Colcom Foundation’s Optimistic World View

Colcom Foundation’s mission is to advance efforts to create a sustainable environment and ensure quality of life for all Americans and future generations. Funds are distributed through grants given to organizations that represent and support their interests. Those interests include local environment, local community, family planning, and immigration.

All of these interests are an outgrowth of the passions of one woman, Cordelia S. May. She was an heiress of the Mellon family fortune in Pittsburgh, PA, which is the home of the organization. Ms. May was well ahead of her time. When she was 23 years-old she began supporting Family Planning because she could see the connection between over-population and “pollution, habitat destruction, and ecosystem collapse”.

In 1996, when she was 68 years old, Cordelia May founded the Colcom Foundation. Then at the time of her death in 2005, the foundation’s financial security was ensured. They have stated: “(…(our) grant-making honors the humanitarian objective, the foresight the dignity, and compassion of its benefactor Cordelia S. May.”

Nationally, it supports efforts that address its main crusade, that is, over-population. Locally, the foundation supports efforts to remediate environmental damage in Southwest Pennsylvania caused by heavy industry. They do this through grants given to organizations such as The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, and Westmoreland Land Trust.

Their funding interests include: 1) Carrying Capacity. By this they mean national projects that acknowledge the impact of human population growth on the environment. 2) The Population Media Center (partially funded by them), uses mass media entertainment and education to help reduce birth rates globally. And third, the Foundation supports those who “advance a public conversation on sustainable immigration policy.”

Cordelia S. May’s vision for a better world lives on through the Colcom Foundation, with their commitment to the environment, community well-being and global collaboration. See this page for additional information.

More about Colcom on https://www.colcomfdn.org/about/

Colcom Foundation’s mission is to advance efforts to create a sustainable environment and ensure quality of life for all Americans and future generations. Funds are distributed through grants given to organizations that represent and support their interests. Those interests include local environment, local community, family planning, and immigration. All of these interests are an outgrowth…