The multitalented Paul Robeson excelled as a vocalist, civil rights advocate, performer on stage and screen, and professional football player. Several years ago, the renovation of Robeson’s Philadelphia residence, where he spent his final decade, received seed funding through a grant from The Presser Foundation. Though historic home restoration falls outside the Foundation’s usual scope,…
In her capacity as Executive Director of The Presser Foundation, Teresa Rodgers serves as the chair of Philanthropy Network Greater Philadelphia’s Arts & Culture Funders Community of Practice. This Community of Practice is where a variety of arts focused grantmakers meet to discuss support for the arts, relevant trends, and other topics related to the…
The Assistance to Music Teachers grantmaking area is a unique and longstanding program of The Presser Foundation’s. Founder Theodore Presser cared deeply about supporting retired music teachers and also felt a sense of gratitude for the thousands of music teachers who were the primary customers of his music publication business. Over the years, the program…
Photo of a Musicopia student using GarageBand. Capital funds from the Foundation were used to purchase the iPads, cases, and microphones pictured. By Abby Rolland For years, The Presser Foundation’s Capital Support grantmaking area focused on supporting the construction of new buildings and renovation, repair, or expansion projects to existing buildings. By providing funding for…
The supporting organizations that The Presser Foundation supports. From top left clockwise: Penn Live Arts, Temple Music Prep, Chester Children’s Chorus, Zoellner Arts Center, Rowan Community Music School, WRTI By Abby Rolland The Presser Foundation seeks to serve a number of different types of music organizations creating, performing, presenting, and educating. To do so means…
By Abby Rolland When it comes to foundation work, a great deal of it happens behind closed doors. In this blog post, we seek to be open and transparent about The Presser Foundation’s internal grant application process. For this post, we will be referring to a grant given from one of the Foundation’s regional grantmaking…
By Abby Rolland According to recent statistics, there are approximately 1.54 million nonprofits in the U.S. Nonprofit structure can take many forms. There is, of course, the traditional and well-known 501(c)(3) public charity – in 2016, approximately 2/3 of all registered nonprofits were classified as public charities. Then, there are organizations who are 501(c)(4)s (civic…
By Abby Rolland Two plus years later, and the COVID-19 pandemic seems to be ebbing into an endemic. No doubt has the pandemic been devastating to nonprofits in many ways; yet there are many lessons that funders can learn. The Presser Foundation adapted its own practices and requirements during the pandemic and continues to assess…