Ralph Sicuro was unprepared for it. The BlackRock Foundation’s recent announcement was met with equal parts shock and relief, according to the president of Pittsburgh Fire Fighters, IAFF Local No. 1, which represents about 700 city firefighters. “They were all very excited and very surprised that a large organization such as BlackRock would be so generous,” he stated. That surprise feels telling because generosity of this magnitude still takes working families by surprise, not because the gift was out of the ordinary.
The figures are fairly simple. 586 children of Pittsburgh firefighters received $586,000 from the BlackRock Foundation, which seeded Pennsylvania 529 College and Career Savings accounts with $1,000 deposits. The funds can be used for almost any credentialed path a child may choose, including books, room and board, technical programs, apprenticeships, and tuition. It’s a neat story on paper. Children get a head start when a large company writes a check. However, the information beneath the headline is more fascinating than the headline itself.
What transpired after the deposits arrived is noteworthy. Many of his members who had never thought about a 529 plan before started setting up payroll deductions to keep adding to their children’s accounts, Sicuro mentioned almost casually. A one-time gift turned into a change in behavior. It’s possible that this was always the unspoken goal, not just to provide funds but also to encourage families to save, to give the intangible concept of college funding a tangible and attainable feel. Though perhaps more valuable, that kind of ripple effect is more difficult to quantify than a monetary sum.
In order to make this happen, the BlackRock Foundation collaborated with the Pennsylvania Treasury Department and The Pittsburgh Foundation, guided by the company’s declared mission to assist people in building financial security. Children born in 2019 or later were also identified as eligible for an extra $100 through the state’s Keystone Scholars program, and Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity celebrated the announcement. The infrastructure that surrounds this gift—the union coordination, the savings architecture, and the state partnerships—indicates that it was not an impulsive act of kindness. It was created.
BlackRock senior managing director Joe DeVico, a native of Pittsburgh, described it in terms of mission alignment. Observing how this was presented and publicized gives the impression that BlackRock is acting in a way that is more calculated than purely charitable—not necessarily in a cynical manner, but in the manner that sustainable philanthropy typically operates. Businesses that link philanthropy to their fundamental business principles typically maintain consistency. BlackRock’s larger early wealth-building initiatives, such as collaborations with California’s Early Wealth Partnership and NYC Kids Rise, indicate a pattern rather than an isolated act.
That brings up the bigger question that lies at the heart of it all. Corporate philanthropy has always been a challenging field. In communities, it fosters goodwill, increases brand loyalty, and occasionally improves actual social outcomes. However, it also subtly fills gaps left by public policy. It’s important to consider what systems failed to make it necessary for a private investment firm to seed college savings accounts for the children of firefighters. That doesn’t mean you should discount the gift. Regardless of the motivation, the children gain.
However, it’s difficult to ignore the fact that union workers—people who commit their lives to public service but still struggle to save for college—are the families most prominently honored in tales like this. No place will accept $1,000 for four years of tuition. However, it opens a door, and it seems that many firefighters in Pittsburgh are now using it. Momentum can sometimes be more important than the initial amount. It is worthwhile to discuss whether corporations should be the ones generating that momentum, probably more than once.
