foun- bond manager for the Harrisburg-based Aegis Security dations. The fund makes it more likely that small contractors will Insurance Co., which is working with contractors in the program. secure bonding for jobs because, if necessary, a surety company Minority and women contractors across the nation have long can draw on the fund to pay any claim fi led against contractors struggled to claim a fair share of the construction market. In one in the program. This enables the surety to take on a higher level study, Pitt researchers found that minority businesses accounted of risk than it would ordinarily take. for only 3 percent of the prime contracts worth $25,000 or more In a little less than 10 months, Elstner and seven other awarded in 2004 by local governments in Pittsburgh and participating contractors had secured their fi rst bid or perfor- Allegheny County. The problem, they discovered, was that few mance bond with the backing of the sheltered bond fund. minority fi rms bid on the contracts for reasons that included not

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 34 10/11/08 10:25:00 AM Marc Little, executive director of the Minority & Women Educational Labor Agency, discusses the day’s business during a staff meeting at the nonprofi t’s offi ce in Pittsburgh’s Lawrenceville neighborhood.

EVERY HIGH-PROFILE PROJECT THAT WE WANTED TO BID ON THAT REQUIRED A BOND WAS A HURDLE FOR ME. I TRIED EVERYTHING I COULD AS A BUSINESS OWNER IN TERMS 35 OF JOINT-VENTURE RELATIONSHIPS, IN TERMS OF BUILDING EQUITY IN MY COMPANY BY PERFORMING JOBS. BUT IT WAS TO NO AVAIL. Marc Little, executive director, Minority & Women Educational Labor Agency

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Copyright © Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2008, all rights reserved. Reprinted with permission. or promote reform thewidespread Clinton feltwasneeded. criticism, for itscause widespread butdidlittleto support rally more than$250,000between 1996and1998. contractor whohadreceived construction contract acity worth failedto fi Pittsburgh of the City orwoman minority nd asingle stadium. Later thatyear, analysiscommissioned by adisparity them offering “pass-through” payments for not working onthe andwomen contractors forminority by set-asiderules the city suggested that, insomecases, hadbeenmadeto skirt efforts African of wereAmericans goingto stay thesame.” difference between whethertheeconomic level andpoverty level anddevelop to careers betrained tunity thatcould meanthe their men, theirwomen whowere notgoing to gettheoppor- becauseitwastheirchildren,our efforts community inparticular, to support at large, andto the African-American inde pendent, union. Pittsburgh-based Clinton Sr., the founderandpresident of never materialized, says K. Calvin project, opportunities butthetraining them for construction jobsonthe apprenticeshipsthat would prepare they were hopingto gothrough theunionbecause point, upwith signed nearly800individuals park. thebaseball well ascontracts intheconstruction of At one werethat blackpeople beingdeniedskilledlaborpositionsas baseball stadiumsite where hadsetuppickets, they claiming were arrested forpreventing access Pirates to thePittsburgh not worthwhile. practices madebidding thatdiscriminatory projects andbelief contactsbeing aware related opportunities, lackof to the of The PNCPark protest dates theunioncourt and bought In 2000, lawsuits Post-Gazette andaPittsburgh investigation “We appealedto thecommunity In the 1999, African-American membersof Workers Union TO BETRAINEDANDDEVELOP CAREERS. . . . WHOWERENOT GOINGTO GET THEOPPORTUNITY ITWASTHEIRCHILDREN,MEN,WOMEN IN PARTICULAR, TO SUPPORT OUREFFORTS BECAUSE ANDTO THEAFRICAN-AMERICANCOMMUNITY WE APPEALEDTO THECOMMUNITY AT LARGE, Calvin K.ClintonSr. African-AmericanWorkers, founderandpresident, Union owned owned companies contractors onsmallercontractsfor asprime andwomen-addition, hopesto recruit minority- theauthority companies. don’t Subcontractors typically need bonding. In andwomen-owned theirwork tocontract ashare minority- of contractors whoare prime owned given largecontractsto sub- contracts, inexcess someworth $10million. of and women contractors. That’s more than$100millionin thework 35percent to minority set-aside goalscallforgiving of contractors iscompleted, &Exhibition theSports Authority’s 4.7 percent, goingto women-owned fi percent, contractors andnearly$6million, goingto minority or were awarded thissummer, more than$32million, with or25.4 Review Commission.today EqualOpportunity doneby thecity were contracts, city met, which is of monitoring includingtighter ensuing controversy, steps were taken to better assure thosegoals more than$250,000. contractsof Followingcity theprotest and and7percent 18percent on femaleparticipation minority of participating.” Americans African even inthe community,African-American fi will ing. Anybody whodrives by, walks by aconstruction site today, To meetset-asidegoals, majority- isrequiring theauthority The fi Before thestadiumconstruction, already thecity hadagoal rst trade contractsforthenewPenguinsrst trade hockey arena stand upto thatwrong, it’s frustrat- population thatdoesn’t wantto is defi not wantto rectify somethingthat “When you have thatdoes acity the baseballstadium’sconstruction. skilled laborjobsandcontractsin beingdenied said blackpeoplewere the siteofPNCPark.Theprotestors 1999 afterpicketingpeacefullyat inJuly Workers arrested Unionwere Nine membersoftheAfrican-American nitely wrong, andyou have a rms. When theselectionof nd very few few nd very 01/81:50 AM 10:25:03 10/11/08 37

interior fi nishing, painting, drywall and other work. Those prime Those courses inspired Sandy Burkett to think more c ontractors will need to secure bonding. broadly about growing her custom sign business. “It’s The Minority & Women Educational Labor Agency’s certainly going to encompass a market segment that I might program is the chief reason Aegis has bonded eight participating not have focused on. I’m doing a lot of corporations and contractors since last August. “From my memory, there probably small businesses. That might open the door for me with the is only one [contractor] who we might have bonded outside construction industry, if I have that capability and under- of the program,” says Morse. “All of the other ones we would standing and I’ve built that bonding capacity.” not have done without the backing and the support the Her Robinson-based company, Vital Signs, was bonded program offers.” through the program for a job supplying the August Wilson Because the program leverages bonds for all 25 participating Center with interior signs. contractors, any claims against one or more contractors pose a “The goal is to help these businesses bid and complete risk to the health of the $1 million bond fund. To lessen that risk, the jobs successfully so that they can go on to bid on other full-time inspectors and a control fund manager monitor each larger jobs, build a track record and build equity in their job, including progress, income and expenses. businesses,” says Jane Downing, who as senior program Inspectors visit job sites at least once every two weeks. And offi cer for Economics and Community Development at payments pass through the control fund manager who checks to The Pittsburgh Foundation helped to raise money for the make sure bills are being paid and the job is on schedule before sheltered bond fund. “I’m fairly optimistic that, over time, paying the contractor. So far, no claims have been fi led against we are going to be able to help connect the dots and help any of the bonds issued through the program using this system these businesses grow.” of quality control. Elstner is the poster child for that potential. She started at The fi nancial help that the Community Loan Fund provides the bottom of the drywall business as the teenage bride of a includes offering short-term loans to contractors who need cash construction worker with a jealous streak. “When he went to to help them get through the early weeks of a job, when startup work, he took me with him. So I learned how to fi nish dry- expenses, such as payroll and supplies, are incurred before the wall. I wasn’t going to sit there and do nothing all day.” fi rst job payment rolls in. She stuck with the trade after divorcing her husband “If you can fi nd fi nancing and get bonding, you’ll get more and overcame nearly two decades of fi nancial hardship that contracts. And if you get more contracts, you’ll get more revenue, comes with being limited to small contracts and having bond and you can bid on the next larger contract,” says Mark Peterson, applications denied one after another. Less than one year Community Loan Fund president. “The contracting business is after joining the sheltered bond program, she’s working as a really incremental growth.” prime contractor. She’s had seven contracts bonded worth Contractors in the sheltered bond program go through a six- $5.5 million, and, by the end of this year, her company will month curriculum that staff at the Institute of Entrepreneurial do more than $7 million in business, topping her previous Excellence in Pitt’s Katz Graduate School of Business designed to record of $280,000. give them the basics of running a business and a hand with “Without bonding, you don’t get those jobs. You go plotting a course toward future growth. and beg for work, and you have to take it for what they give,” “It’s not all about the day-to-day, putting out the fi res, getting says Elstner. But now those days appear to be behind her. the work done,” says Christine Kush, associate director of the “This job turned into that job. It just all of a sudden started institute. “That’s very important, but you do have to take time to [to improve].” h work on your business, to work ahead and incorporate strategy in your business.”

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 37 10/11/08 10:25:04 AM Mary Mazziotti The 57-year-old visual artist employs ingenuity as well as creativity in her work by searching diligently for programs to further develop her craft. Using an Endowments-funded Greater Pittsburgh Artist Opportunity Grant of $1,200 that she received last year, Mazziotti participated in the Sydney Olympic Park Residency Program in Australia.

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 38 10/11/08 10:25:04 AM Thanks to foundation support, more artists, like suit-clad corporate employees, are signing up for professional training. Because many don’t have the money to pay for programs to improve their craft, philanthropies in Pittsburgh and elsewhere are stepping in to cover the bill. by Monica Haynes photography by Karen Meyers

39

individual investment

M ary Mazziotti walks over to the bookcase in her Pittsburgh studio and picks up a round plastic container with a taupe-colored lid. It’s the kind that might normally hold leftover peas or chicken salad. However, in this instance it is fi lled with clear glass beads bearing the numbers 1 to 122 painted in red. She takes a few beads out and scatters them along the baseboards to demonstrate how she plans to use them in a future installation. The numbers represent the human life span from one year to the age of the oldest person on record. “You see a random number and pick it up. Any of those numbers could be your number,” she explains.

