Stoneleigh Foundation

History

The Stoneleigh Foundation was founded in 2006 by John and Chara Haas. ¹ The Stoneleigh Foundation was formed to help children and families in Philadelphia and is named after the Haas’s family house in Villanova, Pennsylvania. ¹ John Haas spent his career working for Rohm and Haas, a chemical company founded by John Haas’s father Otto, ² who was also founder of the left-of-center William Penn Foundation. ³

Priorities

Priorities of the Stoneleigh Foundation include youth justice, child welfare, health, and education. The Foundation’s youth justice program seeks to end many punitive justice approaches for youth found in adult correctional programs by providing counseling and non-criminal alternatives for minor offenses, alternatives to incarceration and probation, and ending transfers of youth to adult courts. ⁴ The Stoneleigh Foundation’s child welfare priority supports increasing preventive programs to address mental or substance abuse in homes that can endanger children, not removing children from homes to temporary foster care but allowing youth to remain at home with interventions and guidance from social services, and providing support to youth transitioning to adults with a focus on pregnant women and LGBT youth. ⁵

The Stoneleigh Foundation seeks to improve health by ending violence among youth through prevention, intervention, and victim counseling services. ⁶ The Foundation supports programs that improve health through support services for chronic health conditions, trauma, mental health issues, and substance abuse. ⁶ The Stoneleigh Foundation advocates for education issues that include ending zero tolerance suspensions and expulsions from school, strategies to prevent bullying in schools, individualized special education services, attending schools within a home community whenever possible, and assistance transitioning from school to adulthood. ⁷

Fellowships

The Stoneleigh Foundation provides two types of fellowships: the Stoneleigh Fellowship and the the Emerging Leaders Fellowship. ⁸ The Stoneleigh Fellowship provides multi-year funding to research, study, and provide recommendations on ways to improve youth services. ⁹ Fellows come from various professions examining youth justice, welfare, health care, and education. ⁹ Previous Stoneleigh Fellows have included the Philadelphia Police Commissioner, an emergency room doctor, attorneys, and researchers. ⁹

The Emerging Leaders Fellowship provides funding for two years for early career professions in the Philadelphia area. ¹⁰ Fellows come from diverse backgrounds in law, social work, public administration, and education. ¹⁰ Stoneleigh Foundation notes that these fellows possess a deep commitment to social justice, work in collaboration, and “execute discreet projects.” ¹⁰

Funded Programs

The Stoneleigh Foundation funds certain youth programs directly. ¹¹ The Stoneleigh Foundation provided funding to the left-of-center Juvenile Law Center, an organization that seeks to decriminalize certain youth crimes, end juvenile criminal fines and fees, end solitary confinement, and not prosecute youth as adults. ¹²

The Foundation funds Evident Change, a group that supports diversity, equity, and inclusion, teaches an equity model for organizations, advocates ending cash bail, and seeks action against “transphobia.” ¹³

The Foundation provides funding to Creative Resilient Youth, an organization that practices collectivism, socially engaged art making, health and disability justice, racial justice, community organizing, and leadership. ¹⁴

The Stoneleigh Foundation provides support to left-of-center UrbEd Advocates, a group that advocates equity, community organizing, calls Philadelphia a queer city, and labels the right-of-center Moms for Liberty an extremist organization. ¹⁵

Finances

In 2021, the Stoneleigh Foundation reported assets of $92,384,286. ¹⁶ According to the organization’s tax filings, in 2021 Stoneleigh Foundation recorded $2,978,235 in revenue and $4,481,383 in expenses. ¹⁶ In 2020, Stoneleigh Foundation raised $5,349,116 in revenue and had $4,569,045 in expenses. ¹⁷

Leadership

Ronnie L. Bloom became executive director of the Stoneleigh Foundation in 2004 after sitting as a member of the board of directors. ¹⁸ Prior to joining the Stoneleigh Foundation, Bloom was a partner at Opportunities Exchange, a consulting firm for early childhood education. ¹⁹

Previously, Bloom worked for the William Penn Foundation from 1999 through 2013 as a program director for children, youth, and families. ¹⁹ Since 1996, Bloom has given at least $6,000 to Democratic candidates including President Joe Biden, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and former South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg. ²⁰