Carnegie Mellon University on Tuesday announced a $3 million donation to support various Pittsburgh programs, the latest in a string of nonprofits and foundations providing voluntary payments to a city facing financial challenges.
The Oakland university, which lists in its most recent annual report an endowment of nearly $3.5 billion, will provide $3 million over five years.
The money will benefit the city’s Rec2Tech program — which aims to ensure local youth have access to technology and to prepare them for tech-based careers — and public infrastructure improvements, including green space enhancements.
“Carnegie Mellon’s success has always been deeply intertwined with the story of Pittsburgh,” CMU President Farnam Jahanian said in a statement. “For generations, our faculty, students, staff and partners across this great city have come together at pivotal moments to solve challenges, expand economic opportunities and realize what comes next.”
Carnegie Mellon also offers in-class tutoring, pre-college programs and summer camps for Pittsburgh students. The school gives local teachers training in areas such as artificial intelligence and robotics and provides consulting services or technical support to nonprofits.
Mayor Corey O’Connor since taking office in January has taken a different approach to soliciting money from the city’s major nonprofits than former Mayor Ed Gainey.
O’Connor’s predecessor took them to court to challenge their nonprofit status, hoping to compel them to pay their full tax burden. The new mayor has instead sought to secure voluntary payments from nonprofits, asking them to fund efforts that align with their missions.
Molly Onufer, a spokeswoman for O’Connor, in a statement last week told TribLive the law department has been reviewing each of the tax-exempt challenges the city had filed.
“Mayor O’Connor has been clear that he wants to build partnerships with our nonprofit community, business community, foundations and more,” Onufer said. “We want to work with all partners to deliver on Mayor O’Connor’s commitments to the people of Pittsburgh, and that spirit of partnership has been shown to work well with the partnerships we have already seen.”
If the region’s five largest nonprofits had to pay taxes, they would contribute about $133 million each year to the city, county and school district combined, according to a March report from the Keystone Research Center.
Onufer said the city’s decision to withdraw legal challenges are “not at all related” to the financial gifts nonprofits and foundations have provided in recent months.
The University of Pittsburgh offered $5 million over the next five years to invest in Pittsburgh’s parks, business districts and public safety efforts.
UPMC in January contributed $10 million to buy new ambulances. The PNC Foundation provided $2 million to replace old snowplows. A $600,000 contribution from Pirates Charities and the Pennsylvania Laborers District Council is funding baseball field upgrades throughout the city.
Plus, the Heinz Endowments, partnering with The Pittsburgh Foundation, chipped in $750,000 to cover some costs associated with a controversial citywide master plan that some council members had considered scrapping because of costs.
The Richard King Mellon Foundation is giving the city nearly $2 million to support youth employment initiatives, a Mellon Square redesign, economic development and a celebration of the nation’s 250th anniversary.
The donations come as the city faces serious financial challenges.
Pittsburgh ended last year with an $8.6 million deficit. City Council voted to raise taxes this year to cover costs. And O’Connor after taking office this year revamped the city’s spending plan, which he said failed to account for millions of dollars of expenses.