As a company deeply rooted in the Pittsburgh community, we are honored to partner with and support non-profit organizations that are working towards a brighter future for the city that we love.
Catapult Greater Pittsburgh is doing just that. Led by executive director Tammy Thompson, Catapult is fighting for the disenfranchised groups within our city, spearheading initiatives that foster entrepreneurship, financial literacy, home ownership, and political advocacy.
“Catapult was founded based on my own personal journey out of poverty,” says Tammy. “There were a lot of dark times, a lot of loneliness, and not a lot of support or guidance to help me getto a better place.”
Tammy was a single mother of five who, like many others in similar positions, faced emotional trauma and financial hardship as she tried to work her way out of her situation—even putting herself deeper into debt pursuing a college degree that society deemed necessary for her. Her struggles led her to the non-profit world, where she could begin helping those who experienced similar hardships.
“I spent a few years at a non-profit that focused on foreclosure mitigation support, but eventually left to focus on creating educational resources for homebuyers,” she said. “I had learned so much about homeownership that I wanted to do more with the knowledge I had.”
That’s when she discovered the psychology of poverty.
“I went from poverty and homelessness to making a decent income,” she remembers, “but I still found myself struggling to make the right financial decisions. When I started studying the psychology of poverty and how the trauma that poverty causes impacts the way people see themselves in financial spaces, I started to connect a lot of dots.”
Tammy began writing a curriculum around the psychology of poverty, adding a psychological focus to the budgeting, home buying, and credit counseling education she was already offering. Just as it did for her, understanding the mental roadblocks that trauma had erected helped her students connect to the financial principles she
was trying to teach them.
To expand her impact, she began consulting with a local chapter of the national organization, Circles, which combats poverty across the country. She spent seven years—two as the executive director—working with Circles Greater Pittsburgh and finding her passion for helping break the trend of generational poverty.
“When I joined Circles, I felt like I found my place,” she remembers, “and for nearly a decade, I knew that was where I was meant to be. But eventually, I knew I wanted to be doing more for the Black community that has been struggling for generations. So, Catapult was born.”
Circles Greater Pittsburgh became Catapult Greater Pittsburgh in January 2021 after deciding not to renew a contract with Circles USA. A vision of being hyper-focused on the struggles that she, as a Black woman, had unfairly been forced to face—from wealth gaps to low rates of homeownership to unbreakable barriers to entrepreneurship.
“It’s been two years and we’ve already seen a shift in even just what the community sees as possible. We’re beginning to show people that these big financial concepts, like owning a home and starting a business, are actually available to them.”
Catapult Greater Pittsburgh is helping members of the Black community find social capital, peer groups, and information that proves to each person that what they want to do is possible and the opportunities exist.
One of their most revolutionary programs, the Retail Incubator, is forging entrepreneurs by removing one of the greatest barriers of entry: start-up capital. Catapult provides retail space in East Liberty and the Hill District allowing aspiring business owners to test out their products in the market, build a clientele, and see what it’s like to run a storefront without having to afford the steep overhead costs that come with it.
“I don’t care what race you are,” explains Tammy. “Affording a storefront on Penn Avenue as a startup is nearly impossible. We absorb the costs to give these entrepreneurs a chance to succeed, but more importantly, a chance to fail. Successful entrepreneurs are successful because they had the luxury of being able to fail and try again. When you’re fighting your way out of poverty and have one idea that can be the answer, your only option is to put all your money and time into it. If you fail, you don’t get another shot.”
Backed by donations and private funding, the programs that Catapult offers are changing lives of so many in our community. Sparked by a donor who wanted to use the profits of her own home’s sale to help another homeowner, Catapult launched the Next Steps Fund which offered down payment and closing cost assistance to Black families looking to buy their first home.
“A group of women raised nearly $200,000 and asked me to use it to help a Black family buy a home. I told her I’d do her one better: help dozens. The Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency matched the donation and in less than one year, we were able to help 42 families become homeowners.”
Organizations like Catapult are turning Greater Pittsburgh into a better, more equitable city. To learn more and help their efforts, please visit catapultpittsburgh.org to donate or speak to your advisor about incorporating a gift into your financial plan.
