Chatham University in Pittsburgh has received a $15 million grant from the Falk Foundation to support Chatham’s School of Sustainability & the Environment.

This grant, the largest gift Chatham has ever received in its 144-year history, builds upon the major gifts received to-date for Chatham’s School of Sustainability & the Environment and the new Eden Hall Campus from individuals and foundations including The Eden Hall Foundation, the Richard King Mellon Foundation, the McCune Foundation, Dollar Bank and PNC Charitable Trust among other supporters.

With this transformational capital gift, Chatham University will create the Falk Sustainability Endowment to support academic programs in Chatham’s interdisciplinary School of Sustainability & the Environment and help fund campus construction at Eden Hall Campus. 

In honor and recognition of this gift, Chatham’s School of Sustainability & the Environment will also be renamed, the Falk School of Sustainability at Chatham University.

The Falk Foundation’s relationship with Chatham, which extends nearly half of Chatham’s existence, started in 1952 with the funding of Chatham’s Falk Hall, named in honor of Laura Falk, wife of the Falk Foundation’s founder, Maurice Falk (Braun Hall, the building adjacent to Falk Hall, is named in honor of Arthur Braun, an early Falk Foundation director and chair of Chatham’s Board of Trustees).

Sigo Falk, Chair of the Falk Foundation, has been a Chatham Board of Trustee since 1981, was Chair of the Board of Trustees from 1995 to 2002, and has been Vice Chair from 2002 to the present.

“The relationship between the Falk Foundation and the University transcends financial support, however” noted Sigo Falk, Chair of the Falk Foundation. “Both represent a history of progressive thinking and a shared commitment to our capacity to meet our current needs without compromising the ecological, social and economic systems upon which we rely for the future.”

“For more than 50 years Chatham University and the Falk Foundation have shared a deep commitment to addressing some of the most challenging issues of the times,” said Dr. Barazzone. “It is this longstanding relationship and history that makes Chatham so deeply moved to announce the Falk Sustainability Endowment and its impact in accelerating our efforts to prepare students to lead the adoption and implementation of solutions to the immense challenges of living sustainably on the planet both now and in the future.”

NewsClip: Chatham Sustainability School Receives $15 Million Gift

10/14/2013