CONTACT:
Jake Goodman, Opportunity Fund Executive Director
jgoodman [at] theopportunityfund.org, 412-362-1300
PITTSBURGH, PA, November ___, 2026 — Opportunity Fund announces grantmaking support in the total amount of $1,390,000 to 64 partners in the second half of 2026. The foundation reviewed 211 requests for funding, requesting almost $2.9 million. This year the foundation increased their payout from 6.0% to 6.5% of total assets.
[More here soon]
1Hood Media Academy ($20,000), acting as fiscal sponsor, to support the Antwon Rose II Foundation’s The 7th Day. The 7th Day is a restorative retreat created by and for Pittsburgh mothers who have lost children to community and police violence. The Antwon Rose II Foundation continues the work that Antwon Rose II was doing during his life on earth and advocates for police reform.
Abortion Liberation Fund of PA ($10,000) to provide auxiliary support for a partner comprehensive reproductive healthcare center located in Allegheny County. The Abortion Liberation Fund of PA ensures and expands abortion access for people experiencing poverty through direct service and community organizing.
Allied Network for Social Assistance and Resources (ANSAR) of Pittsburgh ($10,000) to provide flexible, general operating support. ANSAR helps immigrant, refugee, and asylum-seeking families navigate the practical challenges of building a life in a new community. ANSAR strengthens Pennsylvanian communities by empowering immigrants to set new roots, become active society members, and promote an understanding and tolerance of cultural differences.
Alma|Lewis ($60,000 over three years) to provide flexible, general operating and programming support for the organization’s newly renovated space for visual and literary artists of the African diaspora. Alma|Lewis is an experimental contemporary art platform for critical thinking, constructive dialogue, and creative expression dedicated to Black culture.
Arise Immigration Services ($15,000) to provide flexible, general operating support. Arise Immigration Services has a dual mission. First, they provide high-quality, pro bono legal services to immigrants in the Pittsburgh area, focusing on asylum. Second, they provide training and mentoring to advocates around the country so that they can learn how to serve immigrants in their own communities.
Assemble ($10,000) to provide flexible, general operating support.
Assemble envisions a world where learning and creating are transformative experiences and where all people are equipped with the tools to make a difference, together. Assemble uses learning as a tool to create a more equitable future for youth and learners in the Pittsburgh region and beyond.
August Wilson House ($20,000) to provide flexible, general operating support. The August Wilson House promotes the literary and social legacy of August Wilson through the restoration of his boyhood home in Pittsburgh’s Hill District neighborhood. It fosters and promotes greater appreciation for and understanding of African-American literature, the performing arts and the literary and social legacy of August Wilson.
Autism Urban Connections ($15,000) to provide flexible, general operating support. Autism Urban Connections empowers families affected by autism through comprehensive resources, culturally responsive support, and advocacy that creates meaningful connections and sustainable pathways to success.
Bach Choir of Pittsburgh ($17,500) to support the culminating artistic event of Thomas W. Douglas’s 22-year tenure as Artistic Director and Conductor, Requiem by composer Nancy Gailbraith. Bach Choir of Pittsburgh performs innovative choral music for arts-loving audiences by presenting unique artistic experiences drawn from a variety of musical genres and diverse cultural traditions.
Beaver County Foundation ($15,000), acting as fiscal sponsor, to support Royally Fit’s Black Maternal Wellness Initiative, a program that expands equitable access to culturally responsive wellness education, restorative self-care practices, and healing-centered social services for those disproportionately impacted by economic and systemic inequities. Royally Fit is a community-based holistic healthcare organization and farm space providing herbal remedies, programming and services for whole body wellness.
Beltzhoover Consensus Group (BCG) ($10,000) to provide flexible, general operating support. Funds will help support the organization to continue the contract of a Real Estate Project Manager position to assist its real estate efforts. BCG develops new construction and rehab for resale of mixed use quality housing, and provides other resources needed to sustain healthy prosperous lifestyles for residents of Pittsburgh’s Beltzhoover neighborhood.
Bhutanese Community Association of Pittsburgh (BCAP) ($10,000) to provide flexible, general operating support. Funding will support BCAP to maintain its suite of services while adapting to respond to emerging and immediate needs in the community. BCAP ensures a high quality of life for all members of the Bhutanese community in Pittsburgh and supports their integration into American society through culturally-informed services and activities.
