The Forbes Funds (TFF), a supporting organization of The Pittsburgh Foundation announced today it is marking the momentous occasion of its 40th Anniversary with a cocktail reception on Thursday, November 17th from 4:30 pm – 7:30 pm at the Heinz History Center. The event theme,"40 Years Of Charting The Course For The Nonprofit Sector," serves to honor the rich legacy and recognize the sustained focus TFF has maintained over time to advance the well-being of the region by helping local nonprofit organizations build management capacity and increase collective impact.
Founded in 1982 by the late Elmer J. Tropman, alongside The Pittsburgh Foundation and The Heinz Endowments, TFF was established with a simple, yet profound charter and premise to support nonprofits facing financial crisis. Since then, TFF has stayed true to its core mission as an intermediary for the nonprofit sector, increasingly building capacity and supporting the transformation of systems operations to ecosystems co-creation, while maximizing existing assets through a racial equity lens, including its Anti-Racism Cohorts (ARC) platform and Black Equity Coalition (BEC) which coalesced in response to COVID-19 concerns in vulnerable populations but since evolved to tackle broader systemic issues.
Since 2018, under the leadership of current President & CEO Fred Brown, the results and success outcomes speak for themselves and the entire sector. TFF has served 530+ organizations, aggregated 40,000 nonprofit touch points to date and is currently working directly with more than 2,500 nonprofits in the region (25% of the sector) and 8,500 in the ten county area. Its Greater Pittsburgh Nonprofit Partnership (GPNP) serves as the front door to the transformational core of TFF. GPNP continues to set the adaptive, iterative pace for the organization's theory of change, innovation and capacity building work with collaborative, cross-sectorial support ranging from Management Assistance Grants (MAGs); Catalytic Community Cohorts (C3); and Executive In Residence (EIR) programming.
"As we embark upon our 5th Pivot as an organization, The Forbes Funds sits at the precipice of the region's surviving and thriving communities. The challenges before us require a transformational type of leadership capable of optimizing our ability to restore humanity through acts of hope, faith, and charity, both transparently and pragmatically,"
-Fred Brown, President & CEO of The Forbes Funds.
In charting the future course, our leadership will be guided by a North Star principle following the human-centered theoretical approach to effect sustainable change through relationships, alliances and regenerative platforms which permeate the ecosystem in order to transform the entire nonprofit sector and communities we serve.
The impact of Brown's transformative leadership has also permeated the region and state. He was recently named to The 2022 Pennsylvania Nonprofit Power 100, recognizing the nonprofit leaders serving the most vulnerable people in Pennsylvania.
"With our very democracy in question, Fred Brown is a powerful example of the bold, transcendent leadership we need in our country for a time such as this, He navigates the complexity of challenges facing our communities and inspires a courageous response from the nonprofit sector around the things that really matter. Change moves at the speed of trust in our ecosystem so you can correlate the pace of adaptive change The Forbes Funds has fostered with the level of credibility and nontraditional steps he has taken to get there."
-Esther Bush, former CEO of the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh (ULPGH).
The Forbes Funds 40th Anniversary Celebration will be emceed by the incomparable Esther Bush, former CEO of the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh (ULPGH) and long-time friend and supporter of The Forbes Funds. In addition to convening luminaries from across sectors, the event will feature a Cocktail Reception with Heavy Hors d'oeuvres and light entertainment from Center of Life (COL) Jazz along with several, interactive panels that spark The Forbes Funds mission and ignite the flame for change: The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) panel will be moderated by Carmen Anderson of The Heinz Endowments; An Historical Perspective of The Forbes Funds will be led by Lisa Schroeder of The Pittsburgh Foundation, with special guest appearances from past Forbes Funds presidents; Lastly, Fred Brown will be joined in a couch conversation with Sylvia Fields, Executive Director of Eden Hall on the myriad challenges philanthropists face in getting funding out to end users.