Donor Advised Funds Help Fund Mission-Related Work

Dear friends,

I would like to report to you about our Donor Advised Funds, which help to underwrite important programs at Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. We have 26 such funds that have helped fund our programs in historic building restoration, education, and advocacy.

Donor Advised Funds are permanently endowed funds. Once established, they can grow through continuing contributions by the donor who created them or by other donors who may wish to help grow a particular fund. Each year we distribute approximately 4% to 5% of the value of each fund on a rolling three-year average to the preservation work a donor wishes, or to the purposes for which the fund was established.

I have personally established two such funds, which continue to grow through contributions from friends and family members as well as the investment return generated by the Landmarks Financial Corporation, our investment subsidiary.

Thanks to our Donor Advised Funds, we have been able to acquire and restore very deteriorated houses in historic neighborhoods. We recently completed restoration of two such houses at 1403 and 1405 Pennsylvania Avenue in Manchester, which we have put on the market on a subsidized basis to help maintain affordability in a highly appreciating real estate market. Our Donor Advised Funds also help fund our educational programs, our Historic Religious Properties Grant program, and our Frank B. Fairbanks Rail Transportation Archive.

Other organizations that received funding assistance from PHLF’s Donor Advised Funds include: the Trust for Public Land, the National Association for Olmsted Parks, Project for Public Spaces, Duquesne Heights Incline, Dormont Historical Society, The Cultural Landscape Foundation, Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, Rotary Club of Monroeville, the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Frick Art & Historical Center, Andrew Carnegie Free Library, Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, the Homeless Children’s Education Fund, Allegheny City Society, Rosewood Block Cluster, and the Trolley Museum, among others.

Arthur Ziegler
President