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 39 10/11/08 10:25:07 AM More precisely, any of them could be when your number opportunities to seize: jury shows, galleries, residencies. One is up, according to the current theme of Mazziotti’s work. It’s that she availed herself of last year was the Greater Pittsburgh called “memento mori,” a genre of art that started in classical Artist Opportunity Grant awarded by the Greater Pittsburgh Greece and Rome and is intended to remind people of their Arts Council and funded by The Heinz Endowments. mortality. Mazziotti used the $1,200 she received to participate in “All through history, you’ll fi nd artwork that has references the Sydney Olympic Park Residency Program in Australia. to death,” Mazziotti says. “That is to remind you to either seize “[The Artist Opportunity grant] is one of the very few out there the day or repent.” that gives money to individual artists,” she says. The 57-year-old visual artist, who works in a variety of As arts groups and venues across the country grapple with media from acrylic paint on panels to embroidered textiles, attracting patrons during an economic downturn, individual spends two to three hours a day perusing the Internet for artists often feel the fi nancial pinch more acutely as they try to

Monica Haynes is a feature writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. This is her fi rst story for h magazine.

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 40 10/11/08 10:25:07 AM Cathleen Richardson Bailey Last year, writer and visual artist Cathleen Richardson Bailey spent a week at a writers’ conference at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico being inspired by the landscape that inspired painter Georgia O’Keefe. “From the time I got there it was just an amazing boost to me and my writing career,” Bailey says. It’s a chance she never would have received without philanthropic support that included a $670 Greater Pittsburgh Artist Opportunity Grant. 41 While at the conference, Bailey was encouraged by two people she met to apply for fi ne arts graduate programs. In a recently released National Endowment for the Arts She did and was accepted into the Master of Fine Arts report titled “Artists in the Workforce 1995 – 2005,” Dan Gioia, program at the University of Southern Maine, where she is studying creative writing. It’s a “low-residency” program the organization’s chairman, writes: “The time has come to that requires students to visit the Maine campus only twice insist on an obvious but overlooked fact — artists are workers. a year for in-depth workshops. In the meantime, each student They make things and perform services, just like other workers, is paired with an instructor for one-on-one exchanges via and these goods and services have value — not merely in lofty telephone and e-mail. “This is something I’ve always wanted to pursue,” spiritual terms but also in dollars and cents.” she says. Artists contribute not only to the cultural vitality of the The 57-year-old artist, who grew up on Pittsburgh’s country, he says, but also to its economic prosperity. North Side and now lives in the city’s Homewood neighbor- Despite these endorsements, individual artists have had hood, has written stories since she was a little girl. But her their share of diffi culties over the last two decades trying to gain life took a different artistic path, she says, and she pursued beadwork, quilting and doll making, which she teaches. Last support. The “culture wars” of the 1990s that drew the arts into year, Bailey, a mother of four adult daughters, returned to the political debates about values and morality also led Congress to University of Pittsburgh to fi nish her undergraduate degree. enact legislation that eliminated NEA funding for individual “I’m largely a self-taught artist so I’ve dealt with a lot of artists except for its literature and translation fellowships and self-doubt,” she says. However, the encouragement she received at the writers’ lifetime achievement honors. retreat and the support of the local artist community have It was partly in response to Congress’s 1995 action that buoyed her spirits and fueled her enthusiasm to complete a private philanthropic groups began to examine how to fi ll the collection of short stories she’s writing. void. Organizations such as LINC — Leveraging Investments in “Pittsburgh is a small town,” Bailey says, “but the arts community rallies around people who are professional, who Creativity — and the Creative Capital Foundation were created are bold, who are fearless about their art, who are interested around this time, and the Urban Institute report “Investing in in sharing their art.” Creativity” was commissioned. The Endowments’ Arts & Culture Program staff also began looking at ways to broaden the foundation’s vision for arts giving. generate income from their work. Although the idea of the “We realized that our defi nition of a vibrant arts ‘ecology’ struggling artist is not new, it can include hardships such as had to include local individual artists,” Sarbaugh says. being unable to afford opportunities to further nurture creative The foundation opted to support the artists by working skills — even while receiving praise for cultural contributions. primarily through intermediaries such as the Greater Pittsburgh In a 1963 speech given in honor of the late poet Robert Arts Council and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in Frost, President John F. Kennedy declared, “I see little of more Amherst, Va., rather than develop the staffi ng and administra- importance to the future of our country and our civilization tive structures that would have been needed to fund artists than full recognition of the place of the artist.” directly. Still, that decision placed the Endowments among the Janet Sarbaugh, senior director of the Endowments’ few foundations in the region to make fi nancial support consis- Arts & Culture Program, describes artists as “the bedrock of tently available for individual artists. So far, it has provided community cultural life.” funding to nearly 200 artists by awarding roughly $2.2 million “Without them, we have no fuel for our many cultural in grants to current and former intermediaries. institutions,” she says. Patrick Jordan, an actor, producer and artistic director of the Pittsburgh theater company barebones productions, says he’s

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benefi ted from such colla borations. He received a $1,000 Artist The Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, an Endowments Opportunity grant from the arts council to travel to Edinburgh, grantee, offers fellowships for residencies to two artists from Scotland, and perform in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, touted each of its member states, which include Pennsylvania, as the largest arts festival in the world. Washington, D.C., New Jersey and New York. The foun dation “There are companies from 40-plus different countries,” also gives an annual cash award to a jazz master in the mid- Jordan says. “I did a lot of networking while I was there. Atlantic region. At the national level, the Multi-Arts Production I saw 30, 40 different shows. Some of them were new works Fund, established by the Rockefeller Foundation in 1988 and that I plan on producing in Pittsburgh, which is one of the administered by the Creative Capital Foundation, assists more exciting things.” individual artists in developing live performance projects. Since the Seattle-based Grantmakers in the Arts held The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts awards individual its fi rst annual conference in 1985, the organization has artists fellowships annually ranging from $5,000 to $10,000. promoted giving to individual artists and encouraging ideas And support in the Pittsburgh region includes $10,000 grants “One of the fi rst things we did was talk to artists about what they needed. One of the things they said they wanted was an opportunity to learn about their fi eld.” Janet Sarbaugh, senior director, The Heinz Endowments’ Arts & Culture Program

for how that can be done, says Anne Focke, the organization’s from The Pittsburgh Foundation, via an anonymous donor, executive director. to three or four local artists. The foundation also funds arts “I think that over the years, giving tended to be to non- organizations. profi t arts institutions, but giving to artists is [one of] the The Heinz family’s interest and support of arts and culture themes that among GIA members has been important from dates back to before the formation of the fi rst Heinz endow- the start,” she says. ment in the 1940s. The mission initially focused on funding And the ways organizations support artists range broadly, major cultural institutions and Pittsburgh’s downtown Cultural Focke notes. The Artists Trust in Seattle, for example, was District, but later broadened to include the support of artists formed by a group of artists and arts supporters more than and the organizations that make their work possible. In 1998, 20 years ago and has granted $3.1 million directly to 1,400 the Endowments began an in-depth review of how it could best Washington state artists. As a coalition of several arts founda- serve individual artists. tions in the San Francisco bay area, the Creative Work Fund “One of the fi rst things we did was talk to artists about what supports collaborations between artists and arts organizations they needed,” Sarbaugh says. “One of the things they said they to create new work. wanted was an opportunity to learn about their fi eld.” That included traveling to other places to present their work, training with master artists and participating in residencies.

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 42 10/11/08 10:25:11 AM Richard Murrell Between teaching the trumpet, playing gigs and tending to his duties as a husband and father of three, Richard Murrell is lucky to have time to breathe much less time to undertake intensive study of a baroque instrument. But in June, Murrell, who lives in Pittsburgh’s Morningside neighborhood, got the chance to spend a week studying with baroque trumpet maestro Barry Baugess at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Oberlin, Ohio, thanks to an $1,100 Greater Pittsburgh Artist Opportunity Grant. “It’s just a fantastic opportunity for me,” says Murrell, who teaches modern trumpet to 25 to 30 students a week and plays on the weekends for suburban Pittsburgh churches such as St. Bernard Roman Catholic Church in Mt. Lebanon and Memorial Park Presbyterian Church in Allison Park. He also has performed with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and with orchestras in Mexico and Iowa in the early days of his career. Murrell, 51, says the grant allowed him to take a week off from his daily obligations to study an instru- ment he’s been enamored with since he was a kid growing up in Muncie, Ind. “I always had an interest in it. I listened to Edward Tarr, one of the pioneers of the revival of the natural, the baroque trumpet,” Murrell says. The distinctive-looking brass instrument is long and has no valves. In 1996, he got the opportunity play with Baugess for a series of baroque performances at Heinz Chapel. “I have progressed steadily over the years from there, and I tried to get more and more instruction and better instruments to play as time allows,” he says. As a result of obtaining the grant and his association with Baugess, Murrell says he was just hired to play for an opera in Philadelphia next May. He is hoping other employment opportunities will arise as a result of his continued training on the baroque trumpet. “Everything is natural in its purest form, like they did it for thousands of years before the valve was invented,” Murrell says. “I do it all with my lips and my wind. It’s a kind of very exacting science.”

