Wyncote Foundation

The foundation received its endowment in 2009 from the Otto and Phoebe Haas Charitable Trust, more commonly associated with the $2.2 billion grant-making William Penn Foundation. The Trust was created in 1945 by Otto Haas, who with Otto Rohm co-founded the massive “Rohm and Haas” chemical manufacturing company. The organization was acquired by competitor Dow Chemical Company for $15 billion in 2009,² the same year the Otto and Phoebe Haas Charitable Trust created the Wyncote Foundation. ³

The Wyncote Foundation was created at the direction John C. Haas, Otto Haas’s son. Today Leonard, David, Duncan, and Fredrick Haas serve on the organization’s board of directors. ⁴

History

German-born businessman Otto Haas co-founded “Rohm and Haas” in 1907, and soon after moved the business to Philadelphia. The chemical company experienced exponential growth during both World Wars, eventually joining the Fortune 500 before being purchased by chemical giant and competitor Dow Chemicals in 2009. ⁵ The Wyncote Foundation was founded the same year with funds from the Otto and Phoebe Haas Charitable Trusts, perhaps the largest grant-making trust in Philadelphia after the Pew Charitable Trust . ⁶ Similar to its larger sister organization, the William Penn Foundation, the Wyncote Foundation’s mission is no longer based on Otto Haas’s directive to support fatherless children as his son John C. Haas expanded the trust’s focus to include environmentalist policies and the arts. ⁷

Wyncote Foundation Northwest

Headquartered out of Seattle, Wyncote Foundation Northwest is an offshoot of the Wyncote Foundation and is focused on environmental, low-income housing, and health & human services policies. ⁸

Organizations supported by the Wyncote Foundation include:⁸

• Rails to Trails Conservancy.
• Real Change Homelessness Project.
• Town Hall Association.
• Washington Environmental Council.
• Low Income Housing Institute.
• Northwest Harvest.
• Northwest Sustainable Energy for Economic Development.

Income and Expenditures

The Wyncote Foundation classifies its grants under six programs: Arts and Culture, Education, Environment, Health and Human Services, Preservation, and Public Media & Journalism¹.

The Environmental Program supports organizations such as the National Audubon Society, the Natural Lands Trust, Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, and the Rodale Institute. ⁹

The Public Media and Journalism Program supports public broadcasting, funding left-of-center organizations such as World Channel and Current and the Lenfest Institution, a massive non-profit organization created by news magnate H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest. ¹⁰

In 2017, the Wyncote Foundation generated $27,013,993 in net-profit from interest on cash holdings and securities. The Wyncote Foundation in turn spent $35,096,013 on expenses and grants¹¹. That year, the Foundation gave $10,126,000 to non-profits supporting arts and culture, $4,492,002 to public media and journalism organizations, and $1,604,760 to environmentalist organizations¹².

Controversies

In 2014, the Rohm and Haas chemical corporation reached an undisclosed settlement agreement with 33 plaintiffs who alleged that decades of dumping highly toxic materials, including trichloroethylene and vinyl chloride¹³, into the soil and ground-water of McCullum Lake, Illinois was the source of a highly clustered and rare form of brain cancer that afflicted their community. Litigating began in 2006 when the organization was still under the direct control of the Haas family. ¹⁴