ABOUT

Our Mission

Three Rivers Community Foundation (TRCF) advances social change through grantmaking, advocacy, and capacity development for grassroots organizations. TRCF embraces and practices Change, not Charity by empowering grantee organizations to ensure social, economic, and environmental justice in Southwestern Pennsylvania.


The Foundation’s key issue areas are: Disability Rights; Economic Justice; Environmental Justice; LGBTQ Rights (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer/Questioning); Racial Justice; and Women, Youth, and Families. TRCF makes grants of up to $4,000 primarily in these areas.


Over the past 30 years, TRCF has distributed more than $1,300,000 to more than 320 progressive groups in the region. With a focus on making grants to smaller organizations doing innovative work to address divisions in society, TRCF actively seeks out those working on the ground floor of change.

Our Vision

As a result of Three Rivers Community Foundation’s advocacy of and support for social change, Southwestern Pennsylvania will be nationally recognized as a region that empowers its citizens to engage and embrace differences of all kinds, and ensures an equitable quality of life for all people.


Three Rivers Community Foundation was formed in 1989 by a group of community activists who wanted to create a new kind of philanthropy in Southwestern Pennsylvania. They formed TRCF in order to invest in activist, grassroots organizations working to bridge divisions in society. The founders of TRCF embraced the philosophy that the best way to bring about social justice is by supporting community-based organizations that are working “on the ground floor” of change.

Our History

Three Rivers Community Foundation was initially incorporated as Three Rivers Community Fund. For the first eleven years, the organization’s active volunteer board of directors managed the Foundation with only limited staff support, and using the services of consultants as needed. Several committees were created, utilizing support from both the board members and talented and committed community volunteers.


In 2001, the Board and several other volunteers launched a $1 million endowment campaign with the goal of significantly increasing TRCF’s grantmaking capacity. The corpus of the endowment remains untouched, and only the earnings off the investment will be used, and it is designated to be used strictly for grantmaking. This campaign reached its goal in 2007. 


TRCF continues to embrace this philosophy today, promoting Change, not charity™ by:


-Funding activism among people and groups who might otherwise not have their voices heard.


-Focusing on groups that may not be able to attract support from sources because they are too small, too new, or too controversial.


-Helping to develop new leadership in the region along with deeper and broader participation in the democratic process by all citizens.


-Offering technical assistance and networking opportunities to grassroots groups through grantwriting workshops, issue-specific forums and expositions, and outreach.

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