Anniversary Issue 24 Wise Rhymes As an Art Form, Hip-Hop Off Ers Young People an Amazing Menu of Choices for Personal Expression
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THE HEINZ ENDOWMENTS NONPROFIT ORG anniversary US POSTAGE Howard Heinz Endowment issue Vira I. Heinz Endowment PAID 625 Liberty Avenue PITTSBURGH PA 30th Floor Pittsburgh, PA 15222-3115 PERMIT NO 57 412.281.5777 www.heinz.org Bust some rhymes. page 24 10 YEARS OF STORYTELLING: h , THE MAGAZINE OF THE HEINZ ENDOWMENTS The coated pages of this magazine were printed on Opus Dull, which has among the highest post-consumer waste content of any premium coated paper. Opus is third-party certifi ed according to the chain-of- custody standards of FSC® and SFI.® The electricity used to make it comes from Green-e certifi ed renewable energy. The uncoated pages were printed on FSC-certifi ed Domtar Cougar, which is made with 10% post-consumer reclaimed fi ber. inside Board of Directors The Heinz Endowments was formed state of knowledge and practice in the from the Howard Heinz Endowment, fi elds in which we work. Our fi elds of Teresa Heinz established in 1941, and the Vira I. emphasis include philanthropy in Chairman Heinz Endowment, established in 1986. general and the disciplines represented James M. Walton It is the product of a deep family by our fi ve grant-making programs: Vice chairman commitment to community and the Arts & Culture; Children, Youth & common good that began with H.J. Families; Education; Environment; André T. Heinz Heinz, and that continues to this day. and Innovation Economy. Christopher D. Heinz The Endowments is based in In life, Howard Heinz and Vira I. H. John Heinz IV Pittsburgh, where we use our region Heinz set high expectations for their Sasha L. Heinz as a laboratory for the development philanthropy. Today, the Endowments Damon Aherne of solutions to challenges that are is committed to doing the same. Carol R. Brown national in scope. Although the majority Our charge is to be diligent, thoughtful Judith M. Davenport of our giving is concentrated within and creative in continually working Franco Harris southwestern Pennsylvania, we to set new standards of philanthropic Wendy Mackenzie work wherever necessary, including excellence. Recognizing that none Shirley M. Malcom state wide and nationally, to fulfi ll of our work would be possible without James E. Rohr our mission. a sound fi nancial base, we also are That mission is to help our region committed to preserving and enhancing Drue Heinz thrive as a whole community— the Endowments’ assets through Director emeritus 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 We interrupt our regular programming to indulge in a brief celebration of 10 years of storytelling about Heinz Endowments grant making in the region. In the assortment of photographs from the decade, we recognize our grantees, community partners and fellow foundation members whose generous sharing of their experiences have made the stories (and the learning from them) possible. Please remove your party hat before proceeding inside as we begin the storytelling for another decade. 2 Message 7 SPECIAL SECTION Medium & Message: Celebrating 10 Years A decade that opened with the creation of this magazine as the Endowments’ main platform for sharing its learning now closes in the midst of a communications technology revolution that has added booster rockets to the foundation’s storytelling. An essay traces the journey vol. 10 issues 2 & 3 2011 from then to wow. anniversary issue 24 Wise Rhymes As an art form, hip-hop off ers young people an amazing menu of choices for personal expression. And now philanthropies are leading them to rapping, emceeing, DJ gigs, dancing and graffi ti painting with the goal of using performances to encourage better life choices. 32 United Front When two regional foundations at opposite ends of Pennsylvania join forces, there is a strategic recognition that solving homegrown problems and mining great local opportunities increasingly require a statewide reach. 42 Cleanup Crew CEOs pat them on the back, environmentalists hug them and co-workers love them. In fact, some people believe they have the best jobs going. 