List of Mellon family foundations

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The Mellon family foundations are a group of charitable foundations in the United States associated with the family of Thomas Mellon. It is estimated to have a net worth of $14.1 billion as of 2024. [1]

Contents

Background

The Mellon family is a wealthy and influential family originally of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S., and its vicinity. In addition to their foundation of BNY Mellon, they were also principal investors or majority owners of companies such as Alcoa, Gulf Oil, Koppers, Westinghouse, with major influence in Credit Suisse First Boston, General Motors, H.J. Heinz, Newsweek , Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and U.S. Steel. The Mellon family created trolly amusement parks in the late 1800s along their railway lines for public use. Both Kennywood and Idlewild Park remain in existence. [2] [3]

The family has also been known for using its wealth to support philanthropic work in the arts, education and conservation through various nonprofit organizations. It founded the National Gallery of Art and is a major patron to the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Virginia. Individual members of the Mellon family have created private foundations and donated to museums and protected areas. [4]

Foundations

The Richard King Mellon Foundation was created by Richard King Mellon in 1947. It primarily works in Pennsylvania to preserve and restore the area's natural environment. [5] In 2001 the foundation donated two tracts of land, totaling 61,633 acres, to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) for the Maurepas Swamp WMA. Between 2001 and 2011 another 12,000 acres were gained through purchases and donations. In 2012 another 29,630 acres (The MC Davis Tract) was acquired from The Conservation Fund. Subsequent acquisitions of the Rathborne, Boyce, and Crusel tracts gave the WMA 122,098 acres. [6] The foundation was reported to have $3.4 billion in net assets as of 2022 and is considered one of the 50 largest foundations in the world. [7]

Laurel Foundation is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was established in 1951 by Cordelia Scaife May. The foundation's website lists its principal funding areas as "arts and culture, environment and conservation, vocational education, and community development/beautification". [8] In 2003, the Laurel Foundation allocated $750,000 to acquire a George Washington manuscript at auction as well as a set of orders signed by British Major-General Edward Braddock. The foundation had also contributed to the PBS miniseries, The War that Made America around that time. [9]

The Colcom Foundation was established by Cordelia Scaife May in 1996, where she was its chairman. Her philanthropic work centered around the intersection environmentalism and population growth in the United States. It is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and "supports conservation, environmental projects, and cultural assets" in the area. According to the organization, it is also "the most important foundation donors to immigration-control organizations". [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] The Colcom foundation has been the target of protests in the Pittsburgh area due to its anti-immigration stance. [16] [17]

Scaife Foundations

The Allegheny Foundation was established by Richard Mellon Scaife as a grant-making organization for "historic preservation, civic development and education". [18] After his death, $364 million was left to the Allegheny Foundation. Its donations have gone to Point Park University for the Pittsburgh Playhouse, Saint Vincent College and the Extra Mile Education Foundation, among others. [19] The organization is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. [20]

The Scaife Family Foundation was created by Jennie Scaife which is "almost exclusively a supporter of animal welfare and other humanitarian issues." [21] It was previously known for funding conservative groups and was among the largest contributors to the climate change denial movement from 2003 to 2010. [22] [23] [24] It has also donated significant sums to the University of Pittsburgh. [25]

The Sarah Scaife Foundation funds politically conservative organizations and think tanks at the national and international level in areas such as economics and public policy. It has awarded more than $235 million to organizations such as the George C. Marshall Institute, Project for the New American Century, the Institute for Humane Studies, [26] Reason Foundation, [27] and Judicial Watch. The Carthage Foundation, which worked to influence public discourse and contribute to policy development with limited government, merged with the Sarah Scaife Foundation in 2014. [28] It does not award grants to individuals. [29]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Mellon Scaife</span> American Mellon family heir, and newspaper owner (1932–2014)

Richard Mellon Scaife was an American billionaire, a principal heir to the Mellon banking, oil, and aluminum fortune, and the owner and publisher of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. In 2005, Scaife was number 238 on the Forbes 400, with a personal fortune of $1.2 billion. By 2013, Scaife had dropped to number 371 on the listing, with a personal fortune of $1.4 billion.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, commonly known as the Mellon Foundation, is a New York City-based private foundation with wealth accumulated by Andrew Mellon of the Mellon family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the product of the 1969 merger of the Avalon Foundation and the Old Dominion Foundation. These foundations had been set up separately by Ailsa Mellon Bruce and Paul Mellon, the children of Andrew Mellon.

