The Richard King Mellon Foundation plans to add another $10 million to its earlier $15 million covid-19 response grant package, officials announced Thursday.

The $25 million total commitment includes a new $2.5 million higher-education initiative, aimed at helping area colleges and universities safely reopen in the fall.

“Education always is a priority for the foundation, because it is the fuel of prosperity,” said foundation Director Sam Reiman. “But the foundation also is keenly focused on the economic impact of our institutions of higher education, including in our more rural areas, where data show these institutions play an outsized role in the local economy.”

The additional $10 million also will enable $3.3 million in additional grants under the foundation’s Economic Impact and Recovery initiative. The foundation launched this initiative in April by soliciting ideas from the community on meaningful recovery efforts. More than 200 ideas were submitted, from more than 500 collaborating organizations.

The foundation announced last week that it had awarded 37 grants in response, totaling $5.25 million.

“But there were so many worthy ideas, our board approved this additional $3.3 million to fund 24 more grants,” Reiman said.

Among the new recipients are the Westmoreland County Community College Education Foundation, the Mediation Council of Western Pennsylvania, the Community Human Service Corp., the Center that CARES and Locally Grown.

The additional $10 million will also enable program-related investments — where the foundation provides capital to for-profit initiatives with the potential for public benefit.

The money will go to companies like Pittsburgh-based CytoAgents, to help finance the first phase of human clinical trials of a drug designed to prevent the immune system from overreacting to coronavirus and attacking healthy body tissue.

Foundation Chairman Richard Mellon said the next six months will largely determine the success of the region’s recovery, “and the foundation is resolved to continue to assist the many organizations that are working so hard to make Southwestern Pennsylvania a national leader in this effort.”

For more on the foundation’s covid-19 response grants, see RKMF.org.

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)