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The McCune Foundation supports non-profit 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.

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The McCune Foundation was established in 1979 by the will of Charles L. McCune. The donor, a Director of The Union National Bank of Pittsburgh for 56 years, served as its President from 1945 until 1972, and then as Chairman of the Board until his death. His life was spent providing capital to people with good ideas and the ability to execute them.

 

Charles McCune also gave generously to charitable organizations, mostly in the Pittsburgh area, while seeking no public recognition of his philanthropy. He established the Foundation in memory of his parents, Janet Lockhart McCune and John Robison McCune. He left us a legacy less of what to do, and more of how to do it. As those who knew him will attest, his style of dealing with people and with challenges would be described as purposeful, simple, and direct. The Foundation he created continues to provide capital to people with good ideas and the ability to execute them.

 

In the McCune Foundation’s establishing documents, Mr. McCune required that all the assets of the Foundation be paid out in grants by October 16, 2029, and the Foundation cease operation on that date. The 2016 Chairman’s Statement gave a history of the major decisions the Distribution Committee has made to meet this requirement. Our commitment to the Sunset Strategy was made fully apparent in 2017. While our work continues in the Education, Health and Human Services, Humanities and Civic program areas, we no longer organize our grantmaking around these categories. Now, our Sunset Strategy deals with Sunset Grants, Concept Testing, Readiness and Ending Well with each being described in the Annual Report.

 

In reviewing the work of the Foundation in 2025, the Distribution Committee disbursed 93 new and conditional grants totaling $41,808,750. The 2025 Annual Report lists these grants. Our average grant size this year was $449,556. One-third of our grants in 2025, reflecting 78% of all dollars granted, were dedicated to the Sunset Strategy. The spending rate this year was 31% of the assets invested at the end of the fiscal year. Given the spend-down nature of our work, we continue to see these amounts increase on an annual basis as more and more of our grantmaking efforts are guided by the Sunset Strategy.

 

The Work We Do

​These grant amounts – and the Sunset Strategy that has been memorialized in prior chair letters – are guided by the ‘1/n’ rule that Mr. McCune included in the Foundation’s founding documents. The ‘1/n’ rule provides a requirement that in any given year the amount of grant dollars must be equal to or greater than ‘1/n’ of the Foundation assets at the beginning of the year – with ‘n’ being equal the number of years left until October 16, 2029. Foundation staff dutifully track this number on both a historic and forward-looking basis to inform grant planning and ensure the Foundation remains compliant with its founding documents.

 

In addition to informing staff’s grantmaking work, tracking ‘1/n’ also provides us all with a constant reminder of when the Foundation will cease to exist – and how much (or little) time is left to finalize our operations. It tells us that in less than four years from this moment, a 50-year organization currently staffed by 5 experienced and dedicated full-time employees and supported by a committed Distribution Committee of 7 volunteers will go out of business.

 

The comparison to business is an applicable, if not imperfect, analogy for the operational focus of the foundation in the coming years. In the history of business, few companies have known in advance when they will go out of business – even fewer (if any) were started with the intention of going out of business on a specific future date. The McCune Foundation, however, is an exception. And the work we do has been evolving as a result.

 

Whereas in the past 100% of staff’s focus was on grantmaking, today we are asking them to research and plan how to wind down Foundation operations. Whereas in the past Distribution Committee meetings were focused on non-profit efforts and regional trends, today we balance grantmaking with operational decision making. Whereas in the past our time with the Trustee could focus on financial performance of the Foundation assets and ensure our compliance with Mr. McCune’s will, today we are ensuring alignment with the Trustee in all aspects of the operational winddown. The speed of this shift has only increased as the ‘n’ has decreased.

 

Executing at a high level on grantmaking to ensure all assets are distributed by 2029 while increasing focus on operational topics has required a great degree of flexibility and nimbleness across everyone involved. Staff, Distribution Committee members, and the Trustee have all risen to this sometimes-daunting challenge in a manner that has been remarkable to witness. I am deeply grateful to all these individuals for their time, effort, and commitment to what is a rapidly evolving process.

 

Looking Ahead

​Since 2013 the family cohort of the Distribution Committee has been a generational mix – representing family members either two or three generations removed from Mr. McCune. This approach provides the Committee with a breadth of experience and perspective while creating an opportunity for younger McCune generations to develop and enhance our philanthropic ‘muscle’.

 

The generational mix – which initially skewed to the older generation – has slowly been shifting to the younger generation. This past year represented a tipping point when “next gen-er” Lisa Storey joined the Committee at our January 2025 meeting. At that moment, for the first time ever, the majority of family members on the Committee were represented by the younger generation three times removed from Mr. McCune.

 

Why is this notable? It means most of the family members on the Committee have not met “Uncle Charles”. We did not eat holiday meals with him, receive gifts from him, or spend time with him on his property in Coraopolis. Despite this, we are eagerly committed to bringing the work he laid out for us to a completion in 2029 while also stewarding his legacy in the region. I look forward to Lisa’s participation in and contribution to this effort and thank her in advance for the valuable input she will no doubt bring to us.

 

Adam B. Edwards

Chairman