Pew Trusts to Combine Groups That Focus on Policy Research

In its first major change since converting from a foundation to a charity, the Pew Charitable Trusts has announced that it is combining the seven policy-research groups it supports in Washington into a single organization, called the Pew Research Center.

The center, which will open in July and include the well-known polling group the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, will operate as a nonprofit subsidiary of Pew.

Pew officials said the conversion to charity status would allow the foundation, with about $4-billion in assets, to run more efficiently and more flexibly. It was especially difficult, officials said, for the foundation to run its own charitable programs.

Pew ran its policy-research centers, for example, through host organizations, such as the Tides Foundation and Georgetown University, which would take Pew money — a total of $72-million since 1995 — and administer it to the seven policy-research groups. The host organizations would take a percentage of the grants as a fee.

Organizing the centers as a nonprofit subsidiary of the newly organized Pew means the organization can make the grants directly. Pew also expects to save money by having the seven centers operate out of a common office.

The new center may also try to raise money from other sources, Pew officials said.

Along with the Center for the People and the Press, the new center will consist of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, Stateline.Org, Pew Internet & American Life Project, Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, Pew Hispanic Center, and Pew Global Attitudes Project.