Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation: Grants for Philadelphia

OVERVIEW: The Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation supports higher education, arts and culture, health and human services in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

FUNDING AREAS: Higher education, arts and culture, health, human services

IP TAKE: This is a prominent funder of well-established arts organizations in Philadelphia that is run by a local power couple. However, it is a low-key foundation that is not very accessible to new and unaffiliated arts groups. Network with its past grantees to potentially get on this organization’s radar.

PROFILE: Established in 1996, the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation is a family foundation based in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, which is a suburb of Philadelphia. Leslie Miller is an attorney who served as General Counsel of Pennsylvania under Governor G. Rendell and is also a locally focused philanthropist. Her husband, Richard Worley, is a managing director and partner at Permit Capital, LLC. The foundation funds local efforts for higher education, arts and culture, health and human services.

The Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation does not have a website to guide grantseekers. However, the couple behind this foundation are active philanthropists in the Philadelphia area and have been involved with many local, large and well-known organizations. Leslie Miller has served on the boards of numerous arts organizations, such as the Philadelphia Art Museum and the Pennsylvania Ballet. Other board affiliations include the Free Library of Philadelphia, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts and the Medical College of Pennsylvania. She is a collector of arts and antiques and also has an interest in gardening. Richard Worley has served on the board of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and in 2024, the couple gave $25 million to rename the orchestra’s home theater for Marian Anderson, a Grammy winning opera singer and civil-rights activist. The couple, through their foundation, tends to make grants to organizations that they are personally affiliated with.

Grants range between about $1,000 and $500,000. The foundation has awarded more than $5 million annually for grants in recent years. Learn more about this funder’s local giving by examining its recent tax records. Grantmaking largely focuses on the Philadelphia area of Pennsylvania. Past local grantees include the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, Opera Company of Philadelphia and PA Breast Cancer Coalition.

This foundation does not accept unsolicited grant applications from nonprofits and only funds pre-selected organizations. Direct general questions to the staff at 610-525-3778.

PEOPLE:

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