Ben B Cheney Foundation

About Ben B Cheney Foundation

A 525,000-dollar gift to MultiCare Health Foundations for the Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital capital campaign is the largest recent grant on file and a useful window into Ben B Cheney Foundation Inc’s approach: large, place-based support for capital and facility needs in the communities tied to Cheney Lumber history. The foundation’s recent giving also includes 500,000-dollar grants to Tacoma Rescue Mission for Good Neighbor Village and Habitat for Humanity Tacoma/Pierce County for the Building Hope campaign, showing a consistent interest in major local infrastructure projects rather than small, open-ended program awards. Their portfolio extends beyond housing and homelessness into campus and civic facilities, including Pacific Lutheran University’s science and education facilities, youth-serving recreation assets, and museum or theater preservation. The pattern is transactional in the practical sense: one grant often matches a named campaign, construction phase, or equipment replacement need. That makes the foundation relevant for researchers tracking funders that support tangible local assets, especially in Tacoma and Pierce County. Its scholarship activity adds a separate youth-education strand, but the core of the foundation’s identity remains concentrated, project-based community investment.

What Ben B Cheney Foundation Funds

Health-related capital work is a clear theme. Ben B Cheney Foundation Inc gave 75,000 dollars to Mercy Foundation North for a regional cancer center, and 50,000 dollars to Asante Foundation for regional cancer centers initiative work, both tied to facility development in oncology care. The foundation also backs youth and recreation infrastructure. It awarded 100,000 dollars to Peninsula Metropolitan Park District for the PenMet Parks Recreation Center, and 200,000 dollars to YMCA of Pierce & Kitsap Counties for the Morgan Family Rebuild. Arts and cultural facilities appear as well. A 80,000-dollar grant to Grand Cinema supported a campaign to buy its building and secure its future, while 50,000 dollars to The Children’s Museum of Southern Oregon went to a museum expansion capital project. On the education side, 100,000 dollars to Saint Martin’s University supported the Lacey makerspace initiative, and 60,000 dollars to University of Washington Tacoma backed the sports enterprise management program.

How Ben B Cheney Foundation Gives