William Penn Foundation
Contact information:
2 Logan Square, 11th Floor
100 N. 18th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103-2757
Phone: 215-988-1830
Fax: 215-988-1823
Email: moreinfo@williampennfoundation.org
Website: http://www.williampennfoundation.org/
Type of foundation: Independent
Types of grants: Project, pilot programs, capital, research, technical assistance, capacity-building.
Description: The William Penn Foundation was founded in 1945 by Otto and Phoebe Haas. Otto Haas was co-founder of the chemical company, Rohm and Haas, which was acquired by the Dow Chemical Company in 2009. The foundation is dedicated to improving the quality of life in the Greater Philadelphia region.
Jeremy Nowak, Ph.D. became the foundation’s President in June 2011. Prior to joining the foundation, he was president and CEO of The Reinvestment Fund, a nationally-recognized leader in urban development.
The foundation has three major giving areas:
- Children, Youth and Families: This program area focuses on school readiness, youth development and public education, focusing largely on critical transition points in the lives of young people. Grants support dropout prevention, education advocacy, equitable school funding, early childhood education, after-school programs and youth development in specific neighborhoods.
- Environment and Communities: This program seeks to foster cross-sector collaborations that build on the assets of the region through revitalization of its urban core and protection and restoration of the region’s natural assets. Grants support policy that promotes sustainability, redevelopment of target urban neighborhoods, waterway preservation and permanent protection of land in targeted areas.
- Arts and Culture: This program supports arts groups and cultural institutions and funds work that broadly advances the region’s cultural sector. The foundation has a particular interest in arts education and initiated a community-wide effort to reinvigorate arts education for children and youth. Grants support creation and presentation of artistic work, public participation in cultural life, preservation and promotion of the region’s cultural assets, cultural opportunities for specific neighborhoods and the core operations and administration of arts organizations.
The foundation also has a strong interest in local journalism. In 2010, the foundation made a major grant ($2,400,000) to Temple University to strengthen public interest reporting by establishing a network of media outlets, the first phase of which is the creation of the Center for Public Interest Journalism. The second phase of the project will include the creation of the Philadelphia Public Interest Information Network (PPIIN), a collaborative project between local, independent journalists who have a reputation for strong community-based reporting. The original conception of PPIIN is that it will pursue these objectives by collaborating with the best existing news organizations, by incubating and leveraging the most promising emerging news ventures, and by adding capacity to create quality coverage where the opportunity presents itself.
The foundation is also encouraging other funders to become involved in supporting local journalism. In 2011, the foundation joined with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to publish Journalism and Media Grant Making: Five Things You Need to Know, Five Ways to Get Started.
Sample grants:
- $2,400,000 to Temple University for the creation of a regional public interest journalism collaborative to support increased public interest/accountability reporting and promote its broadest possible distribution (2010).
- $500,000 to WXPN for its Campaign for the Music (capital campaign) (2009).
- $275,000 to WHYY toward production and expanded distribution of public affairs content through Its Our Money and NewsWorks Tonight programming (2011).
- $167,000 in two grants to OMG Center for Collaborative Learning toward initial design of a regional networked public affairs journalism collaborative (2010).
- $82,500 to American University, Institute for Interactive Journalism toward a pilot Greater Philadelphia Enterprise Reporting Fund intended to model and test collaborative approaches to journalism content development and distribution (2010).
- $50,000 to Washington Monthly Corporation for publication of in-depth special report on the effects of high school dropout and policy solutions, with a special focus on Philadelphia's challenges and successes (2010).
Fit for Public Media: The foundation has a strong interest in public affairs journalism and in supporting its growth in the region. In particular, it is interested in collaborative initiatives that bring together the most innovative public affairs journalists (whether from public media or not) in work that informs and engages the community. Public radio and television could certainly play a lead role in this work. The foundation also has a history of supporting media projects related to its key interest areas.
Eligibility: Organizations must be classified as tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and as public charities, under Section 509(a). Applicant organizations should have at least a three-year history of programming. Grants are made to organizations located in and serving constituents in the six-county Greater Philadelphia region (Bucks County, Camden County, Chester County, Delaware County, Montgomery County, and Philadelphia County). Some grants are made beyond these counties as part of our efforts to preserve and protect the Delaware River Watershed through the Environment and Communities program. The foundation may also consider funding requests for projects that, although administered by an organization located outside this region, are expressly for the benefit of this region and its constituents.
Deadline: Deadlines vary by program area. There are no deadlines for Arts and Culture letters of inquiry. There are deadlines for Environment and Communities. There are also deadlines for Children, Youth and Families.
How to apply: Initial approach is via letter of inquiry. Online letters of inquiry are specific to each program area. If a full proposal is invited, instructions and relevant forms associated with each program area are available online.
Giving range: Most grants to media fall in the range of $50,000 – 400,000.
Assets: In 2009, the foundation received $749 million from John C. Haas, son of founders Otto and Phoebe Haas. The Foundation’s assets were nearly $2 billion as of December 31, 2010.
Total giving: $64,270,306 (2009). Giving in 2010 is estimated at $80 million.
View 2009 Annual Report here.
