Nonprofits are scaling up their regional impact with support from Pitt

On Dec. 3, the Pittsburgh Scholar House (PSH) announced the receipt of a $750,000 grant from the Heinz Endowments to support developing affordable housing for 100 single-parent families by the end of 2027.

Earlier this year, Tiffany Huff-Strothers, director of When She Thrives, a nonprofit that helps single mothers transition from poverty to prosperity that has provided nearly 600 people with emergency grants, received a 2024 Women of Influence Award from the Pittsburgh Business Times.

Accomplishments like these are the result of hard work and determination. But they are also proof of what's possible with increased support, resources and connections afforded through Pitt's Nonprofit Capacity Building Program, an initiative focused on improving economic stability in the region.

PSH and When She Thrives are two of eight nonprofits participating in the three-year pilot that was launched in 2022 by the Office of Engagement and Community Affairs (ECA), the School of Social Work and the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs as well as Neighborhood Allies, The Forbes Funds and the Program to Aid Citizen Enterprise.

Led by Jamilah Ducar, ECA's assistant vice chancellor of the engaged campus, the initiative connects nonprofits to a range of Pitt resources that have historically been decentralized. These are often related to technology for data capturing and metrics, funding, hiring team members, establishing effective partnerships and other identified needs to support organizational leaders in strategically executing and scaling their nonprofits.

Jamelle Price, ECA's associate director of learning and development, serves as a "navigator" for the cohort. He regularly meets with the leaders on campus, virtually or at Pitt's Community Engagement Centers to discuss resource and partnership opportunities.

"Our whole focus is on how we support and connect the nonprofit leaders with the Pitt infrastructure, people and our networks to impact their organization and address their mission-critical programming," said Price. "There are two years of programming, then one year of continuous conversation and connection and overall dialogue to address how Pitt can better help the executive directors."

ECA's programming teaches directors about data impact, how to develop metrics and evaluate data to look at numbers and change.

This year, Price and his team surveyed leaders to identify their top organizational issues.

"We have seen a few themes jump out as challenges for these organizations: critical help in developing their boards of directors through identifying the right people, assessing skills and recruiting the right diverse mix is top of mind and upskilling staff as they grow in their organizations."