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“Artists don’t often get a chance to remove themselves “[The artists] just do whatever they think is important from the day-to-day and reconnect with the kind of immersion for them to do,” says Pleasants. “It’s just very concentrated time, in being an artist that allows a lot of ideas to fl ow,” explains and what happens is they get a momentum going. Because of Susan Blackman, director of arts programs for the Greater that momentum, they just get more work done and more Pittsburgh Arts Council, which has received $131,000 from the high-quality work done.” Endowments since 2004. What the arts council panel looks for He estimates that it costs between $135 and $160 per day in awarding the Artist Opportunity grant, Blackman says, is an for an artist to attend the center, which has an annual budget experience that would not otherwise be available to the artist. of $1 million. Artists who are not being funded are asked to The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts came to the contribute $40 a day to defray the costs. Some are able to pay Endowments’ attention after Craig Pleasants, the center’s and some are not, he says. “Artists don’t often get a chance to remove themselves from the day-to-day and reconnect with the kind of immersion in being an artist that allows a lot of ideas to fl ow.” Susan Blackman, director of arts programs, Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council

program director, served on a panel for the foundation’s Barbara Weissberger, who was a resident at the center last Arts & Culture Program. Pleasants told Sarbaugh about the year, agrees that the conditions there make it easier for artists to Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation’s funding of residencies at nurture their craft. “The setting is bucolic, so there’s a lot about the center for New Jersey artists. Sarbaugh and Endowments it that’s geared toward giving you time, space and environment staff thought the residency program would be a good fi t for to focus on work.” western Pennsylvania artists as well. Another benefi t of the residency is the camaraderie that In the past four years, the Endowments has given a total develops among participants, says the 47-year-old visual artist, of $152,500 to support two-week residencies at the Virginia who moved to Pittsburgh from Hoboken, N.J., six years ago. center for artists from the Pittsburgh region. The center provides “You start to have very fruitful conversations about your living and work space, meals and an environment conducive own work, the work of others, cultural issues in general that to productivity, and can accommodate 23 artists at a time. impact your work. …It’s a very organic thing. It’s not forced.” That number normally includes 10 visual artists, 10 writers Sarbaugh says it’s this kind of feedback that lets her know and three composers. that the Endowments’ relatively small investment has provided big returns in terms of the positive impact on artists. “For many artists, it’s been really important to their careers and their sense that they can live and work in Pittsburgh and succeed.” h

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 44 10/11/08 10:25:15 AM financial summary

Total Grants for 2007: $84.1 million 45

By Program Area (in millions)

Arts & Culture $18.2

Children, Youth & Families $15.2

Civic Design $0.7

Education $10.7

Environment $10.5

Innovation Economy $28.8

Historical Perspective: 2003 – 07

Total Approved 07 $84.1 Grants (in millions) 06 $57.2 05 $57.4 04 $53.1 03 $51.9

Total Net Assets 07 $1.6 (in billions) 06 $1.5 05 $1.4 04 $1.3 03 $1.3

The 2007 amounts indicated on this fi nancial summary have not yet been audited. The most recent certifi ed fi nancial statements and 990-PF forms are available on the Financials page of our Web site at www.heinz.org/about_fi nancials.aspx.

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 45 10/11/08 10:25:15 AM 2007 grants

46 ARTS & CULTURE Bodiography Contemporary Cave Canem Foundation Duquesne University Ballet Co. To support the 2007 summer To support the 2007 Jazz Afrika Yetu Inc. For a promotional video workshop / retreat and Fiddle Camp To support the Artistic $8,200 $20,000 $3,000 Excellence & International Education Exchange & Brew House Association Children’s Festival Chorus Focus on Renewal Mentoring Program To support the new position For 2007 through 2009 For a feasibility study on $20,000 of executive director programming the youth arts center $75,000 $75,000 $25,000 Andrew Carnegie Free Library To support the library and Brew House Association City of Pittsburgh Gateway to the Arts, Inc. music hall’s capital campaign For capital support For a town hall meeting to gather For three-year operating support $100,000 $175,000 public input about the casino and to support a research effort $10,000 $400,000 Artists Image Resource, Inc. Carnegie Institute For two-year operating support To support the 97th Annual City Theatre Company Inc. Gemini Theater Company $50,000 Associated Artists of Pittsburgh For funds to support the For the DVD/MP3 Project Historical Retrospective and its facilitation and development $6,600 Artists Image Resource, Inc. accompanying catalogue of a new strategic plan For a promotional video $20,000 $20,000 Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council production To support the Offi ce of $10,000 Carnegie Institute City Theatre Company Inc. Public Art For a planning grant to preserve For operating support for $130,000 Artists Upstairs the architectural cast collection 2008 through 2010 To support “American $50,000 $250,000 Grist Mill Productions Humbug” production For support to underwrite the $40,000 Carnegie Institute Community Design Center cost of a new ticketing and For the Three Rivers Arts Festival’s of Pittsburgh development software system Asian American Film Festival transition from Point State Park to To support expansion of the $50,000 of Pittsburgh downtown Pittsburgh locations Design Center’s physical space To support the 2007 Film Festival $100,000 $47,000 Hill House Association $25,000 To support the Martin Carnegie Institute Creative Nonfiction Foundation Luther King Jr. East Busway Attack Theatre To support the Arts Education To support the 2007 Community Mural Project For support to take barebones’ Collaborative’s planning and 412 Creative Nonfi ction Festival $20,000 production of “Cherry Smoke” assessment of arts education in $10,000 to the 2007 Edinburgh Festival the Pittsburgh Public Schools Historical Society of Fringe in Edinburgh, Scotland, $150,000 The Downtown Management Western Pennsylvania August 5 through 27 Organization For transitional operating $9,000 Carnegie Institute To support participation in the support To produce a book on the 2007 International Downtown $250,000 August Wilson Center for Frank House to accompany an Association Conference African American Culture upcoming exhibition $50,000 Historical Society of For 2007 – 08 operating support $60,000 Western Pennsylvania and to establish the position of The Downtown Management For the exterior signage director of community affairs Carnegie Institute Organization of the Senator John Heinz $275,000 For renovations to the For the creation of the Vacant History Center Museum of Art Upper Floors Loan Fund $50,000 August Wilson Center for $3,000,000 $1,750,000 African American Culture Historical Society of To launch a strategic planning Carnegie Institute Dreams of Hope Western Pennsylvania process To support Phase II of the Friends For artists and venue fees for the For operating support for $30,000 of Art for the Pittsburgh Public free public performance on 2008 through 2010 Schools restoration project January 27, 2008, and a series of $228,000 $20,000 public performances to follow $11,000

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 46 10/11/08 10:25:16 AM 47 Historical Society of Nego Gato, Inc. Pittsburgh Dance Alloy Pittsburgh Opera Theater, Inc. Western Pennsylvania For staffi ng support For funding to support a For support for the upcoming For the endowment fund $50,000 three-year strategic plan “Fusion Festival” at the Andy $2,000,000 $10,000 Warhol Museum Oakland Catholic High School $35,000 Jazz Workshop, Inc. To support the “Leading Ladies” Pittsburgh Film-Makers, Inc. For 2007 – 08 program support celebration To support The Freedom Pittsburgh Opera Theater, Inc. $17,500 $5,000 House Project To support the 2007 – 08 season $20,000 $50,000 Kingsley Association Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Inc. To support the video series For operating support for The Pittsburgh Foundation Pittsburgh Symphony Society “East of Liberty” by Chris Ivey 2008 through 2010 To support the creation of a For operating support for $10,000 $614,000 Cultural District Pooled Fund 2008 through 2010 $2,000,000 $621,000 Laboratory Company Dance, Inc. Pittsburgh Board of For promotional materials Public Education Pittsburgh Glass Center, Inc. Pittsburgh Symphony Society $6,600 For the CAPA Collaborative For an independent organizational To support the data-mining project Opera Project assessment and plan to address any $12,000 Laboratory Company Dance, Inc. $4,750 structural or organizational issues For promotional materials $11,000 Pittsburgh Symphony Society $3,400 Pittsburgh Chamber To conduct capital improvement Music Society Pittsburgh History and estimates of Heinz Hall in Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild For the Arts Experience Initiative Landmarks Foundation preparation for a capital campaign To support “Ceramix” Pittsburgh $30,000 For the Granada Theater project $25,000 $30,000 $200,000 Pittsburgh Children’s Museum Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Mattress Factory For operating support for Pittsburgh History and Orchestra Association Inc. To support the Arts 2008 through 2010 Landmarks Foundation For 2007 through 2009 Experience Initiative $216,000 For the development of working operating support $20,000 drawings for renovations to the $60,000 Pittsburgh Children’s Museum New Granada Theater Mattress Factory For the enhancement of the $45,000 Point Park University For operating support for Federal Street underpass with For the ULI Advisory Service Panel 2008 through 2010 a public art project Pittsburgh Irish and to provide recommendations for $215,000 $246,400 Classical Theatre Inc. proposed university expansion For the strategic planning process $50,000 Mattress Factory Pittsburgh Cultural Trust $4,500 For the strategic plan for For support of the new Quantum Theatre 2008 through 2010 arts education center, Pittsburgh Musical Theater For the Arts Experience Initiative $25,000 The James E. Rohr Building For student matinees and other $30,000 $50,000 educational programming and Mendelssohn Choir of for the development of a plan Regional Dance America Pittsburgh, Inc. Pittsburgh Cultural Trust for a capital campaign To support the National Dance For the inaugural concert For the 2008 Pittsburgh $65,000 Festival in Pittsburgh in April 2007 performance and a board retreat International Festival of Firsts $5,000 $15,000 $100,000 Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble For the Arts Experience Initiative Renaissance and Baroque Society Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Pittsburgh Cultural Trust $30,000 For a promotional DVD/MP3 For the Artists and Communities 2008 operating support $10,000 program for 2008 $850,000 Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble $75,000 To support the 2007 season River City Brass Band, Inc. Pittsburgh Dance Alloy $35,000 For operating support for Multicultural Arts Initiative For the Arts Experience Initiative 2008 through 2010 To support 2008 programs $30,000 Pittsburgh Opera Inc. $130,000 $375,000 For operating support for 2008 through 2010 $594,000

