William Penn Foundation

The William Penn Foundation is one of the largest private foundations in the mid-Atlantic region, with $3.44 billion in assets (FY2024) and annual grantmaking of approximately $148–184 million per year. Its central mission — "Let's help make more lives better by connecting more people with more opportunities" — is deliberately broad, but the foundation executes it through tightly scoped RFPs tied to specific program objectives rather than open-ended grantee relationships.

The foundation's giving philosophy centers on six core values: equity for communities burdened by historical discrimination, elevation of community voice, partnership and transparency with grantees, climate responsiveness, regional leadership, and knowledge sharing. These are not aspirational bullet points — they function as actual scoring criteria. Proposals that explicitly address how work serves communities facing economic inequity or racial injustice consistently advance further than technically strong applications that treat equity as an afterthought.

The typical relationship progression begins with the RFP. The foundation releases scheduled RFPs throughout the year in predictable cycles tied to its five program areas: Arts and Culture ($34–38M annual budget), Children and Families ($40–45M), Democracy and Civic Initiatives ($15–20M), Environment and Public Space ($40–45M), and Workforce Training and Services ($3–5M). A written proposal advances to a site visit for finalists, then to a staff recommendation, then to a Board decision — approximately 90 days from submission to outcome.

First-time applicants should prioritize three things. First, map your work to a specific published objective, not just a program area. Each RFP identifies one targeted outcome with explicit evaluation criteria; vague alignment with "environment" will not score as well as a proposal directly advancing the Delaware River Watershed Initiative's restoration targets. Second, introduce yourself to the relevant program officer before submitting. The foundation explicitly invites pre-submission conversations and views them as part of the relationship-building process. Third, recognize that the foundation favors organizations demonstrating both community roots and institutional capacity — grantees like Project Home, Bartram's Garden, and Urban Affairs Coalition appear repeatedly across cycles, indicating the foundation deepens relationships with proven partners over time.

The William Penn Foundation paid out $148.8 million in grants in FY2024, down from a peak of $183.7 million in FY2022, reflecting some moderation after pandemic-era surge spending. Total assets grew from $3.22 billion (FY2020) to $3.44 billion (FY2024), and with net investment income of $336.6 million in FY2024, the foundation is financially robust and positioned to sustain or increase annual disbursements.

Grants are awarded in quarterly cycles. The May 2025 round disbursed $43.9 million across 113 grants (average: $389,000); the August 2025 round disbursed $31.6 million across 79 grants (average: $400,000); the November 2025 round disbursed $45 million across 101 grants (average: $445,000). These averages obscure significant range: the Arts and Culture RFP capped individual awards at $675,000 for FY2026–2028, while Environment grants frequently run $1–5M for multi-year watershed or infrastructure projects.

Geographically, Pennsylvania organizations receive the overwhelming majority of funding — 4,220 of 6,053 tracked grants, versus 358 in New Jersey, 356 in New York, and 277 in Washington DC. The DC presence reflects national advocacy organizations funded through the Democracy and Civic Initiatives program.

Program allocation by recent round (November 2025, $45M total): Environment and Public Space captured $23.5M (52%), Workforce Training $8.55M (19%), Democracy $4.2M (9%), Arts and Culture $4.9M (11%), and Children and Families $3.05M (7%). Environment's outsized share reflects the multi-year Circuit Trails expansion and green stormwater infrastructure investments. Over a longer time horizon, Children and Families and Environment are roughly co-equal, each receiving $40–45M annually.

The largest single grantee relationship in the tracked history is National Philanthropic Trust at $50.5M across 7 grants — primarily serving as a pass-through vehicle for the America's Cultural Treasures Initiative and the 2026 Collaborative Fund. Excluding pass-through vehicles, the largest direct operating grantees include National Wildlife Federation ($10.4M, Delaware River Watershed Initiative), Reinvestment Fund ($10.3M, early childhood facilities and child nutrition), and Fund for Philadelphia ($8.8M, city-wide initiatives). Multi-year commitments of $2–5M are common for established partners.

The following table compares William Penn Foundation to four peer foundations active in the Philadelphia region and broader mid-Atlantic philanthropic landscape. Asset and giving figures for peers are approximate based on publicly available Form 990 and foundation reports.

