CONTACT: Jake Goodman, Executive Director, jgoodman [at] theopportunityfund.org
PITTSBURGH, PA, June 8, 2021 — The Opportunity Fund announces support totaling $1,112,500 in its seventh year of grantmaking. The increased amount awarded is a result of the Board of Directors’ decision to release funds at rate of 6% of its net assets annually, rather than the minimum of 5% that private foundations are required to payout.
The Board, along with two community panels, funded 70 out of 114 requests that were seeking a total of $1,807,926. A complete list of awarded grants can be found below.
Including this current grant cycle, the foundation has awarded 667 grants totaling over $8.7 million since its inception in 2015. Grant cycles take place twice a year. Letter of Inquiry deadlines are January 15 and July 15 each year. Full information about applying for grants is available in the “For Applicants” area of our website.
Grant Partner List:
1Hood Media ($10,000) to support general operations of Young Black Motivated Kings & Queens. YBMKQ is a community-based organization made up of dedicated young men and women who engage high school-aged youth in becoming the leaders of tomorrow while serving the community.
1Hood Media ($10,000) to support general operations of Black, Young, and Educated. B.Y.E educates Black youth and young adults on topics that affect their everyday lives, to give them better/more accessible opportunities and greater support.
412 Food Rescue ($20,000) to support the expanded use and refinement of their Home Delivery food distribution model. 412 Food Rescue’s mission is to prevent perfectly good food from entering the waste stream by redirecting it to those who are in poverty and experiencing food insecurity.
Abolitionist Law Center ($40,000) to support general operations, with a focus on their Court Watch program which organizes observations of criminal court proceedings in Allegheny County, collects data on court operations and case outcomes, publishes reports and strategic communications, and advocates for judicial policies and practices that further decarceration and racial justice. The ALC is a public interest law firm organized for the purpose of abolishing class and race based mass incarceration in the United States.
Afro-American Music Institute, Inc. ($15,000) to support UHIMWE Alliance’s Bayard Rustin Conference, Black Gay Arts Project, and community engagement efforts to mobilize and unify same-gender-loving and queer people of color to make existence better for themselves and others in pursuit of their future selves.
Allies for Health + Wellbeing ($20,000) to support safety net services for HIV-positive clients, including essential household furniture and household items, especially mattresses and protective items to extend the life of the mattresses. Allies provides integrated medical care, supportive human services, and community-based education for individuals living with, or at risk of HIV, viral hepatitis, and sexually transmitted infections.
American Civil Liberties Foundation of Pennsylvania ($25,000) to support the ACLU-PA’s work on reforming the criminal legal system in Western Pennsylvania by strengthening policy and advocacy capacity in order to support grassroots power-building around bail reform. The grant supports a key staff position of Criminal Justice Policy Counsel.
ARYSE ($10,000) to support PRYSE Academy 2021, a summer program designed to help refugee youth become engaged, confident, and celebrated members within their communities and throughout our world.
August Wilson House ($15,000) to support general operating expenses associated with post-pandemic stabilization and capacity building in 2021. The August Wilson House’s mission is to celebrate the literary and personal legacy of August Wilson and serve as an arts center to nurture the historic Hill District community and arts practitioners and scholars influenced by his work.
Balafon West African Dance Ensemble ($15,000) to support general operations. Funds will support the development of administrative capacity, new programmatic offerings, and expanded staffing. Balafon helps to cultivate an educated and enthusiastic appreciation of West African rhythm and dance traditions to spread joy and offer sources of healing, balance and grounding in the lives of people of all ages and walks of life.
Beaver County Foundation ($10,000) to support Paramount Enterprises’ Inclusive Entrepreneurship Program for aspiring entrepreneurs facing barriers to entrepreneurship, and existing business owners who are struggling in their business because of the negative impacts of COVID-19. Paramount assists participants in their entrepreneurial journey through one-on-one mentoring, seminars, networking, assistance in building strategic partnerships and workspace.
Bodiography ($5,000) to support collaboration between Brazil’s renowned Cisne Negro Dance Company and Pittsburgh’s Bodiography Contemporary Ballet.
Bunker Projects ($10,000) to support the Bunker Projects’ residency program, which invites and hosts emerging artists into a live/work space for extended residency and provides support and tools for artists to build stability into their practice while engaging with the Pittsburgh community.
C-clear Empowerment, Inc. ($10,000) to support general operations and the equitable advancement of Black-led businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs in McKeesport through expert one-on-one individualized coaching, and coordinated ancillary supportive, educational, and financial services.
