PITTSBURGH, PA, May 29, 2018—The Opportunity Fund announces support totaling $640,550 in its fifth cycle of funding. The Board of Directors funded 59 out of 128 requests that were seeking a total of $2,017,617. A complete list of awarded grants can be found below.
Including the current grant cycle, the foundation has awarded 228 grants totaling over $3 million since its inception in 2015.
1Hood Media ($10,000) for general operating to support community through arts and social justice initiatives.
1Hood Media ($5,000) to support Young Black Motivated Kings & Queens – middle and high school aged youth working to make an impact on community engagement and youth activism.
Adonai Center ($15,000) to support general operating for the continued growth and implementation of the Fellows Program, operations of the Adonai Center, and development of a new strategic plan.
Allies for Health + Wellbeing ($15,000) to support safety net services for people living with HIV.
American Friends Service Committee ($15,000) to support bringing the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond’s Undoing Racism Training to Pittsburgh for adults with the goal of strengthening youth-focused, multi-generational, anti-racist organizing.
Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall ($5,000) to support the “Listen Locally” music series.
Alliance for Refugee Youth Support and Education (ARYSE) ($15,000) to support the summer program, PRYSE Academy, which serves immigrant and refugee youth in middle and high school.
Associated Artists of Pittsburgh ($10,000) to support general operations during a period of expansion of exhibition and professional development opportunities for artists.
Autism Connection of PA ($15,000) to train police/emergency management to detect, encounter, and help people with hidden disabilities, and to support workshops for young people with autism to learn strategies to avoid law enforcement encounters and self-advocate as needed.
Balafon West African Dance Ensemble ($7,500) to support general operations to increase organizational capacity, sustain youth programming, and launch public presentations and workshops that deepen cultural awareness of West African dance and drum.
The Brew House Association ($10,000) to support the 2018/19 Distillery 9 professional development program for emerging artists.
Center of Life ($15,000) to support general operations to ensure that youth and their families receive the skills, education, training, and resources to be strong and to make their communities strong.
The Chamber Orchestra of Pittsburgh ($10,000) to support Pittsburgh performances of Jeffrey Nytch’s “Costa Concordia” and Béla Bartók’s “Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celeste.”
COA Youth & Family Centers ($10,000) to support expanding the reach and impact of youth development programming that empowers young people to realize their full academic, economic, and civic potential.
Community Human Services ($15,000) to support Project Silk, a community health drop-in space geared toward LGBTQIA youth in communities of color. The HIV prevention and care program provides unique pathways to service delivery through an emphasis on arts-based expression and trauma healing workshops.
Craft Emergency Relief Fund (CERF+) ($10,000) to support a safety net of services for artists working in the craft field, and to grow, expand, and diversify their constituency.
Daisy Wilson Artist Community ($20,000) to support general operations of the August Wilson House to implement artistic and business plans, create marketing and communication strategies, assist with inaugural programming, and address capacity.
Fiberarts Guild of Pittsburgh ($15,000) to support the triennial exhibition, Fiberart International 2019, a juried exhibition of contemporary textile-based art open to artists worldwide.
Focus On Renewal ($15,000) to support the Community Resource Center, which connects vulnerable residents of Stowe Township / McKees Rocks Borough to social services, transportation, and economic independence resources.
Fractured Atlas ($7,500) to support multi-disciplinary artists as they ride the 2,007 mile Underground Railroad Bicycle Route from Alabama to Ontario, collecting and archiving histories and responding in public performance, contemporary craft, and graphic recording.
Fractured Atlas ($5,000) to support Musical Theatre Artists of Pittsburgh, a collective of artists working to create new musical theatre through public readings workshops and developmental productions.
G.O Girls ($5,000) to support the “Girl Talk” program which will provide young women transitioning out of foster care with the opportunity to establish a cohort of support among their peers.
Grounded Strategies (formerly GTECH) ($10,000) to support the CommunityCare Pilot Program which recognizes and values resident stewardship of community greenspace by providing support for basic needs and building a network of partners and opportunity.
JUDAH Fellowship Church ($4,000) to support the 2019 Healing the Hurt Conference and JUDAH’s overall mission of creating a platform of faith-based social justice outreach, especially in the areas of sexual orientation, gender identity, and race relations.
Just Harvest ($10,000) to support Just Vote, a nonpartisan voter education and mobilization campaign aimed at improving participation among low-income people in the 2018 general election.
Kelly Strayhorn Theater ($15,000) to support Futuremakers Labs created to forge new works at the intersection of art, entrepreneurship, and social practice, and to expand the role of artists in the cultural transformation in Pittsburgh’s East End.
Kente Arts Alliance ($15,000) to support general operations and a three-year strategic plan for growth and sustainability.
Kinetic Theatre Company ($10,000) to support the fall 2018 season.
Lown Institute ($10,000) to support the Right Care Alliance, a campaign of 15 grassroots chapters across the country—including Right Care Pittsburgh—focused on fighting rising drug costs.
Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild ($15,000) to support general operations for MCG Jazz‘s 2018-19 concert season.