Bricolage Production Company ($60,000 over three years) to provide flexible, general operating support. As it enters its 25th year and opens a new home at Community Forge, these funds will help sustain Bricolage’s artists, staff, and programs as the company creates adventurous live work. Bricolage is a company led by artists that expands the boundaries of theater to create transformative experiences. Bricolage embraces ‘what’s at hand’ to cultivate collaborative environments that promote wonder and possibility.
Carnegie Mellon University ($7,500) to support the Pittsburgh Queer History Project’s volunteer archives program. Funds will expand monthly public trainings in audiovisual preservation, strengthen documentation of LGBTQIA+ life in Pittsburgh, and sustain an intergenerational network of 70 artists and volunteers whose creative practice builds on the success of the Ms. 89 archives collaborations. The Pittsburgh Queer History Project promotes community-centered preservation through public educational events, institutional partnerships, and person to person archival services.
Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) ($10,000) to support workforce development services for justice-impacted Pittsburgh residents who are at high risk of recidivism. CEO provides immediate, effective, and comprehensive employment services exclusively to people recently released from incarceration. CEO ensures that justice-impacted job seekers have opportunities to achieve social and economic mobility.
Chamber Music Pittsburgh ($60,000 over three years) to provide flexible, general operating support. Chamber Music Pittsburgh presents world-class chamber music ensembles and soloists, promising emerging artists, and innovative programs; and fosters an appreciation for chamber music in the Pittsburgh community by offering educational programs and experiences.
Chatham Baroque ($10,000) to support the 35th anniversary season of historically informed concerts, educational programs, and community engagement. Chatham Baroque connects diverse audiences to the passion and depth of the music of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, and Early Classical periods through performing and presenting vivid and compelling programs and educational experiences.
City of Asylum Pittsburgh ($60,000 over three years) to provide flexible, general operating support. City of Asylum builds a just community by protecting and celebrating freedom of creative expression. They provide sanctuary to endangered writers and artists, offer a broad range of free literary, arts, and humanities programs in a community setting to build social equity through cultural exchange, and anchor neighborhood economic development by transforming dilapidated properties into homes for their programs.
City of Bridges Community Land Trust ($20,000) to provide flexible, general operating support. City of Bridges builds community ownership that preserves permanent affordability, empowers individuals, and ensures responsible growth and stewardship.
Crafting the Future ($20,000) to support the Pittsburgh Residency and to provide scholarship support. Crafting the Future will support nine artists of color through these programs in Pittsburgh, in partnership with the Pittsburgh Glass Center, Touchstone Center for Crafts, and Anderson Ranch Arts Center. Crafting the Future provides artists of color access to transformative opportunities in order to build a future free from systemic barriers to success.
Creative Citizen Studios ($20,000) to provide flexible, general operating support.
These funds will help the organization sustain a professional, inclusive and affordable studio environment where artists with intellectual and developmental disabilities can create, exhibit and sell their work. Creative Citizen Studios uses art to bring people of all abilities together.
Disability Pride Pennsylvania ($5,000), acting as fiscal sponsor, to support the work of Access Mob Pittsburgh with flexible, general operating support. Access Mob Pittsburgh is a disability-led organization that welcomes people of all abilities to the table that brings the entire Pittsburgh community together to promote social advancement through positive change.
Dreams of Hope ($10,000), acting as fiscal sponsor, to support the work of Black Dream Escape with flexible, general operating support. Funds will support the completion of Black Dream Escape’s second album, maintenance of their social media presence, and fulfillment of their un-work book. Black Dream Escape is a therapeutic arts practice that focuses on Black and Indigenous rest/sleep/dreams.
Eden’s Farm ($15,000) to provide flexible, general operating support. Eden’s Farm provides a safe place, trauma-informed holistic care, and resources to survivors of human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation. They provide education, through outreach efforts, and build solid partnerships with existing organizations in order to create a cohesive united community.
The Embodiment Institute ($10,000) to provide flexible, general operating support. The Embodiment Institute changes the conversation, practice and politics of healing through strategic training and interventions at interpersonal, organizational, cultural and environmental scales.
Evolve Coaching ($10,000) to provide flexible, general operating support.
Funds will help the organization to sustain and expand specialized programs for disabled and neurodivergent people that include individualized coaching, workforce development, inclusive arts and media, and community-based supports. Evolve Coaching supports disabled and neurodivergent community members – and their networks – through specialized programs that promote autonomy and improve quality of life.
