Every year in Allegheny County over 3,000 children face homelessness. These children do not come to a shelter by themselves. Each child is part of a family temporarily in need of a helping hand.

Join with us to ensure that they have equal access to the same educational opportunities and experiences as their peers.

Your individual donation directly serves these children, providing shelter-based innovative educational initiatives, computerized learning centers, well-stocked resource libraries, and subscriptions to digital libraries.

Are you an on-line shopper?
Here are two opportunities to benefit HCEF as you shop.

Become a member of iGive, identify HCEF as the cause you wish to support, and have a percentage of your purchase price at over 650 popular on-line stores donated to HCEF. Membership is free. iGive HCEF.

Giveline.com is a single on-line store offering more than a million popular products including books, movies, music, electronics, housewares, gifts, gift cards that never expire, and more. You shop directly at the Giveline store and every purchase earns money for HCEF. Giveline HCEF

A word to businesses

In Spring 2006, HCEF was approved for the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development Educational Improvements Tax Credit (EITC) program. The EITC program encourages businesses to support educational improvement programs like those HCEF offers.

See as an example, the story of the week-long Summer 2007 African Drumming Camp offered at several shelters. While learning to play West African drums and perform a traditional dance under the patient tutelage of the Pittsburgh Dance Ensemble, the children and youth learned also about the geography, history, culture, and languages of West Africa.

Our EITC contributors are:

Bortek Industries, Inc.

Center for Rehab Services (UPMC)

Davis Vision Incorporated




Dollar Bank

Equitable Resources



First Commonwealth Bank

First National Bank, Pittsburgh Region


Gateway Health Plan



Hefren-Tillotson, Inc

Mellon Bank, N.A.

UPMC Health Network

Your one-year donation to the Homeless Children's Education Fund through EITC will result in a state tax credit of 75% of the contribution. If you make the same contribution for two consecutive years, you receive a 90% state tax credit. Federal tax savings are also attained.

Be assured that you will achieve more than tax relief in return for your financial support of HCEF:

Specifically, EITC funding supports HCEF's Customized Accelerated Program for Education, providing professionally-led, accelerated educational workshops and activities designed to recognize and enrich the natural gifts and talents of children and youth:

• encouraging creative thinking
• advancing student achievement
• helping shape tomorrow's workforce

We encourage your firm to identify the Homeless Children's Education Fund as an Education Improvement Organization donation recipient.

EITC Business Guidelines and Application Form (a .pdf file).
You will find complete information on initial and renewal applications in Section III, pages 4-7 of this document. The initial application form itself is Appendix II, page 9; the renewal form Appendix III, page 11. An Educational Improvement Organization Monitoring report must be submitted with the renewal application; it is Appendix V, p. 15. The forms can be signed digitally and data can be typed into them.

Some helpful links:

• Basic Program Information
  
  
• The Pennsylvania Department of Revenue's FAQ page
  
  
• Sample state/federal tax savings computations for businesses donating to an Educational Improvement Organization
  
  

To contact the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development Center for Business Financing, Tax Credit Division:
Phone: 717-787-7120; e-mail tknorr@state.pa.us; or go on-line to http://www.newpa.com/contact.aspx

Updated 6/29/08