Pittsburgh organizations promise $20 million in improvements

Two $10 million investments from the Eden Hall Foundation and the Heinz Endowments announced this week will bring social and economic revitalization to Pittsburgh. The $20 million aligns with the Allegheny Conference on Community Development’s new three-year agenda, which was announced on Thursday, Feb. 8.

Both organizations publicized the funding ahead of the conference’s annual meeting at The Westin Hotel. Eden Hall joined the conference before the event, while the Heinz Endowments is not a member.

“The Allegheny Conference plays a critical role in being able to convene and help facilitate getting all the right people at the table who have the capability to make a difference,” said David Holmberg, the conference’s new chair. “The conference … has a history of being the convener on these big, challenging problems. I think we all recognize that no one organization can do it alone.”

The nonprofit foundations’ concerns are reflected in the four goals that the Allegheny Conference is prioritizing now through 2026: Downtown revitalization, inclusive growth, federal investments and thought leadership.

“The region has made significant progress and has reinvented itself since we started in the 1980s,” said Sylvia Fields, Eden Hall Foundation president, in the Feb. 5 press release. “But, like many U.S. cities, Pittsburgh faces new challenges as we continue to emerge from the pandemic. We are proud to strengthen our commitment to creating vibrant, healthy and knowledgeable communities.”

The Eden Hall funds will be available to grant applicants for Downtown revitalization initiatives over the next five years.

Through strategic reinvestment and redevelopment, the conference hopes Downtown will offer a diverse range of businesses, housing opportunities and parks and public spaces.

While the Heinz Endowments is not a member of the conference, the two share the goal of increasing federal investments. The conference’s third goal revolves around developing educational opportunities and assistance for acquiring underutilized funding, with expectations of economic growth, pollution reduction and community revitalization.

The Heinz Endowments will establish a coordination center to support renewable energy expansion, facility upgrades and clean energy jobs and investments. Its $10 million will provide grant writing, project development, legal guidance and communications support to groups that qualify for federal Inflation Reduction Act incentives and grants.

In a Feb. 7 press release, the Endowments said Western Pennsylvania has yet to benefit meaningfully from the Inflation Reduction Act. Climate Power’s Clean Energy Boom Anniversary report — referenced in the Endowments’ release — notes that the act created 13,555 permanent jobs in New York and 5,365 jobs in Ohio. By comparison, Pennsylvania created only 457 jobs.

“Without an intervention targeted to the scale of the opportunity, we anticipate that the region will lose out on the competitive investments and incentives granted through the [Inflation Reduction Act] and related laws, and will underperform on the guaranteed allocations,” said Rob Stephany, Heinz Endowments’ senior program director for community and economic development, in the release. “Our initiative could really help organizations with limited capacity move projects from early visioning to fundraising and implementation.”

Stefani Pashman, the conference’s CEO, said that while the two organizations have similar goals, they differ in the scope of activities being pursued.

“The Heinz Endowments has a very particular exercise on some of the climate-related activities within particular federal funding opportunities,” Pashman said. “They’re doing a piece of it, and we’re trying to wrap around all of that.”

Pashman said the conference’s inclusive growth goals are most pertinent in terms of Pittsburgh’s aging population. To develop its metrics for growth, the conference held listening sessions.

“What we heard was pretty straightforward: They wanted an environment [that] facilitated healthy, quality businesses — that we needed to find a way to grow the region,” Holmberg said. Pashman added that it is important to keep Pittsburgh an affordable city.

“It’s part of the reason we have inclusive growth principles that are focused on wage growth and elevation, community benefit — making sure that when we bring companies in that those jobs are filled by people in those communities,” Pashman said.

The conference’s thought leadership goal involves discovering and replicating best leadership practices to advance inclusive growth.

Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato and other local officials are “critical partners” in all of the conference’s efforts, Pashman said — whether for Downtown safety and cleanliness or federal funding opportunities.

Pashman said the conference set two benchmarks: to achieve a spot in the top 10 cities for business attraction and investment and to gain $1.4 billion in federal funding.

“That would actually be more than we think we should be getting, which is — I think — quite critical,” Pashman says.

For Holmberg, the standard is simple.

“When a suburban mom with two kids is willing to come Downtown and go park in a garage, walk to a play, see the play, maybe grab a bite to eat afterward and then go home with their kids on their own and feel safe — if that happens, everybody is safe,” Holmberg said.