Pittsburgh Foundation Equity and Social Justice Grants: Youth Justice

The Pittsburgh Foundation Equity and Social Justice Grants: Youth Justice aims to support nonprofit organizations addressing the needs of youth involved with the criminal and juvenile justice systems in Allegheny County. The foundation prioritizes funding for initiatives that promote civic engagement and systemic change, emphasizing leadership from those directly impacted by injustice. Grants typically range from $10,000 to $150,000, aiming to prevent disproportionate youth system involvement and enhance staff skills in trauma-informed practices.

Foundation-Directed Grantmaking
The Pittsburgh Foundation is committed to helping the communities we serve become equitable and vibrant places where everyone can thrive. We align our grantmaking with resident’s dreams for themselves, their families and their communities and prioritize support in the five focus areas: Basic Needs; Equity and Social Justice; Environmental Action; Arts and Culture; and Economic Mobility.
Duration: Generally, grants will be awarded for no more than two years due to limited availability of funds.
Amounts: One-year grants generally range from $10,000 to $75,000. Two-year grants will generally not exceed $150,000. Actual grant amounts are determined based on staff review of each individual application and consideration of the funding available at the time the application is received.
We seek to support civic participation and community organizing to achieve policy changes.
While programmatic interventions can improve outcomes for individuals, equitable access to opportunity will only be possible at scale when systemic policies, practices and cultural messages that perpetuate injustice are eliminated.
Our equity and social justice grantmaking places strong emphasis on leadership by individuals who have been directly impacted by systemic injustice, as we believe that they are best positioned to propose solutions that remove barriers that impeded their ability to thrive.
We are interested in supporting intervention and prevention activities that support youth who have any involvement with the criminal and juvenile justice systems.
The priorities for our youth justice grantmaking are the result of local community-guided research and the Foundation’s on-going collaboration with community, nonprofit leaders and Allegheny County providers that serve youth impacted by the justice system.
Support youth who have any involvement with the criminal and juvenile justice systems.Prevent and address disproportionate system-involvement of youth.Support prevention and pre-arrest diversion initiatives.Improve staff knowledge and skill related to best practices in intersectionality, trauma, conflict resolution and mediation skills.Address a youth justice issue of emergent priority that prevents youth involvement with the criminal justice system.

Eligibility

To qualify for a grant, your nonprofit organization must be:
Located within Allegheny County and/or primarily serve Allegheny County residents (unless otherwise specified in the grant criteria).Designated by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) public charity. (If your organization does not have 501(c)(3) status, you may apply utilizing a fiscal sponsor.)

Ineligibility

What We Do Not Fund
The Pittsburgh Foundation does not make grants to any organization not listed in Internal Revenue Code Section 170(b)(1)(A), including private non-operating foundations or any “disqualified supporting organizations” as defined in Internal Revenue Code Section 4966(d) (4).Organizational start-up support.Statewide or national organizations, unless they have an established local office or chapter that meets the above eligibility criteria and priorities.Projects that expressly advocate for or endorse a specific candidate for elected office.Annual appeals or event sponsorships.Episodic and/or one-time programs and events.Capital expenses and/or campaigns.Direct funding for individuals (except individual artists).Payments on organizational debt.Costs and activities that are completed before a requested grant has received a decision from our board.University overhead costs.Single-disease support organizations.Educational scholarships. Academic research.