OVERVIEW: The William Penn Foundation awards grants for education and workforce training, children and families, arts and culture, democracy and civic initiatives, and the environment in the Philadelphia area.
IP TAKE: The Philadelphia-focused William Penn Foundation is a respected, storied funder with a long track record of grantmaking, program development, and cross-sector collaboration in the region. Penn is known as a longtime funder of education, arts and culture, and the environment, particularly its support of parks and public spaces and its work toward protecting the Delaware River watershed. More recently, the foundation has expanded its issue areas to include democracy and civic initiatives, workforce development, and a greater emphasis on racial justice and economic equity. In 2024, Penn unveiled a new 10-year plan with an emphasis on greater community involvement, making its grant application process more open and user-friendly, and constituent-led programming development. In an interview with Inside Philanthropy, Penn executive director Shawn McCaney emphasized the funder’s commitment to listening to grantees’ ideas rather than the foundation’s staff dictating solutions. “Instead of saying, ‘Here’s the way to reduce illegal dumping or expand access to cultural opportunities,’ we’re saying, ‘We want to hear what you think the best approach is.’ It’s a way of shifting solution-making to the community,” McCaney said.
Penn currently accepts proposals for its programs on a rotating schedule of RFPs that are available in all five of its programming areas. The foundation’s detailed website clearly describes each program’s objectives and parameters, making it easy for grantseekers to determine whether their organization is a good fit. Penn is an accessible funder, so don’t hesitate to reach out to a staff member with questions. In addition to cyclical RFPs, Penn maintains a year-round open call for grant applications for “urgent opportunities that would not be possible through a future RFP.” However, funding via the open call is limited, and Penn notes that the vast majority of grantmaking occurs through specific RFPs. Penn is a transparent funder with a detailed grants database available at its website.
PROFILE: The Penn Foundation was established in 1945 by Phoebe Waterman Haas, a noted astronomer and one of the first women in the U.S. to earn a Ph.D. in the field, and her husband Otto Haas, founder of the chemical company Rohm and Haas. The foundation was originally called the Phoebe Waterman Foundation, but the couple’s children, who took the reins after their parents passed away, “chose to rename the foundation after William Penn, a 17th-century Quaker whose pursuit of an exemplary society led to his founding of Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love.”
The William Penn Foundation’s mission is “to help improve education for children from low-income families, ensure a sustainable environment, foster creative communities that enhance civic life and advance philanthropy in the Greater Philadelphia region.” In keeping with this mission, the foundation’s stated giving areas are Arts and Culture, Children and Families, Democracy and Civic Initiatives, Environment and Public Space, and Workforce Training and Services. Grantmaking targets the greater Philadelphia area. The foundation is governed by a corporation composed of Haas family members and a board of directors that includes family members.
Grants for Environment and Community Development
The William Penn Foundation’s Environment and Public Space program seeks to help underrepresented groups in Greater Philadelphia “reduce harmful impacts to their natural environments, improve the quality of their natural and community spaces, and prepare for the impacts of climate change.” This program makes grants in three strategic areas.
- Reduce harmful environmental burdens by 2035, including illegal dumping and sewage overflows.
- Promote community greening, increase the circuit trails system, invest in parks, expand outdoor programming, develop urban gardens, advocate for land conservation, and improve existing public spaces.
- Developing additional green stormwater infrastructure, plant 35,000 trees in urban areas, and devise and implement community-based climate resilience plans.
- Recent grantees include City Parks Alliance, Philadelphia City Fund, Culture Trust Greater Philadelphia, Movement Alliance Project, and Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.
Grants for Early Childhood, K-12 Education and Civic Engagement
Children and Families grantmaking focuses on “the healthy development and academic success of young Philadelphians.” Grants pursue three strategies.
- Increase access to public benefits, reduce the number of homeless families with young children, provide support for caregivers and early learning opportunities for young children, and increase access to mental and behavioral health services.
- Expand early childhood education, out-of-school education, and teacher diversity and professional development opportunities.
- Advocate for increased public funding for child serving systems.
- Grantees working in these areas include Philadelphia’s EducationWorks, the Philadelphia City Fund, Children First, Mastery Charter Schools and the Free Library of Philadelphia.
Grants for Arts and Culture and Arts Education
Penn’s Arts and Culture grantmaking funds programs and initiatives that ensure people across Philadelphia and the region benefit from “diverse, inclusive, and high-quality arts and culture experiences.” Strategies for this program area include:
- Increase access to arts and culture programming and strengthen the arts and culture sector.
- Expand access to arts education, train teachers in arts education, and increase access to resources to strengthen the arts education field.
- Provide multi-year general operating support to arts organizations and funding for capital improvements to arts and culture facilities.
- Grantees of the Creative Communities program include Opera Philadelphia, the Clay Studio, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Historic Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Grants for Democracy and Civic Engagement
The foundation’s Democracy and Civic Initiatives area is focused on “building trust and participation in democratic processes so that more voices can be heard, and more interests equitably represented.” Strategies include:
- Increasing voter participation, particularly among voters of color; growing the census response rate in Philadelphia; and advocate for fair redistricting to reduce gerrymandering.
- Improve regional funder collaboration and increase the amount of funding available to the region.
- Address the needs of the region through civic initiatives.
Grants for Work and Economic Development
Penn’s Workforce Training and Services funding area seeks to help residents apply for and keep high-quality employment. This includes removing barriers to employment by providing support for “services such as childcare, transportation, clearing justice system records, securing vital personal documents, helping with language and literacy, housing, job coaching, and more.”
Important Grant Details:
The William Penn Foundation makes grants that mainly range between $10,000 and $500,000, although some grants have exceeded this range.
- Grantmaking is mainly limited to the greater Philadelphia area, although a few state-wide and national organizations have received funding.
- The environment, arts and culture, and children and families programs are the largest; the democracy, civics, and workforce programs are newer and, at least for now, have smaller grantmaking programs.
- This funder supports organizations of all sizes and seeks to fund projects that address more than one of its interest areas.
- Penn accepts proposals on a revolving schedule throughout the year. Each program has its own deadline, and some programs are subdivided by strategy. These have different deadlines as well. Detailed guidelines are provided on the foundation’s website.
- For additional information about this funder’s work, see its Awarded Grants page.
Reach out with general questions at grants@williampennfoundation.org or email the staff directly.
PEOPLE:
Search for staff contact info and bios in PeopleFinder (paid subscribers only).
LINKS:
