The Hill-Snowdon Foundation is a left-leaning grantmaking foundation, which supports organizations and projects oriented towards immigration expansion, minority interests, voter mobilization, and combating poverty.

Background

The Hill-Snowdon Foundation was founded in New Jersey in 1959 by Arthur Bullock Hill, an executive and board member of Johnson and Johnson, primarily with shares of the company he had acquired in lieu of taking a salary during the Second World War. ¹ Since March 1962, the foundation, which has since moved its headquarters to Washington, D.C., has had tax exempt charitable status. ²

For roughly the first four decades of its existence, the foundation was managed by members of the Hill-Snowdon family on a volunteer basis. However, by 1997 the foundation’s assets had grown so significantly that the board opted to hire a dedicated staff and develop a grant making strategy. To that end, in 1998, the foundation partnered with the left-of-center Tides Foundation to develop its grantmaking policies and procedures. ³

Activity

The Hill-Snowdon Foundation has seven primary grantmaking programs: ​Youth Organizing, which focuses on projects intending to help poor minority youth and their families; Economic Justice Organizing, which focuses on projects that support increased labor regulations; Fund for D.C., which focuses on projects intending to organize and serve poor communities in Washington, D.C.; the Making Black Lives Matter Initiative, which focuses on projects oriented towards racial organizing and policy issues; the Defending the Dream Fund (in collaboration with the General Service Foundation, Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation, Whitman Institute, and Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program at Shelter Rock), which originally focused on supporting projects opposing the policy objectives of President Donald Trump but which since his departure from office more broadly focuses on projects supporting voting rights for formerly incarcerated felons, citizenship for individuals slated for deportation, and ethnic minority voter mobilization; the Democracy’s Promise Initiative, which focuses on projects oriented toward democratic civics; and the Opportunity and Capacity-Building Fund​, which focuses on assisting partner organizations of the foundation by way of small grants in-between normal grant cycles. ⁴

People

Elizabeth Snowdon Bonner, a great-granddaughter of Arthur Hill, is the president of the board of the Snowdon-Hill Foundation. Previously, Snowdon-Bonner owned and operated Nusta Spa, a day spa in Washington, D.C. However, in 2017, she sold the spa to her business partner. Snowdon-Bonner is a member of the Anti-Racist Practice Group for White Parents at St. Patrick’s Episcopal Day School and is also a volunteer with that school’s Annual Fund and Fund-a-Scholar IDEALS programs. ⁵

Ashley Snowdon Blanchard, also a great-granddaughter of Arthur Hill, is the vice president of the Snowdon-Hill Foundation. Additionally, she heads the philanthropy program of Lansberg, Gersick and Associates, a business consultancy based in Connecticut. Previously, Snowdon Blanchard worked as a consultant with TCC Group and in her own practice. ⁶

Nat Chioke Williams is the executive director of the Hill-Snowdon Foundation and is actively involved with Grantmakers for Southern Progress, a network of local, regional, and national left wing funders. Previously, Williams worked as a program officer at the Edward Hazen Foundation; as program officer at the New York Foundation; as an assistant professor of Black studies at the State University of New York, New Paltz; as senior program associate at the Community Resource Exchange; and as director of organizing at the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board. Additionally, Williams has formerly sat on the boards of the Funders’ Collaborative on Youth Organizing and Neighborhood Funders Group. ⁷

1. “Our People.” Hill-Snowdon Foundation. Accessed January 31, 2022. https://www.hillsnowdon.org/our-people
2. Hill Snowdon Foundation. PropPublica. Accessed January 31, 2022. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/226081122
3. ^[1]“Our Story.” Hill-Snowdon Foundation. Accessed January 31, 2022. https://www.hillsnowdon.org/
4.  “Grantmaking.” Hill-Snowdon Foundation. Accessed January 31, 2022. https://www.hillsnowdon.org/grantmaking
5. “Our People.” Hill-Snowdon Foundation. Accessed January 31, 2022. https://www.hillsnowdon.org/our-people
6. “Our People.” Hill-Snowdon Foundation. Accessed January 31, 2022. https://www.hillsnowdon.org/our-people
7. “Our People.” Hill-Snowdon Foundation. Accessed January 31, 2022. https://www.hillsnowdon.org/our-people