Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
For more than 80 years, the Benedum Foundation has provided grants and special funding to organizations in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, focusing on areas of education, economic development and health and community development.
Last week, the foundation held its Culture Collective celebration lunch at the Keith Albee Theater in Huntington, to celebrate the past five years of funding. Grantees were invited to attend and share how their organization benefited from the funding.
Benedum Foundation president Jen Giovanniti explained that, for the past five years, the foundation provided a special round of funding that did not require applications. Instead, the foundation selected recipients and offered the funding.
“We were just finding the really strong organizations across the state that are doing very unique work,” she said. “We picked a theme for each year. The first year was music, so we were giving funds to symphonies, youth orchestras, Mountain Stage; those types of important West Virginia providers of live music.
“The second year, we gave grants to downtown theaters – everything from the Keith Albee, where we were for lunch in Huntington, and also the Old Brick Playhouse, in Elkins. The third and fourth year, this was 2024 and 2025, we gave out grants to museums. The Pearl S. Buck Birthplace, in Hillsboro, was one of the grants in the first year of our museum grant making.”
The final year was for fairs and festivals.
In those five years, the foundation gave grants to 64 organizations with a total of $1.5 million granted.
The Pearl S. Buck Birthplace received $25,000 for its educational outreach program. The birthplace works with local teachers to provide lessons around Buck’s book “The Big Wave,” and also welcomes classes to visit the birthplace for a tour and activities.
Giovanniti said she was happy Pearl S. Buck Birthplace was included in the funding because of its historical importance.
“Museums like Pearl S. Buck do so much for kids, school groups and really trying to provide a lot of information and outings for children,” she said. “We really appreciate that, considering what a famous West Virginian Pearl S. Buck is.”
Giovanniti said the surprise grants were such a success that the foundation’s board approved another five-year round.
“We’re going to repeat our same grouping, so we’ll go back to music and then to theaters, then museums and we’ll end with fairs and festivals,” she said.
The Claude Worthing Benedum Foundation was founded in 1944 by oil and gas businessman Michael Benedum and his wife, Sarah. It was named to honor their only child, who passed away at the age of 20 during the influenza epidemic in 1918.