Mellon may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BNY Mellon Center (Pittsburgh)</span> 55-story skyscraper located at 500 Grant Street in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

BNY Mellon Center is a 55-story skyscraper located at 500 Grant Street in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Standing 725 ft (221 m) tall, it is the second-tallest building in the city. Announced on March 27, 1980, the tower was completed in June 1984. It was initially planned to be the world headquarters of the Dravo Corporation by its majority owner at the time and current neighbor U.S. Steel until Dravo was purchased in 1983. Upon opening, the building was named One Mellon Center after Mellon Financial Corporation, which used the tower as the company's global headquarters. In 2007, the company merged with Bank of New York to form The Bank of New York Mellon; the resulting corporation continues to use the building as one of its major offices. In 2008, the building was renamed to its current moniker as part of a branding initiative by The Bank of New York Mellon.

Cordelia Scaife May was a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-area political donor and philanthropist. An heiress to the Mellon-Scaife family fortune, she was one of the wealthiest women in the United States. Her philanthropy and political causes included environmentalism, birth control and family planning; overpopulation control measures, making English the official language of the United States, and strict immigration restrictions to the United States. According to The New York Times, "she bankrolled the founding and operation of the nation’s three largest restrictionist groups—the Federation for American Immigration Reform, NumbersUSA and the Center for Immigration Studies," and she left the bulk of her assets to the Colcom Foundation, whose major activity has been the sponsorship of immigration restriction.

The Scaife Foundations refer collectively to three foundations in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The three subdivisions are: the Allegheny Foundation, the Sarah Scaife Foundation, and the Scaife Family Foundation. A fourth foundation, the Carthage Foundation, was folded into the Sarah Scaife Foundation in 2014. From 2003 to 2010, the foundations were among the largest contributors to the climate change denial movement.

Sarah Cordelia Mellon Scaife was an American heiress, philanthropist, and Republican Party donor. Her legacy includes the Sarah Scaife Foundation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western Pennsylvania Conservancy</span> Private nonprofit organization

The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (WPC) is a private nonprofit conservation organization founded in 1932 and headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. WPC has contributed land to 12 state parks and conserved more than 290,000 acres of natural lands. The Conservancy plants and maintains more than 130 gardens in 20 Western Pennsylvania counties, as well as planting thousands of trees through its community forestry program. WPC has protected or restored more than 3,000 miles (4,800 km) of rivers and streams. In 1963, Edgar Kaufmann jr. (sic) entrusted Frank Lloyd Wright's masterwork Fallingwater to the Conservancy. The house was called the most important building of the 20th century by the American Institute of Architects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard King Mellon</span> American financier, general and philanthropist

Richard King Mellon, commonly known as R.K., was an American financier, general, and philanthropist from Ligonier, Pennsylvania, and part of the Mellon family.

Carol Brown was President and CEO of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, a $50 million private, nonprofit agency in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1986 to 2000.

The Heinz Endowments is a philanthropic organization in the United States, and was formed with the combined support from two smaller, private foundations: the Howard Heinz Endowment and the Vira I. Heinz Endowment. It awards more than $60 million annually in grants to a range of nonprofit organizations.

Sycamore Island is an alluvial island in the Allegheny River parallel to Ninemile Island in the borough of Blawnox, Allegheny County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steel Plaza station</span> Light rail station in Pittsburgh, PA

Steel Plaza station is a station on the Pittsburgh Regional Transit's light rail network, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It serves the city's Downtown district and is located at the intersection of Grant Street and Oliver Avenue. The station consists of an outbound (southbound) side platform and an inbound island platform, with one track for trains to Wood Street and the other for a disused branch line to Union Station. The station has rights to 4.25 acres underground Mellon Green and is accessible by means of a tunnel that connects BNY Mellon Center and the US Steel Tower. It is also the closest station to PPG Paints Arena and the primary station used for the Pittsburgh Penguins' home games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pittsburgh Center for the Arts</span>

The Pittsburgh Center for the Arts (PCA) is a non-profit community arts campus that offers arts education programs and contemporary art exhibitions in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mellon Square</span> Urban park in Downtown Pittsburgh, USA

Mellon Square is an urban park in Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It is the first Modernist park built above a parking garage. With its distinctive black, white, and green geometric pavement, it is a prominent urban oasis and gathering spot in Downtown Pittsburgh.

Rachel Larimer Mellon Walton was an American philanthropist, a member of one of the most prominent families in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the longest serving member of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's board of directors.

The Mellon family is a wealthy and influential American family from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The family includes Andrew Mellon, one of the longest serving U.S. Treasury Secretaries, along with famous members in the judicial, banking, financial, business, and political professions. Other notable figures include the prominent banker, R.B. Mellon, and his son R.K. Mellon, who provided funding and leadership for the first Pittsburgh Renaissance.