Filipino American Association of Pittsburgh (Fil-Am PGH) ($20,000) to support the Fil-Am PGH Dance Troupe, which helps to preserve Filipino folk performing arts and expand access to Filipino culture. Fil-Am PGH preserves, promotes, and perpetuates the Filipino heritage among our members and the general public through cultural, charitable and educational activities.
Focus On Renewal ($10,000) to provide flexible, general operating support as it expands critical food security and emergency assistance services for individuals and families in the Sto-Rox community. Funding will help provide nutritious food and essential emergency resources—including groceries, rent, utilities, transportation, diapers, and hygiene supplies—to help vulnerable residents meet immediate needs, remain stable, and move toward long-term self-sufficiency. Focus On Renewal supports community members through programs for all aimed toward the development and sustainability of a healthy mind, body and spirit.
Foundation for Independent Artists ($15,000), acting as fiscal sponsor, to support Ephrat Asherie Dance’s Creation Residency at New Hazlett Theater. This grant will support the creation of a multi-disciplinary dance work in collaboration with acclaimed children’s author Mo Willems, Grammy Award-winning Third Coast Percussion, and Pittsburgh artists Teena Marie and Ron Chunn Jr., and projection designer Neil Henke. After its preview at the New Hazlett Theater, it will premiere at 92NY in NYC. Ephrat Asherie Dance celebrates and brings awareness to the history, expansiveness and vastness of street and club dance culture by creating and sharing innovative performance workshops and classes, and creating platforms for dialogue across the field.
Free Migration Project ($10,000), acting as fiscal sponsor, to support the Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition (PIC) as it implements the coordinated statewide plan written by PIC members. PIC promotes, defends, and advances immigrant rights throughout Pennsylvania by building power in immigrant communities and advocating with a coordinated voice to establish welcoming public policies.
Guardians of Sound & The Hip Hop Orchestra ($20,000) to provide flexible, general operating support. Funds will help sustain year-long music lessons and a summer music camp that primarily serve Black youth. Guardians of Sound and its Hip Hop Orchestra enrich life and lives through music.
Healthy Start Pittsburgh ($52,500 over three years) to strengthen its Community Health Advocate (CHA) leadership pipeline by investing in Black mothers as community leaders. Funding will expand leadership and career development opportunities for CHA program graduates while helping to sustain a model that advances maternal and child health equity and community well-being across Allegheny County. Healthy Start improves maternal and child health and reduces poor birth outcomes and infant mortality.
Housing Opportunities Inc. (HOI) ($15,000) to provide flexible, general operating support. HOI is a HUD-approved housing counseling agency and community development corporation serving Beaver, Lawrence, Mercer, and Allegheny counties. HOI expands access to safe, affordable housing and increases pathways to homeownership for low- and moderate-income families through education, financial empowerment, and community-based development.
Infinite Lifestyle Solutions ($10,000) to provide flexible, general operating support. Grant funds will support the continuation of mental health therapies and services for middle and high school students. Infinite Lifestyle Solutions is a nonprofit team of professional and volunteer mental health and education specialists creating safe spaces for kids and families to heal from the impacts of community violence.
Ìyá Pittsburgh Project ($15,000), acting as fiscal sponsor, to support The Ginkgo Collective with flexible, general operating support. The Ginkgo Collective expands medical transition autonomy and bolsters Pittsburgh’s transgender/transsexual community. The Ginkgo Collective empowers the trans community with the skills, knowledge, and resources needed to increase our autonomy regarding medical transition, both in formal healthcare settings and independently.
Kente Arts Alliance ($20,000) to provide flexible, general operating support. Kente Arts Alliance is an African-American arts organization that presents high quality art of the African Diaspora. In its 19th year, Kente aims to present programming that entertains, informs and inspires residents of underserved communities.
Lets Get Free: The Women & Trans Prisoner Defense Committee ($60,000 over three years) to provide flexible, general operating support. Let’s Get Free: The Women and Trans Prisoner Defense Committee is a group working to end perpetual punishment, build a pathway out of the prisons back to our communities through commutation reform, support successful possibilities for people formerly and currently incarcerated, and shift to a culture of transformative justice.
Lighthouse Arts ($7,500) to support its A Beacon of Jazz concert series, Brilliant Corners jazz education series, and Jazz Workshop to cultivate new audiences for America’s most original art form. Lighthouse Arts acknowledges, celebrates, documents and supports those individuals who creatively represent jazz by utilizing concerts that are held in the area’s best performance venues.
