Colcom Foundation
Colcom Foundation is a private foundation established in 1996 by Cordelia Scaife May, a Mellon family heiress.
The Colcom Foundation also provides funding for civic and environmental projects, especially in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area where it is based.Controversy
The Colcom Foundation has been a significant financial supporter of the anti-immigration movement in the United States, providing more than $76 million to such groups including those designated as "hate groups" by the Southern Poverty Law Center. According to IRS documents, in 2016 58% of the money that Colcom gave went to anti-immigrant groups. Several of the groups funded by the Colcom Foundation have been designated as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center, including American Border Patrol, the Center for Immigration Studies, and the Federation for American Immigration Reform.Civic and environmental projects
Grants have supported projects such as the planters throughout Downtown Pittsburgh, recycling hard-to-dispose waste, conservation of Sycamore Island in the Allegheny River, matching funds to activate Pittsburgh’s downtown streets in the Paris to Pittsburgh Project, water quality studies in the Monongahela River, revolving loan fund enabling land trusts to rapidly consummate vital land conservancy projects, Marcellus Environmental Fund to assess and address risks of shale drilling, Mt. Washington land conservation, Tribute to Children monument honoring Mister Rogers, Kids Zone at the Three Rivers Regatta, support for the 2009 G20 Pittsburgh summit, completing a bridge for bicyclists on the Great Allegheny Passage near Pittsburgh, curatorial salaries for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, and matching funds to renovate the fountain at historic Point State Park.
