Citizens awards grants to 9 nonprofits
Citizens Financial Group has presented nine Western Pennsylvania nonprofits with a total of $107,000 in financial empowerment grants as part of its “Citizens Helping Citizens Manage Money” program.
Organizations receiving grants include the Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group, AD 99 Solutions Foundation, Just Harvest Education Fund, Neighborhood Allies Inc., Neighborhood Housing Services, Pittsburgh Metropolitan Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Foundation, the Mon Valley Initiative, Junior Achievement of Western Pennsylvania, and the Neighborhood Community Development Fund.
AD 99 Solutions — a nonprofit founded in 2019 by former University of Pittsburgh football star Aaron Donald — received a $15,000 grant that will go toward the organization’s program Prep Forward.
“This free program provides select Allegheny County high school student-athletes with year-round services until graduation,” an AD 99 Solutions representative said in an email to the Post-Gazette. “The program aims to prepare students for post-secondary success through educationally valuable activities and enriching experiences.
“We appreciate the continual support from Citizens that allows us to operate our annual multimonth financial learning series with professionals in the field for our Prep Forward students and their families.”
Just Harvest Education Fund — a South Side nonprofit that focuses on food access, systemic poverty, and inequity — will use its grant on its pre-tax preparation program, said Ken Regal, executive director of the organization. The pre-tax
preparation program was launched in 2003 to help low-income individuals file their taxes at no cost. This tax season, Just Harvest helped about 3,000 people, Mr. Regal said.
“The grant is a huge help as most of our funding for that project comes from United Way and from the IRS through its VITA [Volunteer Income Tax Assistance] grant program,” he said. “This supplement from Citizens is very valuable to help us maintain our capacity to do taxes for folks who need it done affordably.”
Overall, Citizens gave $2.4 million to 137 nonprofit organizations nationwide “to expand financial empowerment programming,” the company said in a statement Tuesday.
“We hope to unlock opportunities for our communities and reduce the
wealth gap by investing time and resources to support local financial empowerment programs that are giving people the confidence and tools to achieve their goals,” said Mark Rendulic, Western Pennsylvania market president for Citizens.