Catapult Greater Pittsburgh ($10,000) to support Soil Sisters Plant Nursery’s summer youth programming in the Beltzhoover neighborhood. The mission of Soil Sisters is to provide access to naturally grown vegetables, herbs, and flowered seedlings in the inner city targeting food apartheids and neighborhoods that are lacking agricultural resources.
Cave Canem ($10,000) to support Cave Canem’s week-long, annual writing retreat in 2021. Cave Canem is a home for the many voices of Black poetry and is committed to cultivating the artistic and professional growth of African American poets.
Center for Civic Arts ($5,000) to support opportunities for social engagement through diverse art forms, education, creative place-making, and historic preservation. CCA builds healthy, integrated, and dynamic relationships between people and place in Wilkinsburg.
Center of Life ($30,000 over two years) to support general operations as the organization provides families and youth with the life-skills, education, training, and resources necessary to be strong and to make their communities strong.
The Chamber Orchestra of Pittsburgh ($10,000) to support general operations during the 2021-2022 program year. The Chamber Orchestra of Pittsburgh provides performances, education, and related programming with a repertoire that includes works that are familiar, rarely performed, and newly composed.
City of Bridges Community Land Trust ($10,000) to support the City of Bridges CLT to expand strategies to redress the intersections of housing, economic, and racial justice. CBCLT builds community ownership that preserves permanent affordability, empowers individuals, and ensures responsible growth and stewardship.
Community Kitchen Pittsburgh ($10,000) to support culinary training and transitional employment programs for individuals experiencing significant barriers to employment such as low educational attainment, poverty, past or current incarceration, recovery from addiction, transient/unstable housing, and mental illness.
Contemporary Craft ($50,000 over three years) to support general operations. Contemporary Craft engages the public in creative experiences through contemporary craft, based on the fundamental idea that access to the arts for all can lead to more fulfilling individual lives, a healthier community, and a more engaged civic society.
Crop and Kettle ($5,000) to support the Roots to Fruits: Personal and Workforce Development program, a farm-to-table workforce training program offered to qualifying adults who are eager to overcome barriers to employment and break cycles of generational poverty in their families.
Cultivating Resilient Youth ($15,000) to support general operations. Cultivating Resilient Youth empowers, educates and mentors youth for success in life through program development and academic preparation, while creating and providing opportunities for social change to build a strong foundation for successful future.
East End Cooperative Ministry ($10,000) to support general operations. For 50 years, EECM has responded to community needs with programs that provide opportunity, transformation and hope to those experiencing homelessness, food insecurity, educational challenges, and barriers to employment.
East End United Community Center ($15,000) to support Shaping Our Convictions, Healing Our Community, a community dialogue project in Fayette County with the intention of sparking community transformation that replaces the long-standing distrust, avoidance, and unhealthy coping techniques of addressing and processing difficult social and political topics and histories of trauma with a culture of healthy dialogue and deliberation.
Forward Allies for Mental and Reproductive Health ($10,000) to support general operations. Forward Allies is a collaborative effort to support birthing people, birthing families, and birthing communities through education, facilitation, and advocacy by actively reducing barriers to quality reproductive and mental health care.
Front Porch Theatricals ($7,500) to support general operations and Front Porch’s 10th Season, postponed from 2020. The mission of Front Porch is to provide professional, high-quality musical theater productions featuring Pittsburgh’s diverse actor, artistic and technical talent base.
Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council ($15,000) to support general operations of the Office of Public Art (OPA). OPA envisions a region in which the creative practices of artists are fully engaged to collaboratively shape the public realm and catalyze community-led change. OPA builds capacity for this work through civically engaged public art, artist resources, public programming, and technical assistance.
Grow Pittsburgh ($15,000) to support general operations and a smooth transition of organizational leadership. Grow Pittsburgh teaches people how to grow food and promote the benefits that gardens bring to our neighborhoods.
H.O.P.E. for Tomorrow ($15,000) to support general operations. H.O.P.E. for Tomorrow develops youth, in partnership with their families, to compete in the global community by addressing academic, socio-economic and relational risk factors.
Handmade Arcade ($5,000) to support Pittsburgh’s maker movement by providing craft-based artists, designers, and makers with opportunities to sell products, build community, network, and share their artistic practice. The organization will work to increase BIPOC and LGBTQ+ representation in its maker and consumer audiences.
Health GAP ($15,000) to support grassroots organizing to respond to the dual pandemics of COVID-19 and HIV in the hardest hit communities in the U.S. and around the world, building power in directly impacted communities to demand equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. Health GAP is a global advocacy organization dedicated to ensuring that people living with HIV access life sustaining medicines, that there is sufficient funding to ensure access, and that HIV programs deliver quality care.
