The Buhl Foundation

Annual Report by the President

July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012 | Download (.pdf)

The Buhl Foundation prides itself on a history of funding successful and creative endeavors.  We recognize that success can be measured only by improvement to our community, which in turn, is dependent on the vision and dedication of the many organizations that we are privileged to assist. Indeed, we have been fortunate that great ideas and the leaders to implement them have so often arisen in this community. The Buhl Foundation's mission can only be pursued by partnering with these innovative leaders, past and present, to stimulate and strengthen our ability to survive, adapt and thrive in this fast changing world. As such, even while new social entrepreneurs and innovative organizations emerge, we are fortunate to have so many other organizations that have not only survived but thrived.

Since our creation in 1927 by Mr. Buhl, the Buhl Foundation has granted nearly $108 million to our non-profit partners. It's the continued impact of such opportunities, past and present, that we find so encouraging. A number of grants in 2011 and 2012 underscore that connection between new endeavors and enduring legacies. A recent gift to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy to endow community flower gardens on the North Side harkens back to our grant in the 1930's that helped to first create the Conservancy.  Our $1 million gift to Buhl Community Park livens a plot of land where the Boggs and Buhl Department Store once stood, where the former Buhl Planetarium still stands, and where our strong partnership with the Children's Museum continues. A recent gift to Carnegie Mellon University for an inventive use of technology to improve school transportation continues a partnership with Carnegie Mellon University that began in the 1940's with professorships that Buhl endowed in electrical engineering and, later, in physics. Our grant for an innovative STEM program at Allegheny College continues a relationship that started back in the 1950's with an endowed professorship. Such grants are but a few examples of the opportunity to renew and the capacity to begin anew in this most amazing community.

It is the mission of the Buhl Foundation to create community legacies by leveraging its resources to encourage people and organizations to dream, innovate and to take action. It is only through the creative genius of new partners, and the enduring creativity of our enduring partners, that the Buhl Foundation is able to carry out its mission to benefit the citizens of this most unique community.