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 47 10/11/08 10:25:16 AM 48 River City Brass Band, Inc. Western Pennsylvania Carnegie Institute Artists Upstairs For a strategic planning process Conservancy To support Pittsburgh’s For the OUTSIDE IN series, spring $11,000 To support the Greening 250th anniversary with a time and summer 2008 — a three-part Pittsburgh’s Golden Triangle capsule project exhibition focused on multi- Royal Tribe Music project $25,000 media, performance and visual arts To support the “Stand Up Now” tour $33,990 $7,500 $8,000 Children’s Festival Chorus Westmoreland Museum of Art To commission a new work Attack Theatre Silver Eye Center for Photography For a new strategic plan and titled “Pittsburgh Portraits” To support “wanna holla,” For the Arts Experience Initiative implementation of a formal $12,500 premiered in fall 2007 $30,000 planned giving program $7,500 $40,000 City of Asylum Pittsburgh Silver Eye Center for Photography To commission a new work Bach Choir of Pittsburgh For two years of exhibition Westmoreland Museum of Art celebrating the Pittsburgh 250 For artistic support for the programming and professional To support the exhibitions “Seeing anniversary 2007 – 08 “No Turning Bach” season development for staff in 2007 – 08 the City: Sloan’s New York” and $25,000 $13,000 and 2008 – 09 “Painting in the United States” $50,000 $75,000 Creative Nonfiction Foundation Bodiography To support the “Pittsburgh in Contemporary Ballet Co. Society for Arts in Crafts WQED Pittsburgh Words” project To commission a new work by For the Arts Experience Initiative To support high defi nition digital $22,800 James Martin, performed at the $30,000 production center upgrade Byham in April 2008 $350,000 Pittsburgh Film-Makers, Inc. $9,000 Society for Arts in Crafts To support a series of short fi lms to 2007 operating support WQED Pittsburgh celebrate the Brew House Association $60,000 For a documentary on naturalist/ Center for the Arts and its artists To support the artistic and writer Peter Matthiessen $24,000 educational programming for 2007 Squonk Opera $50,000 $11,000 For a video production project Renaissance and Baroque Society $9,650 WQED Pittsburgh To support a special project titled Bulgarian-Macedonian For “On Q” for 2008 “The Battle of Fort Duquesne” National Educational and The Thomas Merton Center $200,000 $8,000 Cultural Center, Inc. To support a panel discussion and To support the School for the formatting of the documentary Squonk Opera Folk and Character Dance ARTS & CULTURE “Enough is ENOUGH: The Death To support the Astro-Rama project and the work of choreographer PITTSBURGH 250 PROJECT of Jonny Gammage” for airing on in celebration of Pittsburgh’s 250th Alexander Zankin WQED-TV in January 2008 Afro-American Music anniversary $9,000 $10,000 Institute Inc. $25,000 Cabaret Pittsburgh, Inc. To support the Pittsburgh Spirit Tickets for Kids Foundation For the Inspiring Artists Series & Soul Weekend in honor of the To support Tickets for Kids ARTS & CULTURE and the reintroduction of the 250th anniversary of Pittsburgh Foundation’s “Living and Learning SMALL ARTS INITIATIVE Local Showcase Series $25,000 in Our Neighborhood” program Afrika Yetu Inc. $10,000 $10,000 August Wilson Center for To support the 2008 African African American Culture Carnegie Institute Touchstone Center for Crafts Music Series featuring artists To create oral histories of For a new work by Zany For an executive director search Hugh Masekela and Femi Kuti Umbrella at the 2008 Three important regional African- $9,000 $19,150 American artists Rivers Arts Festival $9,000 Virginia Center for the $25,000 Afro-American Music Creative Arts Institute Inc. Calliope House, Inc. Carnegie Mellon University To support southwestern For support of two performances To support a folk festival To support the presentation of Pennsylvania visiting artists who in the “Come Sunday” series, to commemorate the city’s “ActionStation #2 The Desert” will be in residence at the Virginia November 2007 through July 2008 250th anniversary at the New Hazlett Theater Center for the Creative Arts from $4,000 $25,000 in September 2007 June 2007 to May 2008 $15,000 $30,000

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 48 10/11/08 10:25:17 AM 49 City of Asylum Pittsburgh Laboratory Company Dance, Inc. Pittsburgh Film-Makers, Inc. UMOJA African Arts Company To support the annual free To support the 2007 fall To support the production of For the “African Arts in the Park” Jazz-Poetry Concert and Block concert, November 30 through “The Ride,” a new short fi lm 2007 project, August 11 – 12, 2007 Party in September 2007 December 2, 2007 by Robert Buncher $7,000 $5,000 $15,000 $10,000 United Jewish Federation Community Theater Mattress Factory Pittsburgh Lesbian and To support the Pittsburgh Jewish Project Corporation For support of “The Tom Museum” Gay Film Society, Inc. Music Festival 2008 season, May 21 To support the Kente Arts $8,000 To support program expansion through June 1, 2008 Alliance’s project “The Jazz and growth $12,000 Legacy Series — the Pittsburgh Mon Valley Media $10,000 Connection,” September 28 and 29 To support Phase I of a video United Jewish Federation and November 9 and 10, 2007 documentary project on African- Pittsburgh Playwrights To support the 2008 Pittsburgh $7,500 American sacred a cappella music Theatre Company Jewish-Israeli Film Festival, by Bessie Sewell-Hudson titled For the “Theatre Festival in Black March 27 through April 13, 2008 Community Theater “A Charge to Keep” and White” in October 2007 $14,000 Project Corporation $5,000 $4,000 For the revival production University of Pittsburgh of “Dr. Goddess Goes to Jail,” Open Stage Theatre Pittsburgh Society of Illustrators For the 2007 – 08 Music on the July 1 through 15, 2007 For the production of Susan-Lori For the “Pittsburgh Recast” Edge concert series $7,500 Parks’ “The America Play” exhibition at the Heinz History $5,000 $3,000 Center, November 2007 Community Theater $10,000 Unseam’d Shakespeare Company Project Corporation The Pittsburgh Camerata For production costs and artists To support the production of For “Rosa Mundi: Women in Music,” Prime Stage fees for “Out of this Furnace” at a new musical, “Only Me,” to be February 15 through 17, 2008 To support the 2007 – 08 season Open Stage Theatre in June 2008 performed at the Kelly-Strayhorn $7,700 featuring “Inherit the Wind” and $8,000 Theater, June 2008 “Of Mice and Men” $5,600 Pittsburgh Community $15,000 Broadcasting Corporation CHILDREN, The Ellis School For “Pittburgh: Getting to Renaissance and Baroque Society YOUTH & FAMILIES To support the “From a Woman’s our Bottom of the Blues,” For the performances by Hand” ceramics exhibit at the Ellis a documentary and CD El Mundo, November 10, 2007, and A+ Schools: Pittsburgh’s School, March 19 through 22, 2008 $10,000 Il Fondamento, March 29, 2008 Community Alliance for $4,535 $10,000 Public Education Pittsburgh Concert Chorale To support a media campaign Gemini Theater Company For support of two concerts Squonk Opera $25,000 For the 2007 – 08 Children’s presenting the work of the For Phase I of “Big Bang Broadcast,” Theater Season “German Romantics” in August through December 2007 A+ Schools: Pittsburgh’s Community Alliance for March 2008 $15,000 $9,000 Public Education $5,500 Guitar Society of Fine Art Storyswap, Inc. To support the Campaign for For support of a consortium Pittsburgh Festival Orchestra For support of “Decameron Nights” Student Success between Global Beats and the To support one noontime concert to be presented at Tellabration, $31,000 Guitar Society of Fine Arts to at Smithfi eld United Church of November 17, 2007 Allegheny County host “Global Beats World Music Christ in downtown Pittsburgh $3,000 Department of Human Services Night” in 2008 $2,000 Tuesday Musical Club To support “One Vision, One Life,” $5,000 a community-based violence Pittsburgh Film-Makers, Inc. To support “Mary Shelley prevention program in Allegheny Guitar Society of Fine Art For the Pittsburgh Society of and Her Frankenstein” at County For support of the fi nal three Sculptors’ 2008 National Open the New Hazlett Theater on $100,000 concerts in the six-concert Exhibition at Manchester November 12, 2008 series including International Craftsmen’s Guild, July 11 $10,000 Guitar Night at Manchester through September 7, 2008 Craftsmen’s Guild $10,000 $15,000