Macedonia FACE ($15,000) to provide flexible, general operating support. Funds will help stabilize FACE’s HIV/AIDS case management services following recent federal funding reductions, and help individuals living with HIV/AIDS stay connected to care, housing, food, transportation, and other critical supports. FACE encourages the development of healthy families.
Mon Valley Unemployed Committee (MVUC) ($15,000) to provide flexible, general operating support. MVUC empowers workers to navigate a notoriously complex unemployment system and secure the benefits they’ve rightfully earned. Guided by the principle that those who rely on the system should shape it, MVUC identifies systemic failures and drives policy change.
New Century Careers ($5,000) to provide flexible, general operating support. Funds will support the Manufacturing 2000 (M2K) pre-apprenticeship program to serve more Southwest PA residents through high-quality, tuition-free training and meaningful employment. New Century Careers is a nonprofit manufacturer and technical skills development organization serving the SWPA community through inclusive access to technical training opportunities while helping employers find and develop technicians seeking purpose, passion and success in the workplace.
New Horizon Theater ($60,000 over three years) to provide flexible, general operating support. New Horizon Theater brings to the greater Pittsburgh area consistent, high-quality cultural events, reflecting the African-American points of view, and provides an ongoing venue for ethnic writers and performers to further their professional development.
New Sun Rising ($75,000 over three years), acting as fiscal sponsor, to support DEMASKUS Theater Collective with flexible, general operating support and development funding for Temple & Tabernacle, a regional rest-space initiative for women. DEMASKUS is a Pittsburgh-based, Black-led theater collective founded in 2006 to tell soulful, unapologetically Black, faith-rooted stories for people who rarely see themselves centered on stage. DEMASKUS Theater Collective creates and produces with courage.
North Side Christian Health Center ($10,000) to provide flexible, general operating support. Grant funds will strengthen the federally qualified health center’s Uncompensated Care Fund, helping to ensure uninsured patients can access health care without delaying or forgoing needed services. North Side Christian Health Center provides whole-person primary health care to underserved persons on the Northside and surrounding neighborhoods.
Operation Amani ($12,500) to provide flexible, general operating support. Grant funds will primarily strengthen the Reentry Engagement Program, which serves individuals returning home through mental health programs that utilize trauma-informed care to address unresolved psychological and generational impacts. Operation Amani helps individuals successfully reintegrate into society, heal from past trauma, and build a positive future through mentorship and resource development.
Pennsylvania Innocence Project ($10,000) to serve more wrongfully convicted people and to build community awareness following the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision in the Allegheny County case of Commonwealth v. Derek Lee, which changes the landscape for innocence work in the state. The ruling may allow clients convicted of felony murder to come home while they continue to fight to clear their names. The Pennsylvania Innocence Project exonerates those convicted of crimes they did not commit, prevents innocent people from being prosecuted and convicted, and helps those wrongfully convicted transition to freedom.
Pittsburgh Center for Arts & Media ($10,000) to support the 2026-2027 Ceramics Artist-in-Residence Program. The residency program provides one emerging ceramic artist with nine months of studio time, complimentary housing, a monthly stipend, access to a fully equipped ceramics facility, and a solo exhibition of new work developed during the residency. Pittsburgh Center for Arts & Media cultivates a thriving arts community by bringing people together through education, exhibitions, and experiences.
Pittsburgh Glass Center ($60,000 over three years) to provide flexible, general operating support. 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. The Glass Center promotes glass art creation and appreciation.
Prevention Point Pittsburgh ($15,000) to provide flexible, general operating support. Prevention Point Pittsburgh promotes and advocates for the reduction of harms associated with injection and other forms of drug use and reduces the risk of HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C, other blood borne infections, and overdose.
Prime Stage Theatre ($10,000) to provide flexible, general operating support.
Prime Stage Theatre brings great literature and history to life through the transformative process of live theatre to entertain, inform, enrich, and inspire audiences with engaging programs that deliver long-lasting benefits to theatregoers and families.
Reimagine Reentry ($12,500) to provide flexible, general operating support. Funds will support the organization’s pre-release programming, reentry coaching, workforce development, and violence prevention services. Reimagine Reentry reduces recidivism in Allegheny County by providing opportunities, reducing barriers, and supporting returning citizens in a holistic way.
