Supporting the Greater Philadelphia Area

Enhancing Health and Well-Being in the Greater Philadelphia Region

Through the Pew Fund for Health and Human Services in Philadelphia, The Pew Charitable Trusts supports nonprofit organizations that provide effective services to help individuals and families facing complex challenges live healthy and stable lives. Pew Fund grants are designed to help local social services organizations expand their reach and impact in the Philadelphia region, as well as to support the development and implementation of promising solutions to emerging problems or gaps in service delivery. 

Grant programs

The Pew Fund provides two types of grants:

Venture grants: Flexible funding that enables organizations to meet an emerging need or fill a critical service gap for a specific population, while using data to increase a program’s sustainability and impact over the grant period. These investments are designed to support agencies that are implementing timely and promising solutions. The awards range from $100,000 to $250,000 over two years and are non-renewable.

Growth grants: Flexible, long-term investments designed to strengthen local health and human services agencies’ capacity to provide more low-income individuals 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 from $750,000 to $4 million over five years, with the possibility of renewal based on performance. To be considered for support in this category, an organization must have an operating budget of at least $2 million.

Eligibility and selection process

Pew Fund staff members identify organizations on a rolling basis and invite them to participate in a rigorous review process. Decisions on funding requests are made on a quarterly basis in March, June, September, and December. To be eligible for funding, an organization must:

• Have 501(c)(3) nonprofit status.
• Provide services in Pennsylvania’s Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and/or Philadelphia counties.

For more information on our process, please visit the Pew Fund’s frequently asked questions page. After reading the FAQ, organizations that meet the specified criteria can inquire about funding by filling out our online form.

Training and technical assistance for grantees

Grantees receiving either type of funding are eligible for additional training and technical assistance through Pew’s evaluation capacity building initiative, which helps to strengthen grantee organizations’ ability to collect, analyze, and use data to understand and improve their programs.

Pew Fund history

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 $235 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 in the region by helping nonprofits continue to expand their use of evidence-based services.

Current grantees

The Pew Fund began awarding venture and growth grants in June 2020. Following is a list of grantees to date.

Venture grantees: Prevention Point, Philabundance, Women Against Abuse, Boys & Girls Clubs of Philadelphia, Puentes de Salud, Springboard Collaborative, Turning Points for Children’s LifeSet Program, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Violence Intervention Program, Drexel University’s Healing Hurt People program, Temple University Hospital’s Trauma Victim Support Advocates program, Sharing Excess

Growth grantees: Benefits Data Trust, MANNA, Project HOME, Compass Working Capital, University City District’s West Philadelphia Skills Initiative, Esperanza Health Center, Heights Philadelphia

Before June 2020, the Pew Fund provided three-year grants to organizations serving specific populations. Press releases announcing our grants, as well as other content related to our grantees, can be found in the “Our Work” section below.