Nearly three decades after its founding, Colcom Foundation continues to operate according to a philosophy laid out by the woman who created it. Cordelia Scaife May established the Pittsburgh based foundation in 1996 with a clear view of how population growth and environmental health were connected.

May believed that consumption and population size were the two defining issues of the modern environmental movement, an idea she traced back to the first Earth Day. That belief has remained central to how Colcom Foundation evaluates and awards its grants today.

A Consistent Framework

Rather than shifting focus with each passing decade, the foundation has kept its giving anchored to a handful of related priorities, including responsible family planning, sustainable immigration policy, and public education about ecological footprint. Colcom Foundation has funded organizations working on each of these fronts for years. These include the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the American Border Patrol, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), and Numbers USA. 

That consistency has extended into the foundation’s environmental conservation work as well, with grants supporting habitat restoration, water quality projects, and land protection across Western Pennsylvania. May’s original concern for the natural world finds a direct expression in these ongoing efforts.

Cultural and educational giving rounds out the picture, with support for the arts and historic preservation reflecting a belief that community wellbeing and environmental stewardship go hand in hand. Colcom Foundation has treated these areas as complementary rather than competing priorities.

Nonprofit leaders who have worked with the foundation describe its mission as unusually stable compared to peer organizations, a stability they attribute directly to May’s original vision continuing to guide its board and staff decades after her death.

Board members have said that new grant proposals are still measured against the founding principles May laid out, even as the organization has grown and its giving has become more sophisticated over time. That continuity is part of why Colcom Foundation is often cited as an example of a family foundation that has kept its original purpose intact well beyond the lifetime of its founder. Refer to this article for related information.

Find more information about Colcom Foundation on https://gwpa.org/redhen/org/347