Penn Foundation Commits $35-Million for Watershed Project

Philadelphia’s William Penn Foundation announced plans Tuesday for a $35-million Delaware River preservation effort that would make the basin a laboratory for innovation in protecting and restoring water quality, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

The three-year project will fund work to protect more than 30,000 acres and implement more than 40 restoration projects along the Delaware, the longest undammed river in the East and a source of drinking water for 5 percent of the U.S. population. About half the Penn money will be managed by the New York-based Open Space Institute and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, which aim to multiply the original investment through matching grants.

Andrew Johnson, a Penn Foundation senior program officer, said the watershed effort “is among the largest if not the largest dedication of [Penn] grants to one specific strategy.”