Blueprints named WCCF’s Charity of Excellence

By ERIC SEIVERLING

eseiverling@yourmvi.com

Blueprints, an area nonprofit organization, received an early Christmas gift this year from the Washington County Community Foundation.

On Wednesday, the WCCF announced Blueprints as the winner of its Charity of Excellence $25,000 top prize, beating out 24 other charities that were nominated this spring.

“We’re pretty excited about it,” said Blueprints CEO Darlene Bigler. “We’re very, very honored to be considered the top charity.”

Blueprints, formerly Community Action Southwest, is a non-profit organization that has served southwestern Pennsylvania since 1965. Three years ago, the organization also began services in West Virginia.

The organization has Mon Valley locations in Donora, Charleroi, Finleyville, California, Monongahela and Bentleyville.

Blueprints serves almost 20,000 people a year, and services range from early Head Start, nutrition, senior, adoption and home-delivered meal programs.

According to Bigler, WCCF awarded Blueprints the prize money based on the organization’s variety and quality of programing, impact, volunteer engagement and financial improvement.

Bigler also said part of the reason for the award was Blueprints’ ability to promote WCCF’s Charity of Excellence seal.

“We did a large public relations campaign around it with emails and social media,” she said. “Our communications department did an amazing job.”

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