50 here & there message Barry Lavery By Teresa Heinz Chairman, The Heinz Endowments 3 n the fall of 2001, after a series of discussions about the need to share what we were learning from our philanthropic work, we at the Endowments created a quarterly magazine. The hope was that, as a regular publication, h would ensure a steady stream of instructive storytelling about what we were doing well in the Pittsburgh region and what we were doing less well. 4 At that time in the world of philanthropy, this teenage daughters at her side, shared tears and smiles idea was an outlier. The notion that a regional and hugs with a line of people that to her in her foun dation would commit resources to report on its fatigue and heartbreak must have seemed to stretch grant making was just beginning to gain currency. forever. Many in the sector continued to cling to the old We had never met before, but she recognized me. comfort line that good grant making speaks for itself “Thank you so much for coming,” she said, “because and bad grant making does not speak at all. I know you understand.” Foundations that reached out to explain strategies Pain is intensely personal, and I didn’t want to and decisions on grants were risking public suggest otherwise. Certainly the scale of the attacks reaction — even, God forbid, public accountability. that took her husband, of what happened to him For us, these were exactly the outcomes we and to our nation on September 11, was — and we hoped to encourage. Now, against the backdrop of a pray will remain — utterly unique. But yes, that decade’s worth of letters, emails, mainstream news soul-wrenching sense of sudden, irrevocable loss, reporting, and community actions generated from the anguished private face of public tragedy, I the scores of in-depth stories and hundreds of understood. compelling photographs presented in h, I believe we Twenty years ago, on April 4, 1991, my late are achieving our goals. There is greater public under - husband, John Heinz, was on his way to Philadelphia standing of our increasingly complex work and, as a to conduct a hearing into allegations of fraud and result, deeper involvement from com munity partners. abuse in the nation’s nursing homes. He never made The increased interaction also reminds us that some it. For reasons that can be explained but never truly of the best ideas for improving quality of life in com- understood, the plane in which he was a passenger munities come from the communities themselves. collided with a helicopter in midair. For all of us Inside the philanthropic sector, I believe that h who lost people we loved that day, and for others and the Endowments’ website, with an impressive who were injured, the world changed forever in that list of awards from national philanthropy and moment. regional journalism competitions, have served as In the years since these two searing events — one models of what foundations stand to gain when they a personal tragedy that rippled through the country, report on their actions and commit to other acts of the other a national calamity that sent shockwaves transparency that demystify grant-making decisions. through the world — I have been reminded time For all these reasons, the creation of h was an and again about the recurring value of storytelling. important growth milestone in the life of the It helps us memorialize what we have lost, celebrate Endowments. It also stands as an intensely personal what we hold dear and learn from both so that we marker for me. can be better at what we do going forward. As the inaugural issue was being readied for In his fi nal public statement as chairman of the printing, the terrorist attacks of September 11 shook Endowments, my late husband wrote of a new com- the world. I wrote in that fi rst message about the mitment to use southwestern Pennsylvania as a memorial service in Massachusetts that my hus- “laboratory” for developing solutions to problems band, John Kerry, and I attended for one of the air- that are national in scope. He argued that founda- line pilots killed in the attacks. I watched in awe as tions, in addition to being engines of opportunity, the captain’s widow, an incredibly brave woman, her Lyra Nacke, 2, of Atlanta, is a testament to the enduring truth that life goes on as she walks past the Flight 93 National Memorial’s Wall of Names outside Shanksville, Pa. The wall bears the name of her uncle, Louis J. “Joey” Nacke II, who died on United Flight 93. With her family, Lyra attended September ceremonies that commemorated the 10th anniversary of the 2001 terrorist strikes. 55 Just a few weeks after the September 11 attacks, I wrote in the inaugural issue of h also must be engines of learning. He believed that, about people in our region by documenting and sharing the lessons they learn, Copyright © Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2011, all rights reserved. Reprinted with permission. Reprinted 2011, all rights reserved. Post-Gazette, © Pittsburgh Copyright foundations could greatly enhance their benefi ts and hungering for insights into extend their reach.