Hill Dance Academy Theatre ($10,000) to support A Black Bead Story : : The Digital Spectacles, a series of performance-based short films, called spectacles, which specialize in masquerade arts, including costuming, accessory and implement design, dance, and spoken word featuring densely beaded works.
Hill District Consensus Group ($15,000) to support general operations of The Black Urban Gardeners and Farmers of Pittsburgh Co-op (BUGS), including the education of Black growers through classes on beekeeping and farming methods that are sustainable for the production of organic honey and the preservation of bees. The mission of BUGS is to establish, educate and assist Black people for sustainability and food sovereignty.
Jewish Family and Community Services of Pittsburgh ($60,000 over two years) to maintain the expanded capacity of JFCS Immigration Legal Services to serve vulnerable immigrants, especially immigrant children, throughout the Pittsburgh region by offering virtual legal services and community-based office hours through partner organizations.
Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh ($15,000) to support the Holocaust Center‘s LIGHT (Leadership through Innovation in Genocide and Human rights Teaching) Education Program. LIGHT prepares middle and high school students to lead the charge for cultural change through education designed to inspire and empower students to become leaders in the fight for human rights.
Kelly Strayhorn Theater ($45,000 over three years) to support general operations and a partnership with PearlArts Studios to increase the platform for dance in Pittsburgh.
KidsVoice ($20,000) to support the Bootstrap Project, which removes barriers to independent living faced by youth aging out of foster care by providing legal representation related to housing, employment, and more. KidsVoice advocates in court and in the community to ensure a safe and permanent home for abused, neglected and at-risk children.
Landforce ($15,000) to support general operations and evaluation planning. Landforce leverages environmental stewardship jobs for people who have been systemically marginalized from the employment sector to build a firmer future for themselves and their families, while benefiting Pittsburgh’s environment.
Lawrenceville United ($5,000) to support the Lawrenceville “Neighbors In Need” fund to provide emergency financial assistance to residents and small businesses.
Legacy Arts Project ($10,000) to support general operations for Sabira Family Collective which hosts and presents the Sabira Cole Film Festival, continuing the legacy of the Sembène Film Festival by holding an annual juried festival of new independent films, based in Pittsburgh, but accessible internationally online.
Legacy Arts Project ($30,000 over two years) to support general operations. Legacy Arts Project preserves the history and traditions of African art as presented throughout the diaspora through education, interaction, and presentation.
MICAH ($30,000 over two years) to support general operations and the hiring of a full-time organizer. Milwaukee Inner city Congregations Allied for Hope (MICAH) is a multi-racial, faith-based organization addressing a range of social justice issues. MICAH’s goal is to empower people to act together in pursuit of justice and to organize so that people of many traditions can come together with one voice for justice.
Millvale Community Library ($5,000) to support the Millvale Free Fridge project by which residents can access free, nutritional food, along with programming around food justice and systems of mutual aid for youth and adults in and around Millvale.
National Council of Jewish Women Pittsburgh ($10,000) to support NCJW’s Center for Women which provides educational programs, networking, and systems change for women seeking financial stability, with a growing emphasis on working mothers.
New Sun Rising ($15,000) to support Brown Mamas in the development of the GROW Mama Mentoring Cohort. The cohort will work with mothers in Allegheny County to strengthen their fundamental knowledge of the purpose and function of solid parenting, and to assist them with building the village of support needed during their mothering years.
The Open Door, Inc. ($30,000 over two years) to support general operations. The Open Door provides housing and wrap around services to individuals living with HIV and other mental and and substance issues. Building from a harm reduction model, The Open Door provides supportive housing and related services to improve the health of the forgotten population of high-risk, chronically homeless people living with HIV.
Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity ($15,000) to help launch the new Pardon Project of Allegheny County, including compensation for a Pardon Fellow with lived experience of incarceration, to be selected by Pittsburgh Community Services, Inc.
Pittsburgh Glass Center ($15,000) to support general operations through artistic activities such as classes, outreach, artist residencies, exhibitions, and studio rental. Pittsburgh Glass Center cultivates an inclusive and welcoming environment that encourages everyone, from the casually curious to the master artist, to learn, create, and be inspired by glass.
Pittsburgh Musical Theater ($5,000) to support need-based financial aid for students of PMT’s Conservatory. This aid provides opportunity for students with financial need to engage in arts education, develop transferrable life skills, engage with a diverse creative community, and build confidence in a nurturing environment.
Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble ($12,500) to support general operations and PNME’s virtual and immersive 2021 season. PNME commissions, performs, and presents new work in ways that challenge, engage, and inspire communities.
Pittsburgh Public Media ($15,000) to support WZUM, the radio station also known as “the Pittsburgh Jazz Channel”. WZUM works with performers, educators, institutions and music lovers to help build and sustain a community that supports and embraces this great American and Pittsburgh treasure of jazz.
POWER (Pennsylvania Organization for Women in Early Recovery) ($10,000) to support the evaluation of POWER’s new Detox Rehab program. POWER helps women reclaim their lives from addiction and related emotional health issues and improve the well-being of future generations.
Prime Stage Theatre ($7,500) to support general operations. Prime Stage’s mission is to entertain, inspire, and enrich audiences of all ages, diversities, and challenges through professional theatre.
Project Love Coalition ($10,000) to support the Agri Green Space and Learning Garden/Farm model project, a training and outreach program located in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, designed to introduce farming training for African/Americans to the agri-business industry.
Proud Haven ($15,000) to support general operations and an emergency housing program expansion to serve more individuals and to extend their stays. Proud Haven’s mission is to provide a safe shelter for LGBTQIA+ youth (ages 18-25) and adults experiencing homelessness in Pittsburgh. Proud Haven also provides emotional support and resources to help LGBTQIA+ youth develop the skills needed to live independently.
Radiant Hall ($12,500) to support general operations as Radiant Hall continues to build a vibrant and sustainable support model for Pittsburgh’s working artists, centered around affordable studio space.
The Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka ($15,000) to support Gift to America 2.0: New Voices. New Walls. This program will enable the creation of four original works through the commission of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) or immigrant artists reflecting on the issues of social justice and/or the immigrant experience.
Sojourner House ($10,000) to support Sojourner House MOMS. The program offers comprehensive support services and safe, independent housing for families who are experiencing homelessness and recovering from addiction.
Thomas Merton Center ($15,000) to support general operations. The mission of Thomas Merton Center is to build a consciousness of values and to raise the moral questions involved in the issues of war, poverty, racism, classism, economic justice, human rights, and environmental justice.
Three Rivers Young Peoples Orchestras ($12,500) to support general operations and TRYPO’s 2021-22 season programming. TRYPO creates a dynamic, inclusive community where young people are inspired to pursue a lifelong passion for music.
United Somali Bantu of Greater Pittsburgh ($37,500 over two years) to support general operations including staff hours for growing client needs, long term program development, and the creation of a financial sustainability plan. USBGP’s mission is to build community amidst the Somali Bantu of Greater Pittsburgh through enabling individuals and families to successfully acclimate and transition to self-sufficient life in American society by providing direct practical assistance and connecting people to other resources and opportunities.
United States Artists ($32,500 over two years) to support a 2022 USA Fellowship for an artist in the greater Pittsburgh community. United States Artists awards up to fifty $50,000 unrestricted Fellowships to the most compelling artists working and living in the United States, representing every demographic, and at every career stage. With this unrestricted award, recipients decide for themselves how to best use the money – whether it is creating new work, paying rent, reducing debt, getting healthcare, or supporting their families.
Veterans Place of Washington Boulevard ($10,000) to support life-sustaining services to the homeless veteran population around the Pittsburgh area, while remaining a safe environment for this vulnerable population. Veterans Place empowers veterans’ transition from homeless to home, ending the cycle of homelessness, and to assist all at-risk veterans to become engaged, valuable citizens who contribute to their communities.
Western Pennsylvania Fund for Choice ($20,000) to ensure that lack of funds is never a barrier to accessing safe, respectful abortion care for anyone in the region who needs it.
Western Pennsylvania Fund for Choice ($15,000) to support general operations of the Allegheny Reproductive Health Center (ARHC) for their programs and services providing affordable, comprehensive reproductive healthcare for all who need it. ARHC offers obstetric and gynecological care, abortion care, in-office and in-hospital surgical procedures, options counseling, full spectrum doula care, and services specialized to the LGBTQIA+ community.
Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra ($10,000) to support “Moving Forward Together After COVID-19,” a concert to help to start the healing process post COVID-19. The Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra provides musical enrichment through high quality performance and education to a broad-based audience in the Westmoreland region.
Willissae’s Agency for Vision and Empowerment (WAVE) ($10,000) to support general operations. WAVE empowers individuals who face barriers to discover and reach their potential through education, housing counseling, social services, long-term support and community development.
Zellous Hope Project ($15,000) to support general operations and the continuation of services to those in need of economic and social stability. Zellous Hope Project provides a bridge over the holes on the road to living better.
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