Worth Magazine has chosen the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild as one of the top 100 nonprofit organizations in the country.

For the full Pittsburgh Post-Gazette brief:
http://www.post-gazette.com/businessnews/20021123bizzers9.asp

Pittsburgh, PA  - November 21, 2002 – Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild announces that they have been chosen by Worth Magazine as one of the top 100 non-profits in the United States.  In the December/January 2003 issue of Worth Magazine, in an article entitled “To Give Well, Give Wisely” by Reshma Memon Yaqub, Pittsburgh’s Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, founded by William E. Strickland, Jr., was chosen as one of twenty-four arts organizations in the United States to make the “Top 100 Charities List.”

For the second year in a row, Worth Magazine “set out to identify those charities that are doing the best job, dollar for dollar, of mitigating these (the world’s) problems.”  The magazine separated the non-profits into 6 categories — The Environment, Relief and Development, Health, Human Services, Education and The Arts.  “The environment, health and relief categories have been paired down; the education category reflects a new priority on K-12 public education.  Human Services is our only expanded category reflecting an increasing reliance on these basic services.  We’ve also added the arts, but because their impact is typically regional, we focused on five major cultural centers – New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, DC, ” writes Yaqub.

“The United States has over 800,000 public charities, all trying in their own way to make a difference,” writes Yaqub.  “Choosing among charities is never easy.  We interviewed hundreds of philanthropy experts to come up with a preliminary list of some 200 non-profits.  We then asked those groups to provide detailed information on their programs and copies of their last three tax returns.  For each charity, we took a three-year average of the percentage of its total revenue that is allocated to programs, administration, fundraising and reserves for the future, and represented those percentages as dollar amounts per $100 donated.”

Along with Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, under the heading of “The Arts” are other organizations such as the National Gallery of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Museum of Modern Art, National Public Radio, Public Broadcasting System and the San Francisco Ballet.  Of the twenty-four arts organizations chosen, Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild is second only to the Headquarters of the Public Broadcasting System in terms of which directs the largest percentage of funds donated to programs.  The December/January 2003 issue of Worth Magazine hits newsstands today.

For more information or a copy of the article please call Hilary Rose, Director of Public Relations at 412-322-1773 x 264.

Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild is a multi-disciplined, minority directed center for arts and learning that fosters a sense of belonging, interconnectedness and hope within the urban community.

Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild is funded in part by Alcoa Foundation, Allegheny Foundation, Allegheny Regional Asset District, The Hillman Foundation, Mellon Financial Corporation, Mellon Financial Corporation Foundation, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Hewlett – Packard Company, Howard Heinz Endowment, The Mary Hillman Jennings Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Pittsburgh Board of Education, The Pittsburgh Foundation and Dylan Todd Simonds Foundation, Inc.  MCG Jazz is also funded by JazzNet, a program of the Nonprofit Finance Fund, administered by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, AT&T, Nova Chemicals and the Wyndham Garden Hotel, a Crown American Hotel.