Dennis Roddy is an American journalist who was special assistant to former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett, and a former columnist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Robert Ward Duggan served as Allegheny County District Attorney in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for a decade, from January 1964 until his shooting death under mysterious circumstances in March 1974. He had been under investigation by then-United States District Attorney Richard Thornburgh for corruption.

Maurepas Swamp Wildlife Management Area is a 112,615-acre (45,574 ha) tract of protected area located in parts of Ascension, Livingston, St. John the Baptist, St. James and Tangipahoa Parishes, Louisiana, encircling three sides of Lake Maurepas.

References

  1. ↑ Cappiello, Emily. "Mellon family". Forbes. Retrieved 2024-12-05.
  2. ↑ "Life Magazine, May 14, 1956 - Gainsborough look, fashion". oldlifemagazine.com. Retrieved 2024-11-07.
  3. ↑ "How BNY Mellon Became A Towering Pillar Of Global Finance - Maxim". www.maxim.com. 2024-04-22. Retrieved 2024-08-29.
  4. ↑ "The Mellon Family And The Start Of The National Gallery Of Art". NPR. 2016-06-07.
  5. ↑ Daparma, Ron (August 31, 2007), "Master developer sought for Hazelwood", Pittsburgh Tribune-Review , Pittsburgh, PA
  6. ↑ Maurepas Swamp WMA - Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries, Retrieved 2016-08-07
  7. ↑ MacBride, Elizabeth. "The Son Of A Single Mom, He Rose From Poverty To Lead One Of The World's Largest Foundations". Forbes. Retrieved 2024-11-07.
  8. ↑ "Laurel Foundation". laurelfdn.org. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
  9. ↑ Pitz, Marylynne (February 10, 2003). "Laurel Foundation funds purchase of documents". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 2008-07-15.
  10. ↑ "About". Colcom Foundation. Retrieved 2024-12-05.
  11. ↑ Brown, Abram (July 21, 2014). "175 Years Later, The Mellons Have Never Been Richer. How'd They Do It?". Forbes.
  12. ↑ Keefer, Marsha. "Pittsburgh Fred Rogers statue restored by local volunteers". Beaver County Times. Retrieved 2024-12-05.
  13. ↑ "Mellon Heiress Bequeaths Most of Estate to Foundations, Conservation Groups". Philanthropy News Digest (PND). Retrieved 2024-12-05.
  14. ↑ "Cordelia May, 76". The Washington Post. 2005-01-27.
  15. ↑ "Pittsburgh's Colcom Foundation plays major role in immigration-control debate". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 2015-02-15. Retrieved 2024-12-05.
  16. ↑ https://www.pghcitypaper.com/news/over-70-organizations-demand-colcom-foundation-stop-funding-anti-immigrant-groups-21201599
  17. ↑ https://www.post-gazette.com/business/2022/02/28/immigration-colcom-pittsburgh-bloomfield-russia-ukraine-labor-state-house/stories/202202280079
  18. ↑ "Allegheny Foundation". Foundation Directory Online. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  19. ↑ Lord, Rich (January 14, 2017). "Enlarged Allegheny Foundation gushes with grants". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  20. ↑ "Allegheny Foundation". Scaife Foundations. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  21. ↑ David Callahan, Ghost of the Past? Hardly: Scaife's Philanthropic Empire Is Thriving, Inside Philanthropy (June 9, 2014).
  22. ↑ Isaac Stanley-Becker & Craig Timberg, Trump's allies turned to online campaign in quest to unmask Ukraine whistleblower, Washington Post (November 7, 2019).
  23. ↑ Howard Kurtz, Reason's Altered Rationale, Washington Post (November 5, 2001).
  24. ↑ Schultz, Colin (23 December 2013). "Meet the Money Behind the Climate Denial Movement". Smithsonian. Retrieved 10 June 2019.
  25. ↑ Ade Adeniji, A Look at the Sarah Scaife Foundation's Higher Ed Grantmaking, Inside Philanthropy (April 21, 2015).
  26. ↑ "Sarah Scaife Foundation Annual Report" (PDF). 2011. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  27. ↑ Stewart, James B. (13 June 2012). "How Broccoli Landed on Supreme Court Menu". The New York Times.
  28. ↑ "The Carthage Foundation". Scaife Foundations.
  29. ↑ Lord, Rich (25 October 2014). "Scaife-related foundations poised to take bigger stage". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette .
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