The Pittsburgh Foundation Critical Needs Alert online giving event set a new high for donations, raising $1.67 million for nonprofits in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties that assist with basic needs – food, housing, physical and mental health care, child care and transportation – directly to vulnerable populations.
On May 7, about 3,750 donations totaling about $865,000 from the public poured into the PittsburghGives.org donation portal to benefit the nearly 190 nonprofits that took part in the #ONEDAY Critical Needs Alert. Every donation up to $1,000 triggered additional funding from the $800,000 incentive pool from The Pittsburgh Foundation and its affiliate, The Community Foundation of Westmoreland County, and their donors. This year’s incentive pool also included $62,000 dedicated to 30 Westmoreland County nonprofits, eight of which are first-time participants in Critical Needs.
The #ONEDAY Critical Needs Alert provided a way for the public to support the Foundation’s 100 Percent Pittsburgh organizing principle, which seeks to ensure that residents who live at or near the federal poverty line – at least one-third of the region’s population – have new opportunities to become full participants in the region’s improved economy.