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 49 10/11/08 10:25:18 AM 50 Allegheny County Carnegie Mellon University Every Child, Inc. Hill House Association Department of Human Services To support the Fitwits nutrition To pilot doula services for To support a pilot series, To provide academic, career and and physical activity program pregnant adolescents with mental “Girls, We Need to Talk,” utilizing life skills support to youth for pre-adolescents health disabilities or involvement public access television transitioning out of the foster care $195,000 in the juvenile justice system $6,000 system to independent living $150,000 $300,000 Center for Victims of Hosanna House, Inc. Violence and Crime Family Resources To support agency sustainability Allegheny County To support the fi rst phase of For funding toward sponsoring $300,000 Department of Human Services system redesign for victims of the Child Abuse Prevention A contribution for its 10th-year violence and crime in southwest Month Awards Benefi t Human Services celebration Pennsylvania $2,000 Center Corporation $1,500 $50,000 To support expansion of the Family Resources Emerging Leaders Program, an Allegheny County Center for Victims of To support the Family Nurturing after-school program serving Department of Human Services Violence and Crime Program at the Family Retreat youth in the Mon Valley For a second round of support for To support the second phase of Center $30,000 the HUD Supportive Services Fund system redesign for victims of $100,000 $200,000 violence and crime in southwest Jubilee Association, Inc. Pennsylvania The Forbes Fund To support building renovations Allegheny County $90,000 To support leadership development and repairs in Polish Hill Department of Human Services and capacity building in the $200,000 For the launch of a new family Central Susquehanna health and human services and the support center Intermediate Unit community development fi elds Jumpstart Coalition for $200,000 To support an evaluation model $100,000 Personal Financial Literacy of School / Family / Community To support a fi nancial education American Heart Association Partnerships in targeted western The Forbes Fund curriculum index Sponsorship for the Heart Pennsylvania districts To support a technical assistance $20,000 Ball Gala event $75,000 fund to improve after-school $50,000 providers’ capacity to collect and Magee-Womens Hospital Children’s Home of Pittsburgh use information For a second round of support for The American Prospect To pilot the Transitional $150,000 doula services for pregnant teens To support the “Early Childhood Pediatric Care program served through the clinics as a National Policy Challenge” $200,000 Grantmakers for Children, $150,000 project Youth & Families Inc. $25,000 Children’s Hospital of For continuing operating support Mt. Ararat Community Pittsburgh Foundation $5,000 Activity Center, Inc. Beginning with Books To create the Pediatric For support to expand the “Urban To promote early literacy of Environmental Medicine Center Grantmakers for Children, Male Mentoring Project” children served by Mon Valley $5,000,000 Youth & Families Inc. $100,000 schools participating in For annual operating support Pre-K Counts Civil Society Institute, Inc. $5,000 National Women’s Law Center $100,000 For the fourth round of PA To support the center’s Progressive BUILD for 2008 and 2009 Grantmakers of Leadership and Advocacy Network Berks County Intermediate Unit $350,000 Western Pennsylvania for Women For an early childhood assessment To pilot a health and wellness $7,000 and accountability project Council on Foundations education program in 12 $500,000 For 2007 Council on nonprofi t organizations One to One: The Mentoring Foundations dues $16,800 Partnership of Southwestern PA Carnegie Institute $45,000 For sponsorship of the recognition For the Girls in Math & Science Greater Pittsburgh event on October 18, 2007, Partnership — Gender Equity East Liberty Family Health Community Food Bank honoring Bill Isler Toolkit Dissemination Care Center To support a gap study and $7,500 $100,000 To develop an infrastructure with organizational capacity building an associated business plan to $100,000 expand The Birth Circle program $42,000

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 50 10/11/08 10:25:18 AM 51 Pennsylvania Partnerships United Way of Allegheny County University of Pittsburgh YouthPlaces for Children For campaign support To support improvements in the To support the co-location of To support the Pennsylvania $800,000 UPMC health delivery system for six youth-serving agencies 2007 Pre-K Campaign adolescent mothers $250,000 $50,000 United Way of $200,000 Westmoreland County YouthWorks Pittsburgh Board of To support pre-kindergarten University of Pittsburgh To support youth development Public Education initiatives in three counties To continue core support for programs For pre-kindergarten audit $100,000 2008, 2009 and 2010 $200,000 $100,000 $500,000 University of Pittsburgh CHILDREN, YOUTH & FAMILIES Pittsburgh Board of To research and pilot postpartum University of Pittsburgh SUMMER YOUTH Public Education depression screening and To support Partnerships for PHILANTHROPY PROGRAM For the development of parent treatment for adolescents Family Support communications materials and a $150,000 $150,000 Carnegie Institute small grants incentive program For The Andy Warhol Museum’s $75,000 University of Pittsburgh University of Pittsburgh work with teens to create public To support the “Healthy Class To support consultation to the art on the North Shore Pittsburgh Children’s Museum of 2010” school-based health Pittsburgh Public Schools for $8,000 To support Healthy Smile Days education program the development of culturally for 2007 $100,000 sensitive disciplinary practices Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh $10,000 and professional development For the creation of a public artwork University of Pittsburgh $16,000 involving youth at branches of the The Pittsburgh Project To support the expansion of Carnegie Library To support after-school programs the young fathers initiative The Women and Girls Foundation $7,120 $300,000 $150,000 of Southwest Pennsylvania To seed the creation of an initiative The Forbes Fund Saint Margaret Memorial University of Pittsburgh to increase women’s representation Hospital Foundation To support two teams of Heinz To support Keystone Stars, a and involvement in corporate To support Pittsburgh United Endowments Summer Youth partnership with the state to leadership in Pittsburgh Against Life-Saving Emergencies Philanthropy interns improve the quality in early $50,000 $10,000 care and education programs $71,870 $300,000 Yoga in Schools Sarah Heinz House Association The Neighborhood Academy To support a yoga program in For annual operating support plus For creation of a public artwork University of Pittsburgh the Pittsburgh Public Schools as support for events and activities to involving youth To build awareness and increase a model of health and wellness commemorate the opening of the $8,000 community involvement in $150,000 new facility providing complementary $1,300,000 North Hills Community learning supports for students Your Sister’s Project, Inc. Outreach, Inc. in Pittsburgh Public Schools To support One Hood, a local Sarah Heinz House Association To support two teams of interns $200,000 organization of African-American Sponsorship of the Sarah Heinz for the 2007 Summer Youth men, in their hosting of “The House grand opening ceremony Philanthropy Internship Program University of Pittsburgh Gathering,” a national movement $5,000 $84,388 To support the Allegheny County to address juvenile incarceration Family Support Policy Board’s Smart Futures, Inc. $6,000 Pittsburgh Children’s Museum 2007 Family Conference To support the integration of the For creation of a public artwork $5,000 YouthPlaces fi nancial literacy curriculum into involving youth To support after-school the online career literacy initiative $6,250 University of Pittsburgh programs in Allegheny County $150,000 For scholarships for students to and the Violence Prevention United Way of Allegheny County participate in the Great Allegheny Temple University Collaborative’s Summer 2007 To support a team of Heinz Passage grand opening bike ride To support a roundtable Community Service Project Endowments Summer Youth $4,500 conference on African-American $400,000 Philanthropy interns Males and Education $46,867 $63,545

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 51 10/11/08 10:25:19 AM 52 CIVIC DESIGN Pittsburgh Partnership for Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Community Loan Fund of Neighborhood Development To support the library’s new Southwestern Pennsylvania Bike Pittsburgh, Inc. To support program collaboration communications / marketing For working capital fund For production and distribution in multi-neighborhood corridors initiative to develop and strengthen of a bicycle map for Pittsburgh of market opportunity and impact $50,000 alternative schools $49,200 $200,000 $500,000 Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh CEOs for Cities Riverlife Task Force For support of renovation and Consortium for Public Education Matching support for the To support the Casino Storm construction projects in three To support the operation of the Pittsburgh delegation Water Project communities Mon Valley Education Consortium $12,500 $149,669 $2,000,000 $100,000

The Downtown Smart Growth America Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Council on Foundations Management Organization For support of the National To support the Gregorian To support professional To support the downtown Vacant Properties Campaign’s luncheon development for offi cers of retail market analysis fi rst national conference, $5,000 the council $50,000 “Reclaiming Vacant Properties: $5,000 Strategies for Rebuilding Carnegie Mellon University Hill House Association America’s Neighborhoods,” For a study of Pennsylvania EDSYS, Inc. To support expenses for a joint held in Pittsburgh, September student achievement as a result For leadership development advocacy effort among community 24 and 25, 2007 of teachers having met higher at City High Charter School leaders in the Hill District to $10,000 certifi cation standards $110,000 ensure that developments $120,000 associated with the new Pittsburgh Urban Redevelopment Extra Mile Education Penguins arena will be carried out Authority of Pittsburgh Carnegie Mellon University Foundation, Inc. in a way that is most benefi cial to To support a staff position to For Robot 250 initiative For ongoing evaluation and the community promote Green Design $300,000 improvement of Extra Mile $10,000 $50,000 elementary schools Carnegie Mellon University $50,000 Pittsburgh Community To support the early stages Reinvestment Group EDUCATION of Robot Diaries Families and Work Institute, Inc. For support to implement a $150,000 To purchase a table for its event communications strategy to 3 Rivers Connect on June 11, 2007, honoring the promote community involvement For operating support and The Center for Work Life Legacy Awards and understanding of a Market program development Effective Philanthropy $5,000 Value Analysis $300,000 For preparation of Staff Perception $50,000 and Grantee Perception Report for Fort Ligonier Association A+ Schools: Pittsburgh’s The Heinz Endowments For support of a history Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy Community Alliance for $41,600 education program To support Find the Rivers in Public Education $225,000 engaging the community in a For support of Pittsburgh Communications Network design process for Arcena Street Community Alliance to improve For continued institutional Foundation Center $25,000 public education support of the network’s mission For program and $200,000 to promote communication in operating support Pittsburgh Partnership for service to the fi eld of philanthropy $15,000 Neighborhood Development Allegheny Intermediate Unit $25,000 To provide bridge funding to For support of the Reading Grantmakers for Education help support the Pittsburgh Achievement Center Communities in Schools of For program and Community and Neighborhood $300,000 Pittsburgh –Allegheny County, Inc. operating support Information System project as For support of alternative $10,000 it prepares to implement its ASSET, Inc. learning academies three-year business plan For support of a science education $150,000 Grantmakers of Western Pennsylvania $45,000 initiative for kindergarten through fourth grade Support for 2007 $150,000 $20,000