Mon Valley Initiative ($15,000) to support effective career development services, income supports and financial coaching, targeted to the unemployed and under-employed in the Mon Valley region.
National Performance Network & Visual Artists Network ($10,000) to support NPN/VAN’s 2018 conference in Pittsburgh, which will support Pittsburgh’s arts community by providing local artists and arts leaders opportunities for professional development, policy-making, sharing of work, idea exchange, and field-building.
New Hazlett Theatre ($7,500) to support A Letter Compiled From All Letters by Maree ReMalia | merrygogo, an evening-length, contemporary dance production merging live performance and video with movement, sound, and text.
New Sun Rising ($5,750) to support a youth employment training program hosted by Braddock Tiles that fosters skills that will aid youth in advancing toward positive life outcomes by providing meaningful and sustainable community projects.
New Sun Rising ($12,000) to support Global Wordsmiths‘ Language Access Project which recruits and trains bilingual university students and places them with nonprofits that serve immigrants and refugees, thus increasing access through no-cost interpretation and translation.
New Sun Rising ($10,000) to support the sound development of sym., a movement-centered performance art installation inspired by Octavia Butler’s Fledgling by PearlArts Studios | STAYCEE PEARL dance project.
New Sun Rising ($7,500) to support the Social Impact Experience that will partner local organizations working on social and environmental issues with local musicians leading to the creation of new works to be featured at Pittonkatonk 2019.
New Sun Rising ($10,000) to support the development and documentation of Casop: A Requiem for Rice, to be staged in Pittsburgh in 2018.
Pennsylvania Women Work ($10,000) to support general operations with a focus on workforce development programming designed to uplift and empower women and disadvantaged individuals to obtain family-sustaining employment.
Persad Center ($15,000) to support general operations including specialized services to LGBTQ populations that experience health disparities caused by bias and social injustice.
The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust ($5,000) to support Remembering Hiroshima, Imagining Peace to bring in 50 Cities, 50 Traces, an international peace exhibit and related programming that works for the elimination of nuclear weapons and raises awareness of the dangers of nuclear energy.
Pittsburgh Musical Theater ($5,000) to support the Richard E. Rauh Conservatory Scholarship Program which provides financial funding of tuition-based scholarships for low- and moderate-income students ages 4-18 for a theatrical arts education.
Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company ($15,000) to support general operations including the 2018-2019 season of plays, staffing, and facility costs.
Renaissance City Winds ($12,000) to support a professional chamber music concert in Spring 2019, featuring two rarely-heard landmark works for woodwinds and brass.
Repair the World ($5,000) to support the Pittsburgh Communities program which connects eight fellows to nonprofit partners, where they serve directly as volunteers on collaborative projects and model service for hundreds of millennials who volunteer alongside them.
Shared Interest ($10,000) to mobilize resources for Southern Africa’s economically disenfranchised communities to sustain themselves and build equitable nations, with a focus on supporting climate resilience.
Silver Eye Center for Photography ($10,000) to support gallery exhibitions and related programming.
SolidVets ($11,900) to support free high-tech training to transitioning veterans for the purpose of their receiving 3D design certification and job placement.
Swigle.org ($6,400) to support a website with on-line questions and answers about homelessness (and its prevention) in Pittsburgh and the hiring of an expert to promote participation.
Thomas Merton Center ($3,500) to support Harambee’s Backyard Market, a marketplace designed to create community well-being in Homewood.
Thomas Merton Center ($15,000) to support Pittsburghers for Public Transit to work with marginalized communities in their fight to defend and expand public transit, including a campaign to ensure that Pittsburgh’s autonomous vehicle technology benefits our riders, drivers, and our region as a whole.
Ujamaa Collective ($10,000) to support general operations for global fair trade education, cooperative production and marketing among Africana maker communities in Pittsburgh and Africa.
United Somali Bantu of Greater Pittsburgh ($15,000) to support general operations including the continued development of essential social services for Somali Bantu refugees.
Westend POWER ($3,000) to support a community civic series, “It’s Our Collective Responsibility to Vote.”
Women’s Center & Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh ($20,000) to support the Shelter from the Storm Campaign to expand capacity in the emergency shelter.
Women’s Law Project ($20,000) to support general operations for the western Pennsylvania program.
Words Without Walls at Chatham University ($10,000) to support the 2018 Maenad Fellowship Program for women in recovery from substance abuse.
YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh ($12,000) to support the Lighthouse Project, a year-round performing and media arts program at the Homewood-Brushton YMCA, serving high school teens in the distressed communities throughout the east end of Pittsburgh.
YWCA Greater Pittsburgh ($10,000) to support the Women’s Resource Center, a one-stop-shop including tools, resources, and support to help women overcome crises, fulfill their immediate needs, and map out a path to long term economic security.
Grant cycles take place twice a year. Full information about applying for grants as well as a directory of funded programs and projects is available at www.theopportunityfund.org.
CONTACT: Jake Goodman, Executive Director, 412-362-1300, jgoodman@theopportunityfund.org
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