New Sun Rising celebrates 20th Anniversary in 2025

Above: Each quarter, we’ll highlight one of our impact areas. The first is Culture, followed by Sustainability, Opportunity, and then Vibrancy, which is the umbrella for these three areas. 

It’s hard to believe New Sun Rising has been supporting community-driven development for two decades. 

When we first launched in 2005 as a 501(c)(3), it was out of the love that our founders, brothers Brian and Scott Wolovich, have for Millvale and New Orleans. Our inaugural fundraiser, the Cultural Gumbo, raised money to support flood victims after Hurricane Ivan and Hurricane Katrina devastated these two communities. 

Soon afterwards, a group of residents were fiscally sponsored by New Sun Rising to bring the Millvale Community Library to reality. Another founding project, The Horizon Experience, helped children from urban and suburban neighborhoods build positive relationships and crush stereotypes through shared summer experiences and mentoring. The outcome of these early projects created networks of hope and an undeniable shift in neighborhood perception.

This was during the first decade of our existence, when a volunteer board of directors carried the weight of our early mission to improve social, environmental, and cultural wellness of the Pittsburgh region. Our budget was $1,200 and we were limited to serving only six projects a year. The success of our fiscal sponsorship and mentoring programs during the first 10 years caused us to step back and reflect on a vision for the larger ecosystem we wanted to create. This led to the development of our Vibrant Communities Framework centered around strengthening culture, sustainability, and opportunity in disadvantaged places. After we did this, a lot of things started falling into place. 

In 2014, New Sun Rising received its first proper funding: a $15,000 Small & Simple grant from Neighborhood Allies that stimulated larger investments, including $550,000 from The Henry L. Hillman Foundation and $35,000 from The Pittsburgh Foundation the following year. This funding seeded development programs such as Ignite Workshops and our first two Launch Incubator cohorts, and provided the resources to scale up fiscal sponsorship and implement capacity building to Grow collaborations.

Within the past decade we’ve supported local organizing and power building toward equitable development in 75 communities, and used the practical lessons learned to strengthen over 500 leaders and manage $18+ million since our founding.

The Vibrant Communities Framework emerged as a roadmap to build capacity for community-driven change at three stages of development: Ignite, Launch, and Grow. The 18 strategies are highly adaptive and implemented through local partners to inspire regenerative, wholistic development: built from the bottom up and from the inside out.

We’ve dedicated the last 20 years to the belief that transformational community change requires a commitment to supporting local people to lead and benefit from the future they envision. By unlocking authentic human potential, we’re building an engaged, diverse, and resilient ecosystem with solutions that not only improve your community – but can improve communities around the world.

To celebrate New Sun Rising’s 20th Anniversary, we’ll be taking this year to reflect on our past, how we show up presently for those we serve, and (with your input) envision our future. We’ll be hosting events and publishing more throughout the year on what we’ve learned building Vibrant Communities of wellbeing and prosperity for all. 

If you’re interested in learning more about our 20th Anniversary Campaign events and sponsorship opportunities click here. Consider making an individual donation to honor New Sun Rising two decades of impact here.