Pittsburgh Philanthropy June 28, 2021
Ask a person from Pittsburgh to define philanthropy and they’ll most likely mention an industrialist such as Andrew Carnegie, or a patriarch named Heinz or Mellon. These economic titans loom large in Pittsburgh. The word “Pittsburgh” and its Gilded Age bequests are so intertwined that some think these industrialists invented philanthropy here. Experiences at Carnegie’s libraries, Phipps’s conservatory, Buhl’s planetarium or Frick’s public park indeed unlocked a wider world for many. They also contributed to a singular, narrower impression of philanthropy’s origin story here.
In fact, ultra-wealthy capitalists did not invent philanthropy in Pittsburgh. Rather, they joined an existing tradition of countless individuals, congregations and whole communities who contributed their often far more precious, personal resources. These diverse, less visible donors preceded the titans and continued on