Through the Pew Fund for Health and Human Services in Philadelphia, The Pew Charitable Trusts supports organizations that provide effective services which help individuals and families facing complex challenges live healthy and stable lives.
The Philadelphia region is home to a large number of people living in poverty, many of whom are dealing with issues related to their physical and emotional health and the ability to meet basic needs, such as securing food and shelter. Pew Fund grants are designed to help local social services organizations expand their reach and impact on the Philadelphia area’s most vulnerable residents, as well as to support the development and implementation of promising solutions to emerging problems or gaps in service delivery.
The Pew Fund provides two types of grants to nonprofit organizations:
Growth grants: Flexible, long-term, large investments designed to strengthen local health and human services agencies’ capacity to provide more low-income Philadelphians with research-informed services in order to improve their health, well-being, and overall stability. These awards offer grantees the predictability necessary to develop and implement their goals, help their staff members focus energy and attention on setting and achieving concrete objectives, and allow leaders to devote funding to operations and programming areas that need strengthening.
The grants range, on average, from $1 million to $3 million over five years, with the possibility of renewal based on performance. The award’s size is contingent on several factors, including the organization’s capacity and readiness to serve more people. This funding is designed to address a range of organizational needs that are crucial to growth and enhancing effectiveness, such as leadership development, the recruitment and hiring of professional staff, information technology, evaluation, and program improvement and expansion. Award recipients must either have a business plan in place that provides a roadmap for growth or be willing to develop one with Pew’s support.
Venture grants: Smaller and shorter-term funding that enables organizations to fill a critical service gap or need for an underserved population. Ongoing data and research, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic’s impacts, are already revealing emerging social challenges that are not being adequately addressed. That’s why these investments are designed to support agencies that are developing and implementing promising solutions.
The awards range from $100,000 to $250,000 over two years; they are not renewable.
In addition to funding, the Pew Fund offers grantees additional support through the evaluation capacity building initiative, which provides training and technical assistance to strengthen organizations’ ability to collect, analyze, and use data to understand and improve their programs.
Pew Fund staff members identify organizations on a rolling basis and invite them to participate in a rigorous review process. To be considered for funding, an organization must have 501©(3) nonprofit status and provide services in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and/or Philadelphia counties. For more information on our process, please visit the Pew Fund’s frequently asked questions page.
Since 1991, the Pew Fund has played an important role in supporting the needs of Philadelphia-area residents facing challenges to their health and well-being—including those related to poverty, mental illness, and homelessness—by enhancing local nonprofits’ collective ability to develop and offer high-quality services.
Since its inception, the fund has invested approximately $233 million in more than 350 local organizations—and in the past five years alone, Pew’s support has helped grantees assist 80,000 to 100,000 people annually. Moving forward, our goal is to have an even more meaningful impact on vulnerable individuals and families by helping nonprofits continue to expand their evidence-based services.
Following is a list of our 2018-20 grants to date, including those awarded under our former, population-focused structure. New grants will appear here in the coming months.
