The Heinz Endowments, The Pittsburgh Foundation and Opportunity Fund
PITTSBURGH, DEC. 13, 2021 – The Carol R. Brown Creative Achievement Awards honored six artists at tonight’s virtual ceremony, including choreographer and visual artist Staycee R. Pearl, named Established Artist, and multi-faceted musician Danielle “INEZ” Walker, named Emerging Artist. Chosen from a field of 170 public nominations, the Established and Emerging artists will each receive an unrestricted award of $20,000.
CONTACT: Jake Goodman, Executive Director, jgoodman [at] theopportunityfund.org
PITTSBURGH, PA, December 13, 2021 — The Opportunity Fund announces support totaling $1,478,750, the largest cycle ever in its seventh year of grantmaking. The Board of Directors, along with two community panels, funded 81 out of 142 requests that were seeking a total of $2,516,525. A complete list of awarded grants can be found below.
Including this current grant cycle, the foundation has awarded 752 grants totaling over $10.3 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.
CONTACT: Jake Goodman, Executive Director, jgoodman [at] theopportunityfund.org
PITTSBURGH, PA, December 7, 2021 – For some, the uprisings for racial justice in the summer of 2020 came and went. But for the Opportunity Fund and its Executive Director, Jake Goodman, the energy of that time offered “a precious moment of potential.” This moment “revealed the anti-Blackness that is baked into American life, which results in an ever-evolving and systematic devaluation of Black life that is designed to protect and grow the standing of white people. Once exposed, it is vulnerable.”
A subsequent evolution occurred within the Opportunity Fund, beginning with a recognition that, every grant cycle, proposals flow in to address problems existing within systems: housing, transportation, human services, criminal justice, social services. The vast majority of applicants report that these systems create the very worst outcomes for Black people. “If we truly do not accept the current status quo of many Black people living and dying under worse conditions than almost everybody else,” says Goodman, “then we need to change the way we generally go about business at the Opportunity Fund. Otherwise, we are tacitly accepting that status quo.”
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.
CONTACT: Jake Goodman, Executive Director, jgoodman [at] theopportunityfund.org
PITTSBURGH, PA, December 14, 2020 — The Opportunity Fund announces support totaling $783,686 in its tenth cycle of funding. The Board of Directors, along with two community panels, funded 61 out of 114 requests that were seeking a total of $1,683,849. A complete list of awarded grants can be found below.
Including this current grant cycle, the foundation has awarded 593 grants totaling over $7.6 million since its inception in 2015. Grant cycles take place twice a year. Letter of Inquiry deadlines are January 15 and July 15. Full information about applying for grants is available in the “For Applicants” area of our website.
The Covid-19 Arts Working Group (CAWG), a collaboration of 15 foundations and a private donor in the Pittsburgh metro area, announces the Arts | Equity | Reimagined Fund, in response to the unprecedented and ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the region’s arts and cultural sector. The fund is intended to foster collective action and identify creative solutions to operating challenges as nonprofit arts organizations navigate these uncertain times. While the fund is open to all arts and cultural organizations, in recognition of long-standing disparities in funding, it will prioritize small to medium-sized arts organizations and those that serve or are led by historically marginalized communities in southwestern Pennsylvania, whether they be urban or rural in location.
PITTSBURGH, PA, JUNE 24, 2020 – Investing in Professional Artists, a joint grant-making program of The Pittsburgh Foundation, The Heinz Endowments and the Opportunity Fund, has awarded $170,000 to individual artists and art programs for the initiative’s 2020 cycle.
To Our Community,
The thing about a moment is that it comes and goes. We have seen moments when the hope of racial justice seemed within reach and, every time, we have seen them go.
We are now in a precious moment of potential. The racism, white supremacy, and anti-Blackness that is baked and caked in/onto American life—and that results in an ever-evolving but systemic devaluation of Black life, meant to protect and grow the standing of white people—is, for growing masses of us, exposed. And vulnerable.
CONTACT: Jake Goodman, Executive Director, 917-613-1509, jgoodman [at] theopportunityfund.org
PITTSBURGH, PA, June 12, 2020 — The Opportunity Fund announces support totaling $638,500 in its ninth cycle of funding. The Board of Directors, along with two community panels and a panel of advisors, funded 53 out of 103 requests that were seeking a total of $1,512,418. A complete list of awarded grants can be found below.
Including the current grant cycle, the foundation has awarded 524 grants totaling over $6.5 million since its inception in 2015. Grant cycles take place twice a year. Letter of Inquiry deadlines are around January 15 and July 15 each year. Full information about applying for grants is available in the “For Applicants” area of our website.
To Our Community,
Just as we were beginning to get a sense of how profoundly COVID-19 would disrupt our lives, we wrote to you. We said, “This is a time for foundations to listen, to remove barriers, to increase support, and to act quickly.” We said we were accountable to you. We made commitments to you.
A month has passed. What have we done to honor our commitments?
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