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 52 10/11/08 10:25:19 AM 53 Grantmakers of National Foundation for University of Maryland US Foundation for the Western Pennsylvania Teaching Entrepreneurship Foundation, Inc. Inspiration and Recognition To support the 2007 to Disadvantaged & To distribute American Journalism of Science & Technology Nonprofi t Summit Handicapped Youth Review and Columbia Journalism For Pittsburgh’s participation $20,000 To support a distinctive Review to journalism students at in the US First Robotics entrepreneurship education Penn State University, University Competition Grantmakers of Western program for inner-city youth of Pittsburgh and Temple University $200,000 Pennsylvania $50,000 $36,000 For funding to support the World Affairs Council executive director search Negro Educational University of Pittsburgh of Pittsburgh $3,000 Emergency Drive For evaluation of education To support the council’s For the college scholarship program initiatives International Affairs Greater Pittsburgh program $145,000 Education Program Diversity Festival $200,000 $100,000 To provide opportunities for University of Pittsburgh citizens and civic leaders to learn The Neighborhood Academy To provide sustained leadership about the importance of growing To support development and EDUCATION training for school principals WOMEN IN GLOBAL a more diverse city and region implementation of a business $200,000 LEADERSHIP AWARDS $10,000 plan and improve fundraising capabilities University of Pittsburgh Arcadia University Greater Pittsburgh $200,000 For planning and development For the Vira I. Heinz Scholarship Literacy Council to strengthen Vira I. Heinz Program for Women in Global For a family literacy program New Hazlett Center for Travel /Study program Leadership and learning English as a the Performing Arts $40,000 second language For the cityLIVE event series $15,000 $15,000 $200,000 University of Pittsburgh Bethany College For development and testing For the Vira I. Heinz Scholarship Imani Christian Academy The Philanthropy Roundtable of concept to improve online Program for Women in Global To support development and For yearly dues literacy tutoring Leadership implementation of business $10,000 $400,000 plan and improve fundraising $10,000 Pittsburgh Board of capabilities University of Pittsburgh Public Education Carnegie Mellon University $200,000 For support of a new endowment For support of the Pittsburgh For the Vira I. Heinz Scholarship for cardiology research Program for Women in Global The Looking Glass Institute Board of Public Education’s $10,000 Leadership For a review and study of Excellence For All reform agenda $15,000 Pittsburgh’s nonprofi t $1,004,649 University of Pittsburgh organizational leadership and the For partial support of a yearlong Pittsburgh Board of Chatham College development of leadership capacity regional forum for school Public Education For the Vira I. Heinz Scholarship $8,000 superintendents on leadership For the superintendent’s fund for Program for Women in Global $25,000 Leadership Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild the Pittsburgh Public Schools $15,000 For permanent endowment to $7,500 University of Pittsburgh provide program and operating For support of the Heinz The Pittsburgh Chess Club Duquesne University support Memorial Chapel To support the Chess-for- For the Vira I. Heinz Scholarship $2,000,000 Pittsburgh-Youth program $140,000 Program for Women in Global Leadership Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild $15,000 University of Pittsburgh $15,000 For support of the Guild’s Youth To support the Institute of Politics Pittsburgh Voyager Arts program and implementation To support river-based $35,000 Temple University of a new business plan For the Vira I. Heinz Scholarship education programs University of Pittsburgh $150,000 Program for Women in Global $250,000 To support distinctive internship Leadership programs for undergraduates Technology Affinity Group $15,000 For affi nity group dues $25,000 $1,500

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 53 10/11/08 10:25:20 AM 54 Thiel College ENVIRONMENT Carnegie Mellon University Citizens for For the Vira I. Heinz Scholarship To support a project that links Pennsylvania’s Future Program for Women in Global 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania WaterQUEST with Pittsburgh For operating support Leadership To support RenewPA RiverQuest $747,000 $15,000 $250,000 $56,354 Clean Air Task Force University of Pittsburgh 3 Rivers Wet Weather Inc. Carnegie Mellon University For support to the campaign For the Vira I. Heinz Scholarship To support the “Consolidating To support Carnegie Mellon’s for healthy air in southwestern Program for Women in Global Sewage Infrastructure participation in the 2007 Solar Pennsylvania Leadership Management” project Decathlon competition $170,000 $20,000 $250,000 $25,000 Clean Water Fund University of Pittsburgh Allegheny Land Trust Carnegie Mellon University To support clean air initiatives at Bradford For initial funding to develop For the Campus Carbon $175,000 For the Vira I. Heinz Scholarship the trust’s Greenprint Regional Control Project Program for Women in Global Conservation Agenda $100,000 Commonweal Leadership $50,000 For continued support of the $15,000 Carnegie Mellon University Collaborative on Health and the Allegheny Land Trust For green chemistry curriculum Environment in Pennsylvania University of Pittsburgh For funding to build capacity to $200,000 and the Women’s Health and at Greensburg implement the Strategic Plan Environment Initiative For the Vira I. Heinz Scholarship including the trust’s Greenprint Carriage House Children’s Center $175,000 Program for Women in Global $170,000 For support to develop a case Leadership study of the LEED for Existing Community Foundation of $10,000 Breast Cancer Fund Buildings certifi cation process Greater Johnstown To support costs affi liated with of child care facilities For the Green Business Initiative University of Pittsburgh the latest commissioned report, $37,500 $150,000 at Johnstown “The Falling Age of Puberty in For the Vira I. Heinz Scholarship the United States” Center for Coalfield Justice Conemaugh Valley Program for Women in Global $10,000 For funding to further promote Conservancy, Inc. Leadership social and environmental justice For funding to support the $15,000 Brookings Institution in Pennsylvania’s coalfi elds Benson / Hollsopple Community For general operating support $95,000 Design Workshop Action Plan University of Pittsburgh of the Brookings Metropolitan Implementation Project at Titusville Policy Program Center for Public Integrity $100,000 For the Vira I. Heinz Scholarship $150,000 To support the “Mining Program for Women in Global Infl uence” project Conservation Consultants, Inc. Leadership Carnegie Institute $100,000 For funding of board development $15,000 For an architect selection process $39,205 for the Eco.Experience project Center for Victims of Washington & Jefferson College $100,000 Violence and Crime Consultative Group on For the Vira I. Heinz Scholarship For funding to develop a Biological Diversity Program for Women in Global Carnegie Institute comprehensive strategic plan for For the Health and Environmental Leadership For Powdermill Nature an environmental education Funders Network $15,000 Reserve’s Geographic Information project known as Enlightened $33,000 Systems Lab Voices for Environmental County of Allegheny Waynesburg College $100,000 Awareness For operating support for the For the Vira I. Heinz Scholarship $35,000 Program for Women in Global Carnegie Mellon University Grow Pittsburgh Project Leadership For 2007 – 08 support for technical Children’s Institute of Pittsburgh $19,925 $15,000 and professional assistance for the To support a Center for Autism Duquesne University advancement of environmental $125,000 For partnership in the universities’ Wilberforce University building projects in Pittsburgh Carbon Neutral project For the Vira I. Heinz Scholarship $100,000 Clean Air Task Force Program for Women in Global To support the Healthy School $40,000 Leadership Bus Fund $15,000 $500,000

