PITTSBURGH -- Despite the tough economic times, millions of dollars are being donated to help Pittsburgh high school students pay for college.

The Heinz Endowments is giving about $10.2 million in grants to the Pittsburgh Public Schools and its community partners, including $6 million over three years for the "Pittsburgh Promise" scholarship fund for students who graduate from city schools.

Last week, The Pittsburgh Foundation committed $5 million to the "Pittsburgh Promise" and the Buhl Foundation committed another $3 million.

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The $8 million in grants will make the Pittsburgh Promise stronger and put city kids closer to their dream of attending college.

"People die for a lack of vision. And what we are enabling our kids to have is a vision. Vision for their lives, vision for their futures," said Pittsburgh Promise Executive Director Saleem Ghubril.

The grants elevate the promise closer to its goal of providing $5,000 a year in scholarship money for eligible seniors between now and 2011.

But the pot increases for current freshmen. Eligible recipients can expect $10,000 a year. The ultimate funding goal is $250 million dollars for the Pittsburgh Promise.

But those behind the most recent grants made it clear to the Pittsburgh School District that they expect to see profound signs of success in the public schools.

"One of the key expectations here is that the school district continue to improve," said Grant Oliphant, the CEO of the Pittsburgh Foundation.

Buhl Foundation CEO Fred Theiman echoed Oliphant's sentiment.

"Future grants do have a whole series of measurable outcomes that we expect to see in terms of student progress," Theiman said.

"The worst result for all of this is we create a scholarship fund for kids who can't take advantage of it because they haven't been properly educated. That would be a terrible injustice and we're not going to do that," said Oliphant.

The Pittsburgh Promise said the community can expect more announcements in the near future about more grants coming from businesses and corporations.