Q. What does “PEW” stand for?

Pew is a family name, not an acronym. The four children of Joseph Newton Pew, who founded the Sun Oil company, created and funded The Pew Charitable Trusts in the late 1940s. The Pew Charitable Trusts is a large public charity with headquarters in both Philadelphia and Washington. Members of the Pew family, primarily from the fourth generation, continue to comprise half of its board. The Pew Research Center is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts and receives nearly all its funding from the parent organization.

Donald Kimelman, Managing Director, Information Initiatives and the Philadelphia Program, The Pew Charitable Trusts