The Pew Charitable Trusts

20th century

Pew was established by the merging of several charitable trusts that had been established between 1948 and 1979. The original trusts were created by J. Howard Pew, Mary Ethel Pew, Joseph N. Pew Jr., and Mabel Pew Myrin, the adult sons and daughters of Sun Oil Company founder Joseph N. Pew and his wife, Mary Anderson Pew. Honoring their parents' religious conviction that good works should be done quietly, the original Pew Memorial Foundation was a grantmaking organization that made donations anonymously.

In 1956, the foundation became the Pew Memorial Trust, based in Philadelphia, the donors' hometown. Between 1957 and 1979, six other trusts were created, representing the personal and complementary philanthropic interests of the four siblings. Assets held by the seven trusts totaled $6 billion as of 2020. The Trusts continues to be based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with offices in Washington, D.C., London, and Brussels.

Although The Pew Charitable Trusts is non-partisan and non-ideological, Joseph Pew and his sons were politically conservative. The modern day organization works to encourage responsive government and support scientific research on a wide range of issues, including global marine conservation, correction reform, and biomedical research. Pew also conducts research and supports civic and cultural projects in Philadelphia.

Early priorities of the Pew Memorial Trust included cancer research, the American Red Cross, and a pioneering project to assist historically black colleges. Later beneficiaries included American Enterprise Institute, Brookings Institution, American Liberty League, John Birch Society, Oceana, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

In 2004, Pew applied to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to change its status from a private foundation to a public charity in order to operate its own programs more efficiently. Since that change it can now raise funds freely and devote up to 5% of its budget to lobbying the public sector.

In 2011, the Pew family was awarded the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in recognition of its support for The Pew Charitable Trusts.

According to the Pew Trusts' website as of 2024, four of the eleven Directors serving on the Board are named Pew.

The Trusts also funds the Pew Research Center, the third-largest think tank in Washington, D.C., after the Brookings Institution and the Center for American Progress.

Controversy

Barnes Art Collection

The Trusts have supported the relocation of the famed Barnes Art Collection from its longtime home in Lower Merion, PA, to Center City. This has been controversial in the art world. The Barnes Foundation was established by Albert C. Barnes in 1922 to "promote the advancement of education and the appreciation of the fine arts and horticulture."

According to the Barnes Foundation:

The Barnes is home to one of the world's largest collections of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and early Modern paintings, with especially deep holdings by Renoir, Matisse, and Picasso", as well as important examples of African art, Native American pottery and jewelry, Pennsylvania German furniture, American avant-garde painting, and wrought-iron metalwork.

Opponents of relocating the collection to a new museum along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway said that move violates Barnes's will that the collection stay intact at its original location and not be loaned, transferred or sold. Columnist Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote in 2010, "It is perfectly clear exactly what Barnes specified in his will. It was drawn up by the best legal minds. It is clear that what happened to his collection was against his wishes." Yet the Barnes Foundation prevailed in a series of legal actions and the new museum opened on May 16, 2012. At the opening Barnes trustee and treasurer Stephen Harmelin noted, "There were financial challenges to be faced...questions about how the foundation as it existed could go on with its mission, worries about the safety and integrity of the collection in the long run," he said. "We were convinced that the only change that could save the Barnes was to redouble our commitment to its mission, to reach out more widely than ever before, to build, to expand and to move the collection to a more accessible location."

The Trusts became involved with the Barnes Collection when the foundation overseeing the art collection had serious financial trouble, ultimately contributing more than $20 million for a new museum. Reporter Roberta Smith of the New York Times said of the new building, "Against all odds, the museum that opens to the public on Saturday is still very much the old Barnes, only better."

The controversy involving Pew, other donors, the Barnes trustees and the collection was the subject of a documentary film The Art of the Steal. The Trusts did not participate in the film. Rebecca Rimel, then head of The Pew Charitable Trusts, said they believed the film would not be fair.