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William Penn Foundation gives $24 million to Philly projects in arts and culture, public spaces

The Kimmel, Zoo, and site of FIFA Fan Festival in 2026 are all beneficiaries.

Looking northeast, a rendering of Philadelphia Ballet's proposed headquarters building on North Broad St. near Callowhill.
Looking northeast, a rendering of Philadelphia Ballet's proposed headquarters building on North Broad St. near Callowhill.Read moreVarenhorst Architects

Up on North Broad Street, Philadelphia Ballet will receive $2 million toward its new studios and headquarters currently under development. West of the Schuylkill, the Fairmount Park Conservancy has been awarded $5 million to help restore the park’s Welsh Fountain and create related enhancements.

Other groups are also getting an infusion of cash — eight organizations in all, which have been awarded a total of $24 million from the William Penn Foundation in a new round of grants for capital projects.

William Penn, the largest Philadelphia foundation focused solely on the region, has in the past occasionally given to capital projects. But in a recent review of its strategies, the foundation heard that area groups were more interested in taking care of existing facilities than building new ones. So the foundation is now making capital grants a regular part of its giving.

» READ MORE: Rail Park expansion one step closer to reality with William Penn Foundation grant

“We’ve always done capital projects in some form or fashion over the years. What we did not have was a particularly clear strategy around our capital investments or a particularly clear set of criteria that inform those investments,” said Elliot Weinbaum, William Penn’s chief philanthropy officer. “And so as part of our strategy revision over the last year we gave that a lot more thought, about how we can make those opportunities more transparent and more equitable to organizations across the region.”

The new regular giving to capital projects doesn’t represent an increase in the overall amount the foundation plans to give each year, but rather a reapportionment. And the new capital money is available only to capital projects in existing (rather than totally new) buildings, and largely only for William Penn’s arts and culture and its environment and public space programs.

“We have [funded capital projects] and will continue to do it in some ways in what is now called our Children and Families program. For example, we have supported expansion of high-quality early learning programs across the city,” said Weinbaum. “So where capital is necessary to deliver on other objectives that we have, we’re open to it. But it is a specific strategy in the arts and culture and environment and public space programs.”

Next up, the foundation will be accepting proposals for its next round of capital funding: beginning in September for arts and culture, and in March for environment and public spaces.

Recipients in this round of William Penn Foundation grants:

  1. Center City District ($2 million) for expansion of the Rail Park Viaduct Greenway to turn brownfields into an elevated park running 6/10th of a mile from Vine Street to Fairmount Avenue.

  2. Fairmount Park Conservancy ($5 million) for the historic Welsh Fountain. The $18 million project will add seating, lighting, landscaping, play areas and other elements, plus restoration of the fountain itself.

  3. Mann Center for the Performing Arts ($2 million) for renovations of the Mann’s entry plaza, including digital way-finding and signage, lighting, ramps, restrooms, visitor services and overall design planning.

  4. Philadelphia Ballet ($2 million) toward a newly expanded $37.5 million headquarters on North Broad Street near Callowhill.

  5. Philadelphia Clef Club ($2 million) for building repairs and other enhancements to its entrance and classrooms.

  6. The Philadelphia Orchestra and Kimmel Center Inc. ($5 million) toward repairs and renovations of the buildings at Broad and Spruce Streets.

  7. Philadelphia Soccer 2026 ($3 million) for construction, landscaping and site improvements at Lemon Hill in Fairmount Park — the site of FIFA Fan Festival when FIFA World Cup 26 comes to Philadelphia.

  8. Philadelphia Zoo ($3 million) to “reimagine the core zoo experience through new guest experiences” and initiatives aimed at residents in West Philadelphia neighborhoods adjacent to the zoo.

The William Penn Foundation has posted specific criteria for the kinds of capital projects likely to receive its funding. In the environment and public space program, that includes “meaningful engagement of intended beneficiaries” in the development of the proposal and implementation of the project, plus plans for how the space will be maintained.

In arts and culture, in addition to strong financial health for the organization and a detailed financial plan, the project must represent “an important enhancement of or reinvestment in an existing cultural institution” and include access for people with disabilities and across the economic spectrum.

“It certainly includes high-quality artistic programming,” said Weinbaum of the criteria. “But there’s also a big emphasis on community engagement and access in identifying the needs for the improvements and ensuring that residents of the defined community of that organization can benefit from those improvements.”