Wheatley gathering information on diversity in grants
from large tax-exempt foundations in Pa.
Rep. Jake Wheatley has requested information from nine large tax-exempt foundations in Pennsylvania on what their philanthropy is doing to empower minority communities.
The nine foundations are the Annenberg Foundation, the Heinz Endowment, the Vira I. Heinz Endowment, the Richard King Mellon Foundation, the William Penn Foundation, the Alcoa Foundation, the Comcast Foundation, the Pittsburgh Foundation and the McCune Foundation.
Rep. Wheatley has received the requested information from all of the foundations.
Each of the foundations received a letter from Rep. Wheatley similar to the letter below.
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June 30, 2008
Thank you for the substantial contribution that you and your foundation have made in Pennsylvania. Foundations like yours play a vital role in meeting many of the needs of the underserved and overlooked.
One of the main assets that the philanthropic community holds is its flexibility and capacity to respond to a changing environment. Considering the projected dramatic demographic shifts that are projected for Pennsylvania, I believe that it is important to start conversations early on what philanthropy is doing to empower minority communities.
I have asked the Greenlining Institute, a nonprofit public policy organization in California, to focus on the impact you have made in the community, as well as your efforts to empower the community. Compiling this data can serve to highlight the achievements of the Heinz Endowments and reveal opportunities to better serve Pennsylvania’s diverse population.
Philanthropy
Study
We
respectfully request from you a database with all grants paid out in calendar
year 2006, sent by e-mail to my office in Excel (.xml) format, containing the
following fields with information about each grant:
Staff researchers at the Greenlining Institute will then take this data and use it to establish the percentage of your grants and grants dollars that went to minority-led organizations that year. To the extent that we could receive this information by July 15, we would greatly appreciate it. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact my office.
Sincerely,
Rep. Jake Wheatley