Shepherd Wellness Community ($12,500) to provide flexible, general support. Funds will go toward Wellness Dinners, health education programming, support groups, and other activities that overcome stigma. Shepherd Wellness Community helps people living with HIV/AIDS improve their wellness.
Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka (SPMMMV) ($10,000) to provide flexible, general operating support. Funds will go toward the renewal and expansion of Gift to America 2.0, a biennial program of artist commissions exclusively for BIPOC and immigrant artists. SPMMMV conserves the Maxo Vanka murals in St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church in Pittsburgh for permanent public exhibition, enabling the immigrant artist’s “gift to America” to inspire community engagement, education, and cultural dialogue, celebrate diversity, and forge connections through reflections on the American experience.
Survivor Siblings ($10,000) to provide flexible, general operating support. Survivor Siblings provides information on preventing sex trafficking through education from survivors, outreach directly to survivors and sex workers, and offers opportunities for survivors and sex workers to thrive through support programs.
Take Action Mon Valley ($30,000 over two years), acting as fiscal sponsor, to provide flexible, general operating support for The Western PA Participatory Defense Hub, an All Rise WPA initiative. Funding supports community meetings, family stipends, court watching, infrastructure, research, and campaigns led by directly impacted people. The Western PA Participatory Defense Hub is a Black-led, community-based organizing initiative that equips directly impacted people and their families to understand, navigate, and transform the criminal legal system.
The Tree of Life ($20,000) to support The Tree of Life Memorial Support. Tree of Life uproots antisemitism by preserving the memory of those lost on October 27, 2018, the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history, and transforming the site into a center for education, remembrance, bridging, and celebration. The new Tree of Life is a locally grounded institution with national reach that honors the lives lost and inspires people everywhere to confront antisemitism and all forms of identity-based hate.
Ujamaa Collective ($15,000) to provide flexible, general operating support. Funds will support the ongoing development of Ujamaa members’ core competencies in creative cooperative entrepreneurship, and Ujamaa’s leadership in local cooperative ecosystem building. Ujamaa Collective acts as a catalyst to advance Africana women by providing a fair trade marketplace for cultural, artistic, and entrepreneurial exchange through cooperative economics in Pittsburgh’s Hill District and beyond.
Union Project ($10,000) to support the implementation of the organization’s Ceramics Expansion, which will result in the organization supporting more ceramic artists and students than ever before, growing and sustaining the capacity necessary to meet demand, and growing its visibility locally and nationally. Union Project uses the arts to bridge gaps between communities.
Valley View Church / Presbyterian Church USA ($20,000) to support Garfield Eats, an anti-hunger initiative that provides free, weekly, healthy, home-cooked, culturally relevant meals prepared at Valley View with recipes, demonstrations, and take-home ingredients. Garfield Eats treats feeding neighbors as a revolutionary act, one that builds strong communities of resilience and resistance.
Voces Solis ($17,500) to provide flexible, general operating support.
Funds will support the commission and/or presentation of regional premieres of two works and two concert series of the performances of these new works. Voces Solis provides top quality, diverse, and expressive music to the widest possible audience. The organization removes barriers to exceptional choral music, fostering connection, inspiration, and community through performance, education, and collaboration.
YWCA Greater Pittsburgh ($10,000), acting as fiscal sponsor, to support the work of the Black and White Reunion for the 29th Annual Pittsburgh Racial Justice Summit. Founded in 1996, the Black and White Reunion brings together organizations and individuals to dismantle the systems that uphold racism and to be in solidarity in the struggle for human equity. The Black and White Reunion sponsors the annual Pittsburgh Racial Justice Summit.
Za’kiyah House Housing ($40,000 over two years) to provide flexible, general operating support. Za’kiyah House Housing reduces homelessness, drug addiction, and recidivism.
DISCRETIONARY GRANTS
Pittsburgh United ($50,000) to support its continued leadership and support of the Pittsburgh Housing Justice Table, a coalition of allied local organizations and advocates who believe that housing is a human right. Funding will bolster its efforts to bring together stakeholders and advocates to support a tenant-centered transition at the Housing Authority City of Pittsburgh.
Jewish Family and Community Services of Pittsburgh (JFCS) ($50,000) to provide emergency support of legal protections for 200 unaccompanied children at risk of detention and deportation. Over the last year, the federal government has systematically dismantled the legal protections these unaccompanied children depend on. JFCS Immigration Legal Services is the only legal services provider for unaccompanied children in Southwestern PA. JFCS Pittsburgh supports people through life’s changes and challenges.