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 54 10/11/08 10:25:21 AM 55 Earth Force, Inc. Learning Disabilities of America Pennsylvania The Public Health Institute For funding to incorporate the To support the Healthy Environmental Council To support the Pennsylvania Earth Force program into the Children Project For funds to support stormwater Blue Green Alliance curriculum of the Pittsburgh $50,000 management, Green Pittsburgh, $150,000 Public Schools riverfront and natural infra- $140,000 Local Government Academy structure projects in Allegheny Rachel Carson Homestead For support to continue County Association Foundation for implementing the regional $200,000 For funding to expand the Pennsylvania Watersheds business plan and foster environmental education and For small watershed program multi-municipal planning Pennsylvania Low Income outreach program and the grants $200,000 Housing Corporation Rachel Carson Legacy Challenge $235,000 For support of the Reclaiming $70,000 Magee-Womens Hospital Abandoned Pennsylvania Initiative Friends of the Riverfront, Inc. For funding to be used in the $100,000 Rachel Carson Homestead To support stewardship, land and areas of education, facilities Association water trail development/usage greening, outreach / advocacy Pennsylvania Resources For funding for the Rachel $100,000 programs and research Council, Inc. Carson Legacy Celebration $150,000 For continued support of the $40,000 Funders’ Network for Smart Household Hazardous Waste Growth and Livable Communities Magee-Womens Hospital project Rainforest Alliance For affi nity group dues To provide funds for $50,000 For a new project titled “Building $20,000 programmatic follow up and the FSC Supply Chain: Economic evaluation of the women’s Pennsylvania Resources Development in Western Grantmakers of Western environmental health conference Council, Inc. Pennsylvania through Sustainable Pennsylvania $50,000 For the Steel City Biofuels project Forestry and Wood Products” For support of “The Pittsburgh $50,000 $100,000 Region Re-Imagined” project Mount Washington Community $15,000 Development Corporation Phipps Conservatory, Inc. Rainforest Alliance To support the implementation Funding for the Living Building For support of the project, Green Building Alliance of the Grand View Scenic Byway Challenge “Building the FSC Supply Chain: For operating and program Park operating plan $100,000 Economic Development in support $150,000 Pennsylvania through Sustainable $250,000 Pittsburgh Community Forestry and Wood Products” Broadcasting Corporation Mountain Watershed Association $100,000 Green Building Alliance For funding to restore the For the “Allegheny Front” radio For second-year funding for the Indian Creek Watershed and program Redevelopment Authority Green Building Products Initiative to support public outreach $85,000 of Allegheny County $100,000 on coal life cycle issues For Oakland transportation Pittsburgh Gateways Corporation $110,000 project Group Against Smog & Pollution For support to develop the $200,000 For program support Nine Mile Run Watershed switchgrass-based fuel pellet $100,000 Association Inc. prototype plant in Westmoreland Regional Trail Corporation For operating support and County For funding toward acquisition H. John Heinz III Center for project funding $150,000 and trail construction to complete Science, Economics and the $250,000 the Great Allegheny Passage Trail Environment Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy For support to increase the $500,000 Pennsylvania To support the 2008 International capacity in fundraising and Conference for Women Urban Parks Summit titled “Body Rockefeller Family Fund, Inc. communications To support the annual Governor’s & Soul: Urban Parks and the For 2007 affi nity group dues for $150,000 Conference for Women Health of Great Cities,” held in Environmental Grantmakers $30,000 Pittsburgh in September 2008 Association Healthy Home Resources $50,000 For funding to support the effort $3,680 to prevent in-home environmental Pittsburgh Voyager hazards facing families in To provide funds for program and Allegheny County operating expenses and to prepare $150,000 for delivery of a new green vessel $50,000

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 55 10/11/08 10:25:21 AM 56 Susan G. Komen Breast University of Pittsburgh Wild Waterways Carnegie Mellon University Cancer Foundation To support water planning and Conservancy, Inc. Seed funding to expand enterprise For funding to continue the management in southwestern For operating support to the creation capability at the breast cancer and the environment Pennsylvania land protection program Center for Technology Transfer program $50,000 $50,000 $220,000 $50,000 University of Pittsburgh Carnegie Mellon University Sustainable Pittsburgh To support the determination of INNOVATION For economic development pilot For 2008 operating support levels of metals and other toxic ECONOMY project with the Atom Transfer $200,000 elements in various fi sh species Radical Polymerization (ATRP) tissue, sediment and water African American Chamber Consortium Foundation of Western Team Pennsylvania Foundation $50,000 $100,000 For support of the Governor’s Pennsylvania Outdoor Conference, March 18 University of Pittsburgh To support the Business Carnegie Mellon University through 20, 2007 Cancer Institute Institute program To support a pilot project focused $50,000 For funding to expand the capacity $30,000 on exploring the commercial of the Center for Environmental potential of technologies for agile on Turtle Creek Watershed Oncology Community Development robotics and human-computer Association $750,000 interaction at the Center for To build organizational capacity For the 3 Rivers: One Future campaign Technology Transfer to create higher visibility and University of Pittsburgh $50,000 greater credibility among residents Cancer Institute $90,000 and elected offi cials in the Turtle For funding to examine the Allegheny Conference on Carnegie Mellon University Creek watershed and to sustain the correlation between environmental Community Development For an economic development long-term work of the association chemical exposures and For research and education project, with the College of on stormwater management issues epidemiological disease patterns on more effective cooperation Fine Arts leveraging the region’s and to reduce their adverse $25,000 between city and county arts and culture strengths biological effects $47,680 U.S. Green Building Council governments $317,370 $200,000 For affi nity group dues, 2007 Carnegie Mellon University University of Pittsburgh $500 Allegheny County To support regional economic Cancer Institute Airport Authority development following from the University of Pittsburgh For participation in the 2007 For efforts to stimulate Tartan Racing project in the To support visualization Hillman Cancer Center Gala, competition among air Field Robotics Center technology for land use planning “Destination Hope … A Future carriers, improve air service $650,000 along the Route 30 corridor in Without Cancer” and educate citizens Westmoreland County $5,000 $300,000 Carnegie Mellon University $25,000 To support capacity-building for UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside Carlow University Next-Generation Computing in University of Pittsburgh To support continued operations To support the creation of an the Department of Computer To promote uses of the of UPMC Environmental Initiative Advanced Simulation Technology Science Senator H. John Heinz III program lab for training health care $400,000 Archives at Carnegie Mellon $125,000 workers in the region University for public policy $125,000 Carnegie Mellon University education Venture Outdoors To support the capital campaign For program operating / $35,000 Carnegie Mellon University $5,000,000 program support For Hazelwood technology, University of Pittsburgh $50,000 community and development Carnegie Mellon University To support Phase II of the project and the Remaking Cities To support the capital campaign Institute of Politics water initiative Virginia Organizing Project Institute $13,000,000 $50,000 For an environmental health $300,000 news service Carnegie Mellon University University of Pittsburgh $250,000 Carnegie Mellon University For a lending library in the For continued support of the Seed funding for the Innovation Quality of Life Technology Center Center for Healthy Environments Fellows pilot project to enable technology validation and Communities $175,000 pilot projects $100,000 $50,000

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 56 10/11/08 10:25:22 AM 57 City of Pittsburgh Community Loan Fund of Duquesne University The Idea Foundry To support a pension summit Southwestern Pennsylvania Operating support for the Career Seed funding for a meeting among elected offi cials To support a sheltered bond Literacy for African American commer cialization initiative with and civic leaders from program to assist minority and Youth — CLAAY — initiative a focus on education, training municipalities throughout women contractors $100,000 or entertainment industries the region $200,000 $75,000 $7,000 East Liberty Development, Inc. Consortium for Public Education To support a February 2008 The Idea Foundry Community College of Allegheny To strengthen links between conference called “Build the Hill” To enable the rapid development County Educational Foundation educational institutions and that will engage the community of three complementary To support professional technology-sector employers in in workshop discussions to educate technology concepts that promise development and a continuing southwestern Pennsylvania them about sound community high-quality job creation in education program for health $175,000 planning and development Pittsburgh’s Hill District care workers in the region $25,000 $75,000 $100,000 Consortium for Public Education For the Gateway to College project Good Jobs First Immigrant Center of the Community College of Allegheny $100,000 For an eight-state comparative Greater Pittsburgh Region County Educational Foundation study of taxpayer-funded Final year of seed funding for a To support African-American Coro Center for Civic Leadership economic development incentives multi-ethnic immigrant welcome student recruitment and retention, For operating support for the $218,000 and community support center including match for scholarship Regional Internship Center $50,000 endowment $50,000 Grantmakers for Effective $160,000 Organizations Independent Sector Coro Center for Civic Leadership For efforts to advance the To support nonprofi t Community College of Allegheny For specifi c project support organizational effectiveness accountability efforts County Educational Foundation and seed funding within a new of grant making $15,000 For the 2007 presidential search strategic plan $8,000 $30,000 $280,000 Innovation Works, Inc. Green Building Alliance To create a data correlation, Community College of Allegheny Corporation for Owner– For projects to stimulate growth analysis and visualization County Educational Foundation Operator Projects of the green building products capability to support technology- To support moving expenses Matching funds for Keystone industry sector based industry cluster growth and public relations for the Innovation Zone and technology $150,000 $50,000 new president validation pilot project $10,000 $150,000 Hill District Consensus Group Jewish Family & Children’s To support Historic Hill District Service of Pittsburgh Community College of Council for Adult and community transition For continued support of the Beaver County Foundation Experiential Learning $125,000 Pittsburgh Regional Immigrant To strengthen workforce For fi nal year of support for pilot Assistance Center preparedness programs and project to create lifelong learning Hill House Association $150,000 expand the capacity of college accounts for southwestern To support an independent employees to respond to Pennsylvania health care workers program for diversity monitoring Kingsley Association workforce needs $200,000 and training within city and To support the Mary L. Stone $150,000 county government and their Black College Tour Delaware County Community contractors $50,000 College Educational Foundation Community College of $8,500 Beaver County Foundation For Achieving the Dream MDC For Achieving the Dream implementation Historical Society of To provide data facilitator services implementation $50,000 Western Pennsylvania to the seven Pennsylvania $50,000 To support an exhibit on Achieving the Dream community Duquesne University innovation colleges Community College of Matching support to enable the $100,000 $136,625 Philadelphia successful launch of the Pittsburgh For Achieving the Dream Central Keystone Innovation Zone implementation $100,000 $50,000

