Inside Colcom Foundation, a Pittsburgh Funder With National Reach

Origins and Purpose

The late Cordelia S. May established the Foundation in 1996. Its mission is to foster a sustainable environment that ensures quality of life for all Americans by addressing the major causes and consequences of population growth and its adverse effects on natural resources.

That focus draws on ideas that gained wide attention with the first Earth Day in 1970. Environmental advocates at the time named per capita overconsumption and human population growth as primary drivers of ecological damage. Colcom Foundation describes population stabilization, in the United States and worldwide, as the goal from that era that remains unfulfilled.

What the Foundation Funds

On the national level, Colcom Foundation supports public education, research, and nonprofit organizations that study how population interacts with the environment. Its grantmaking emphasizes evidence-based conservation built on peer-reviewed science. The Foundation states clearly that it does not fund direct political lobbying or partisan advocacy.

Regionally, the picture looks different. Grants in southwestern Pennsylvania go toward conservation, environmental projects, and cultural assets that contribute to community vitality. Colcom Foundation highlights examples of this work through its Grantee Spotlight resource.

The Foundation’s national arguments rely heavily on data. It points out that U.S. per capita carbon dioxide emissions fell 35 percent from 1970 to 2021, yet total emissions rose 15 percent as the population grew from 205 million to 332 million. It also reports that the country consumed about 240 percent of its available biocapacity in 2020, and that North American bird populations declined by 2.9 billion between 1970 and 2020.

The organization explains these trends through the I = P x A x T equation. Environmental impact, in this model from Paul Ehrlich and John Holdren, results from population, per capita consumption, and technology together.

Colcom Foundation’s materials are written for researchers, conservation groups, policymakers, and community stakeholders in southwestern Pennsylvania. Readers interested in its history and data can find more on the Foundation’s Our Story site, along with an academic bibliography on the extinction crisis. Refer to this article for more information.