“We meet you where you are” is more than just a phrase. At PACE, it’s a commitment.
PACE’s staple programming since 2006, the purpose of the Intensive Services Capacity-Building Program is to develop stronger, more resilient community-based nonprofit organizations to serve the community effectively and meaningfully.
Targeted capacity-building to the areas of the most need is designed to strengthen community-based nonprofit organizations by helping them improve: internal governance and leadership, cultivate strategic community linkages and develop financial and human resources for long-term stability.
Through a competitive selection process, between 8 and 15 organizations are selected annually to participate in a managed program including organizational assessments, one-to-one consulting, peer learning, targeted capacity-building grantmaking, and the promotion of positive and open relationships with funders.
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Organizational assessments at the beginning of the program year to evaluate current conditions and determine capacity building priorities; and again, at the end of the year to measure organizational change and outcomes
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Organizational Leadership Team engagement
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Cohort & Peer Learning opportunities
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Targeted funding to support a focused capacity building project
PACE announces the 2025-2026 Cohort:
| Organization | Mission Statement |
|---|---|
| Bible Center Church-The Oasis Project | The Oasis Project’s mission is to create oases—places of peace, safety, and happiness in the midst of difficulty. |
| Cafe Momentum Pittsburgh | The mission of Café Momentum Pittsburgh is to transform young lives by equipping our community’s justice-impacted youth with life skills, education, and employment opportunities to help them achieve their full potential. |
| Handmade Arcade | Handmade Arcade empowers makers of all ages by providing them with professional development and connections to customers. |
| Homewood Children’s Village | To improve the lives of Homewood’s children and simultaneously reweave the fabric of the community in which they live. |
| Imagine Further | The mission of Imagine Further Collective (IFC) is to create more equitable access to preventative mental health services for Pittsburgh youth ages 6-18. |
| Kelly Strayhorn Theater | Kelly Strayhorn Theater is a home for creative experimentation, community dialogue, and collective action rooted in the liberation of Black and queer people. |
| MAYA Organization | MAYA’s mission is to empower BIPOC and marginalized birthing people and birthworkers, and to create positive change in the systems that impact them. |
| New Century Careers | The organization seeks to improve the lives of individuals through the development of skills that lead to good quality, family wage jobs and careers and contributes to the economic health of SWPA through meeting manufacturing workforce needs by working to deliver a capable workforce to employers of the region. |
| The Early Excellence Project | The Early Excellence Project is committed to narrowing the opportunity gap in early learning systems by enriching the education of Black and other marginalized children. |
| Union Project | Union Project uses the arts to bridge gaps between communities. |