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 57 10/11/08 10:25:22 AM 58 Montgomery County Pittsburgh Board of Team Pennsylvania University of Pittsburgh Community College Foundation Public Education Foundation For compilation of trend data For Achieving the Dream To support the implementation To support expenses for a on entry-level health care implementation of Project Lead the Way within meeting among participants employment to inform workforce $50,000 the Lincoln Elementary School in Pennsylvania’s Keystone development programs Pre-engineering Program Innovation Zone program $100,000 National Academy of Sciences $50,000 $7,500 For partial support for study of University of Pittsburgh regional economic development The Pittsburgh Foundation The Robotics Foundry and For a study of the evolution of programs nationwide, in care of To support the Pittsburgh Digital Greenhouse the anterior cruciate ligament in the National Research Council Public Service Fund To support commercialization of human and animal anatomy STEP — Science, Technology $250,000 assistive living and quality-of-life $50,000 and Economic Policy — Board technologies in the southwestern $150,000 Pittsburgh Gateways Corporation Pennsylvania region University of Pittsburgh For a feasibility study for regional $100,000 To provide partial support for National Foundation for technology-based economic a project that will make specifi c Teaching Entrepreneurship development effort that will make University of Pittsburgh policy recommendations to to Disadvantaged & use of the original Westinghouse To support the Mascaro improve the effi ciency and Handicapped Youth, Inc. facility in Wilmerding, Pa. Sustainability Initiative effectiveness of local government To support a pilot project to $42,000 $250,000 $100,000 expand entrepreneurship education, experiential learning Pittsburgh Gateways Corporation University of Pittsburgh University of Texas Foundation and mentorship To support the growth of early- To support the Institute for To provide coaching services to $50,000 stage, tech-based enterprises and Entrepreneurial Excellence at the the seven Pennsylvania Achieving regional industry clusters Katz Graduate School of Business the Dream community colleges Northampton County Area $270,000 $150,000 $136,050 Community College Foundation For Achieving the Dream Pittsburgh Life Sciences University of Pittsburgh Urban League of Pittsburgh, Inc. implementation Greenhouse For seed funding of the To support planning a pilot of $50,000 To support regional job creation Corporate Scholars program the Center for Urban Economic in life sciences companies through $200,000 Empowerment Excellence Northside Civic competitive process $50,000 Development Council, Inc. $400,000 University of Pittsburgh For collaboration among riverfront For a new regional workforce and Westmoreland County communities to encourage Pittsburgh Life Sciences technology development program Community College development Greenhouse for the energy industry sector Educational Foundation $150,000 To support university programs $300,000 To support systemic change in the $1,000,000 college, including developmental Oakland Planning and University of Pittsburgh education and college hiring Development Corporation, Inc. Pittsburgh Partnership for To provide support for the practices Operating support for the Neighborhood Development Science2007 regional conference $130,000 Hill–Oakland Workforce For continued operating support $10,000 Collaborative to train entry- $250,000 Total $84,146,222 level health care workers University of Pittsburgh $100,000 PowerLink, Inc. For regional benchmarking To support the growth of work in the University Center Pennsylvania Assistive women-owned businesses for Social and Urban Research Technology Foundation $50,000 $75,000 For a one-time communications and outreach effort Smart Futures, Inc. University of Pittsburgh $20,000 To support Keys2Work, For a collaborative economic an e-mentoring and career development project with the law Pennsylvania Commission development initiative school and the business school for Community Colleges $100,000 $150,000 For statewide policy work for all 14 Pennsylvania community colleges $75,000

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59 The foundation’s work is Howard Heinz 1877 – 1941 Vira I. Heinz 1888 – 1983 grounded in the legacy established Howard Heinz, the son of Henry John and Sarah In a city known for its active and concerned civic by the two endowments from Young Heinz, was born near Sharpsburg, a suburb leaders, Vira I. Heinz was among the foremost. which it was formed. Founded of Pittsburgh, on August 27, 1877. After graduating She was born Vira M. Ingham in what is now more than four decades apart, the from Shady Side Academy and Yale University, Pittsburgh’s Brighton Heights neighborhood. he began working full time for the H. J. Heinz Co. In 1932, she married Clifford S. Heinz, son of Howard Heinz Endowment and in 1900, serving as advertising manager, sales Henry J. Heinz, founder of the food processing the Vira I. Heinz Endowment manager, vice president and eventually president. company. Clifford Heinz died in 1935. were each the product of a family Long before creating the endowment that During the next fi ve decades, Mrs. Heinz was commitment to community would lead to large-scale philanthropy, Mr. Heinz actively engaged in the philanthropic and civic that began with H. J. Heinz was actively engaged in personal charitable and wwork for which she is now remembered. She did and continues to this day. civic improvement efforts. He took a special so much for so many that it would be impossible interest in programs that would better the lives to list the full range of her activities. A few of the of young people. As a young college graduate, he more prominent included serving as vice president established Covode House, a clubhouse for boys, of the World Council of Christian Education and near the Heinz plant. He also served as an active becoming an active supporter of its work in Africa. director of Sarah Heinz House, a larger development She was a founder of the Civic Light Opera, club for boys and girls on Pittsburgh’s North Side president and principal benefactor of the Pittsburgh that continues to thrive. As president of one of the Youth Symphony, and on the boards of the world’s most recognized businesses, he was one of Pittsburgh Chamber Music Society, Pittsburgh the founders of the Community Fund, one of the Opera and Pittsburgh Symphony Society. early efforts to create organized community-based Mrs. Heinz received the Chancellor’s Medal philanthropy in the United States. He also was a from the University of Pittsburgh and honorary director or fundraising chairman for dozens of degrees from 11 colleges and universities. She was national organizations and campaigns, including a trustee of Chatham College and the fi rst woman service as a trustee for the Carnegie Endowment trustee of Carnegie Mellon University. She served for International Peace. as a member of the board of Children’s Hospital Despite frequently being tapped by governors of Pittsburgh and was an honorary fellow of the and presidents to lead various projects, Mr. Heinz American College of Hospital Administrators. made time for city and regional concerns. All As a member of the H. J. Heinz Co. board of his professional life, he served on the boards of directors, she was the fi rst woman board member important community institutions. He was a of a multinational corporation headquartered in director or trustee of the Pennsylvania Railroad; Pittsburgh. Mellon Bank, N.A.; National Industrial Conference In the spirit of generosity that characterized Board; Pittsburgh Regional Planning Association; her life, Mrs. Heinz provided in her will for the Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce; University of establishment of a charitable foundation. Pittsburgh; Carnegie Institute; Shady Side Academy; Western Pennsylvania Hospital; and the Pittsburgh Symphony Society. He also served as a ruling elder of Shadyside Presbyterian Church. Mr. Heinz was a leader in the creation of Heinz Chapel on the University of Pittsburgh campus as a memorial to his parents. The church serves as a spiritual resource for university students but also is considered one of the country’s architectural gems. Mr. Heinz died on Feb. 9, 1941. He bequeathed his residual estate to the Howard Heinz Endowment for philanthropic purposes.

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BOARD STAFF Education 60 OF DIRECTORS Stanley W. Thompson Management Teresa Heinz, Chairman Program Director Robert F. Vagt James M. Walton, Vice Chairman President Joseph F. Dominic André T. Heinz Program Director, Jack E. Kime 1986 – December 2008 Christopher D. Heinz Vice President, Melanie R. Brown H. John Heinz IV Finance & Administration Program Offi cer Sasha L. Heinz Donna J. Evans Executive Assistant Joann L. Clark Damon Aherne Administrative Secretary Carol R. Brown Bonnie J. Gazda Executive Secretary Environment Frank V. Cahouet Caren E. Glotfelty Judith M. Davenport Arts & Culture Program Director Franco Harris Janet L. Sarbaugh Senior Program Director Anna Marie Lozer Wendy Mackenzie Administrative Secretary Shirley M. Malcom Mary A. Navarro Senior Program Offi cer Communications Barbara Robinson DeWitt Douglas L. Root Justin D. Laing Konrad M. Weis Director of Communications Program Offi cer Drue Heinz, Director Emeritus Carmen J. Lee Cindi A. Stueber Communications Offi cer Administrative Secretary Linda S. Braund Children, Youth & Families Communications Manager Margaret M. Petruska Senior Program Director Linda C. Bannon Administrative Secretary Carmen A. Anderson Senior Program Offi cer Human Resources Stuart B. Redshaw Wayne A. Jones Director of Human Resources Program Offi cer Nancy A. Grejda Linda F. Hall Administrative Secretary Administrative Secretary Finance & Administration Innovation Economy Jack E. Kime Christina Gabriel Vice President, Program Director Finance & Administration Bomani M. Howze Ann C. Plunkett Program Offi cer Controller & Director of Payroll Virginia A. Graziano and Benefi ts Administration Administrative Secretary Cheryl L. Dabat Operations & Systems Manager Denise Ficorilli Accountant Kimberly H. Gillespie Administrative Secretary Linda G. Jones Administrative Services Assistant Connie M. Raymond Receptionist and Grants Assistant

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 60 10/11/08 10:25:25 AM Statement on Diversity The Heinz Endowments values diversity in its many forms. We believe that the future of our community depends on its ability to attract and retain an increasingly diverse population. As a foundation working to advance the common good in this com munity and in our broader society, we have a responsibility to embrace a commitment to inclusiveness as a funda mental operating principle. Therefore, through our grant making and business activities, we seek to promote inclusive practices that broaden the range of perspectives, opinions and experiences available to our grantees, our partners and ourselves. Consistent with this philosophy, the Endowments is an equal opportunity employer. Ability and performance are the primary criteria for success at the foundation. Candidates for employment are considered on the basis of job quali fi cations without regard to race, religion, color, gender, age, national origin, sexual orientation or disability. Promotions and advancement opportunities are also based on the employee’s actual performance, not on any of the above characteristics. Specifi c responsibility for enforcing this policy has been assigned to the president of the foundation.

3691_txtC9_PDF.indd 61 10/11/08 10:25:25 AM THE HEINZ ENDOWMENTS NONPROFIT ORG US POSTAGE Howard Heinz Endowment Vira I. Heinz Endowment PAID 625 Liberty Avenue PITTSBURGH PA 30th Floor PERMIT NO 57 Pittsburgh, PA 15222-3115

412.281.5777 www.heinz.org

Minding their own business. page 6

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