[4] Pew operates projects and conducts research across five main areas: communities, conservation, finance and economy, governing, and health.

[7] Honoring their parents' religious conviction that good works should be done quietly, the original Pew Memorial Foundation[8] was a grantmaking organization that made donations anonymously.

[15][16] Early priorities of the Pew Memorial Trust included cancer research, the American Red Cross, and a pioneering project to assist historically black colleges.

[17][18] In 2004, Pew applied to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to change its status from a private foundation to a public charity in order to operate its own programs more efficiently.

[34] The protected area was officially designated in January 2009, and includes the Mariana Trench, the deepest ocean canyon in the world.

The Trusts have worked closely with the Vera Institute of Justice on issues related to state correction policies in the Public Safety Performance Project.

[39][40] Pew reported in 2009 that "explosive growth in the number of people on probation or parole has propelled the population of the American corrections system to more than 7.3 million, or 1 in every 31 U.S.

[42] "Based on data, science, and non-partisan research, Pew works to reduce hidden risks to the health, safety, and well-being of American consumers.

[49] The Trusts have supported the relocation of the famed Barnes Art Collection from its longtime home in Lower Merion, PA, to Center City.

"[50] According to the Barnes Foundation:[51] The Barnes is home to one of the world's largest collections of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and early Modern paintings, with especially deep holdings by Renoir, Matisse, and Picasso", as well as important examples of African art, Native American pottery and jewelry, Pennsylvania German furniture, American avant-garde painting, and wrought-iron metalwork.

At the opening Barnes trustee and treasurer Stephen Harmelin noted, "There were financial challenges to be faced...questions about how the foundation as it existed could go on with its mission, worries about the safety and integrity of the collection in the long run," he said.

"We were convinced that the only change that could save the Barnes was to redouble our commitment to its mission, to reach out more widely than ever before, to build, to expand and to move the collection to a more accessible location.