The McCune Foundation was established as a limited-life foundation, to exist for fifty years after the death of its benefactor, Charles L. McCune. Over the past seven years, the McCune Foundation Distribution Committee and staff have developed plans to sunset the Foundation by October 2029, in accordance with Mr. McCune’s wishes. This Sunset Strategy has significantly changed the nature of the McCune Foundation’s grantmaking from its earlier incarnations.

 

The broad mission of the McCune Foundation is to support nonprofit organizations that advance the quality of life for the people of southwestern Pennsylvania by fostering community vitality and economic growth to improve the region for current and future generations. Historically, the Foundation’s grantmaking has focused on four areas: Education, Human Services, Humanities, and Civic.

 

The Foundation’s Sunset Strategy adheres to three guiding principles for the Distribution Committee and staff:

 

1. Leave it better than we found it.

2. Finish well the things we have started.

3. Don’t start new things we cannot finish well.

 

These three directives make it very unlikely that the Foundation will initiate or respond to the following types of requests:

 

• Requests from organizations with which it has not worked during the first 39 years of operations.

• Capital campaigns, particularly those that seek significant investments for facilities, endowment and/or new programs.

• Requests for ongoing program or operating support.

• Investments in expanded or new operations, even to organizations with which the Foundation has significant history, unless those expansions are directly related to the core mission of the organization, and expand revenue-producing opportunities well into the future.