Author: Rob Howard

PITTSBURGH (December 16, 2021) – Two Pittsburgh leaders with deep expertise in key aspects of the Richard King Mellon Foundation’s new Strategic Plan are joining the Foundation team. Bobby Zappala, chairman of Ascender, one of the area’s leading business incubators, will be a Program Officer, focused on philanthropic investments in for-profit companies, called Social-Impact Investments. And […]

Read More… from Bobby Zappala & Kevin L. Jenkins to Join Richard King Mellon Foundation

PITTSBURGH (November 17, 2021) – The University of Pittsburgh and Richard King Mellon Foundation today announced a $100 million gift that will advance the region’s burgeoning life sciences economy by creating an anchor bioresearch and development facility on Hazelwood Green, the sprawling former industrial site near Downtown Pittsburgh being restored into a center for high-tech […]

Read More… from University of Pittsburgh, Richard King Mellon Foundation Announce Transformative Gift, Partnership to Make Pittsburgh Region a National Leader in Life Sciences Manufacturing

PITTSBURGH (August 23, 2021) – Fifty-four local and national leaders with expertise in business, entrepreneurship, conservation, economic development, economic mobility, health and well-being and philanthropy have agreed to help judge the Richard King Mellon Foundation’s first-ever social-impact pitch competition.   “Harnessing the ingenuity and passion of for-profit businesses to achieve social good is a powerful […]

Read More… from Richard King Mellon Foundation Announces Panel of 54 Expert Judges for Social-Impact Pitch Competition

PITTSBURGH (July 14, 2021) – The Richard King Mellon Foundation today announced a pitch competition with a twist: The winners will be determined, not just by their prospects to make money for investors, but most importantly by their potential to improve economic development, economic mobility or health and well-being for the people of Southwestern Pennsylvania; […]

Read More… from A Pitch Competition with a Philanthropic Twist: Richard King Mellon Foundation Announces $1 Million in Prizes for Businesses with the Best Social-Mission Ideas

PITTSBURGH (July 7, 2021) – Having invested significantly over the years to help Pittsburgh become a national and international leader in the creation of new-economy jobs, the Richard King Mellon Foundation, as part of its new Strategic Plan, is making a more concerted effort than ever before to help ensure that everyone in the region […]

Read More… from Richard King Mellon Foundation Invests $2.6 Million to Help Create Broader Access to New-Economy Jobs

PITTSBURGH (May 20, 2021) – Carnegie Mellon University and the Richard King Mellon Foundation today announced that the two long-time partners will together make a transformational investment in science and technology leadership at the university; in a more vibrant future for the Hazelwood neighborhood; and in Pittsburgh’s ongoing economic renaissance.  The Foundation has approved a $150 […]

Read More… from Carnegie Mellon, Richard King Mellon Foundation Announce Historic Partnership to Accelerate CMU’s Science and Technology Leadership and the Transformation of Hazelwood Green

PITTSBURGH (May 3, 2021) – A key focus of the Richard King Mellon Foundation’s new Strategic Plan is Economic Mobility – increasing opportunities for children and youth from families with lower incomes in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties today, so they can prosper as adults tomorrow. And a key pillar of the Foundation’s Economic Mobility strategy […]

Read More… from Richard King Mellon Foundation Seeks Powerful Ideas to Create “Places of Opportunity” for Young People

PITTSBURGH (April 12, 2021) – The Richard King Mellon Foundation today announced that it has made a $500,000 gift to help save the former National Negro Opera Company House in Homewood – a once-proud national landmark that has been vacant 50 years and is dangerously close to collapse. “This property once was the center of […]

Read More… from Richard King Mellon Foundation Awards $500,000 to Jump Start Preservation of the Former National Negro Opera Company House in Homewood

PITTSBURGH (March 10, 2021) – The Richard King Mellon Foundation and Arctaris Impact Investors announce a $20 million joint commitment to invest in a unique program for the Pittsburgh region that will bring the transformational power of Opportunity Zones to dozens of economically distressed communities in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. “Private investment is the fuel of prosperity,” said Foundation […]

Read More… from Opportunity (Zones) Soon Will Come Knocking

PITTSBURGH (January 27, 2021) – In a Zoom presentation to the community today, the Richard King Mellon Foundation unveiled its new 2021-2030 Strategic Plan – a blueprint to invest more than $1.2 billion over the next decade – and invited ideas to bring the new strategies to life. “This Strategic Plan represents an historic opportunity to […]

Read More… from Richard King Mellon Foundation Unveils 10-Year Strategic Plan