William Penn Foundation occupies a distinctive position in this landscape: it is far larger than most locally-focused Philadelphia funders yet more geographically concentrated than Pew, which operates nationally and globally. This makes WPF the dominant unrestricted philanthropic resource for Philadelphia-area nonprofits operating in its five program areas. Unlike Pew — which primarily invites proposals and operates through solicited partnerships — WPF's RFP model creates genuine open competition, giving smaller organizations real access to major funding if they can align with published objectives. Compared to the Philadelphia Foundation (which primarily manages donor-advised funds) or the smaller Connelly and Fels funds, WPF's scale enables multi-million-dollar, multi-year infrastructure investments that no local peer can match.

2025 was among the most active years in the William Penn Foundation's recent history. The foundation made approximately 370–400 grants totaling an estimated $165–170 million across its four standard quarterly cycles, supplemented by a $10 million emergency initiative in September 2025 specifically to defend vulnerable communities from federal funding cuts and policy rollbacks. The emergency round — which bypassed the standard RFP schedule — funded 19 organizations working on democratic participation, immigrant services, and nonprofit stabilization, a notable signal that the foundation views civic infrastructure as urgent even outside its normal grantmaking cadence.

In December 2025, the foundation co-led a $8.35 million workforce training coalition with five co-funders (Comcast, Connelly Foundation, Future Standard, M&T Bank, and Philadelphia Foundation), reaching 4,100 jobseekers and 116 employers. This collaborative model represents a growing pattern for WPF: using its credibility and capital to convene other funders rather than acting unilaterally.

On the leadership side, Executive Director Shawn McCaney has remained in place since at least FY2020 (compensation: $421,908 rising to $483,585 by FY2024), suggesting programmatic continuity. Chief Philanthropy Officer Elliot Weinbaum ($352,490) oversees grantmaking strategy. Chief Investment Officer Madoe Htun ($1.4M compensation in FY2024) manages the endowment that funds all grantmaking. The Board is chaired by Janet Haas of the founding Haas family, alongside board members Andrew Haas and Peter Haas — signaling that the founding family's values remain central to institutional direction.

Follow the RFP calendar, not your own timeline. The foundation issues most of its budget through scheduled RFPs, each with a fixed deadline and objective. Subscribing to foundation alerts and checking williampennfoundation.org/funding/funding-opportunities weekly is not optional — missing an RFP means a 6–12 month wait for the next cycle in that program area.

Use the program officer before you apply. The FAQ explicitly encourages contacting the program officer listed on each RFP. A 15-minute call can confirm whether your approach fits the objective, surface evaluation criteria emphasis, and occasionally reveal whether a given RFP already has strong front-runner organizations. This call is not a shortcut around the competitive process — it is part of the foundation's relationship-building culture.

Lead with equity and community voice. The foundation scores proposals against six published values, with equity and community voice ranked first and second. Proposals should explicitly name which historically marginalized communities benefit from the work, how those communities informed the project design, and what mechanisms ensure ongoing community input. This is not rhetorical framing — the foundation wants to see it in program design.

Do not pad your budget for overhead. The foundation adds up to 25% of direct project costs for overhead automatically, calculated against your organizational budget. Embedding overhead into line items reads as budget inflation. Submit clean direct-cost budgets with clear activity-to-dollar mapping.

Plan for the 90-day cycle. Funding decisions follow a 90-day pipeline from submission. If your project has a hard start date, work backwards: submit 90+ days before you need the funds. Board decisions come in cycles aligned with quarterly grant rounds.

General operating support is a real funding category. Unlike many foundations that only fund specific projects, William Penn funds general operating support for arts and culture organizations through dedicated RFPs. Arts organizations should watch specifically for the General Operating Support RFP (most recently released with a $675,000 maximum for FY2026–28 coverage) and apply when the RFP is open — this is one of the most valuable unrestricted funding pools available in the Philadelphia region.

Prepare for the site visit. Finalists receive a site visit from foundation staff. Have your executive director and program leads available, your financial statements organized, and your program data accessible. The site visit is an organizational readiness assessment as much as a content review.