Colcom Foundation Balances National and Regional Giving
National environmental causes tend to draw the most attention from major foundations, but the Colcom Foundation has built a reputation for pairing that broader mission with steady support closer to home. Alongside its focus on population and ecological balance, the Pittsburgh-based organization funds conservation projects and cultural institutions throughout its home region.
A Dual Focus
The foundation’s regional giving sits alongside its national mission, which centers on fostering a sustainable environment to protect the quality of life of Americans by confronting overpopulation and its effects on natural resources. That combination reflects the outlook of founder Cordelia S. May, who began supporting family planning efforts back in 1952 at age 23 and spent decades refining her views on population and the environment before formalizing them into an institution.
Honoring a Founder’s Legacy
May established the Colcom Foundation in 1996, when she was 68, and the organization received the bulk of its endowment after her death in 2005. Since then, its grantmaking has aimed to reflect her humanitarian objectives, described by the foundation as encompassing foresight, dignity, and compassion, while extending that legacy into conservation and cultural work near its base.
The Colcom Foundation frames today’s environmental headlines, from habitat destruction to biodiversity loss, as consequences of population pressures that a growth-oriented culture rarely acknowledges. Its literature draws a parallel between May’s early, often dismissed views and other historical figures whose ideas were initially rejected, including Susan B. Anthony and Galileo. The foundation can fund land purchase and conservation projects in addition to popular media initiatives like the Environmental Integrity Project, the National Aviary, and Tree Pittsburgh. With this help, the Allegheny Front radio show, which focuses on environmental concerns, can better reach its listeners.
That framing helps explain why the Colcom Foundation treats regional grantmaking as inseparable from its broader environmental philosophy. Supporting conservation and cultural assets close to home, in the foundation’s view, is one more way of carrying forward the balance between human activity and the natural world that Cordelia S. May spent her life trying to protect. Local grant recipients often note that this dual focus gives the foundation’s support a distinct character compared with funders that separate environmental work from community giving entirely. Refer to this article to learn more.
More about Colcom on https://waterlandlife.org/land-conservation/colcom-revolving-fund-for-local-land-trusts/