Innovative giving at Buhl Foundation
The oldest multipurpose foundation in Pittsburgh is adopting some of the newest tactics in philanthropy, just as it did in 1927, when most endowments backed very narrow causes. The 90-yearold Buhl Foundation, once among the largest multipurpose philanthropies in the country, has spent the last four years shifting the vast majority of its giving to 18 North Side neighborhoods. It has also moved away from the traditional playbook of foundations — in which they receive grant proposals, review them and write checks — toward something much more full-contact.
The foundation reports assets of around $80 million, and gives away around $3.2 million a year. Around 2013, leadership decided they could either continue to be small players regionally, or to zoom in on the old stomping ground of retailer Henry Buhl Jr., who died childless in 1927.
Foundation president Diana A. Bucco said her board didn’t want to “assume that because we like this idea, the community wants us to do it.” So they combed the North Side, conducting 400 interviews and distributing a 70-question survey.
The board then committed to spending at least 20 years focused largely on the plan it calls One Northside.
“Some of the North Side neighborhoods are clearly tipping for the better,” Ms. Bucco said. “Some are going backwards.” The foundation’s bid to tip them all forward includes bets big and small.
Big: In Nova Place (the former Allegheny Center Mall) the foundation has committed $6.5 million to help underwrite a super-fast public internet zone meant to incubate technology companies.
Small: The foundation loaned — as opposed to gave — $300,000 to the Northside Leadership Conference to buy an East Ohio Street building that was at risk of falling into the hands of absentee landlords. The conference doesn’t have to make payments on the loan for 10 years, but when it does, the money can be invested again.
As a result of the loan, the building houses The Farmer’s Daughter Flowers, instead of, say, a nuisance bar. “Now you’ve got this beautiful presence there,” Ms. Bucco said. “With that, in addition to other investments, the street will tip.”