The S.H. Cowell Foundation was established in 1956 through a bequest from Samuel Henry Cowell (1861-1955).

S.H. Cowell (or Harry, as he was known to his close friends) was the last surviving child of Henry and Harriet Cowell. Henry was a Massachusetts businessman who migrated to California during the Gold Rush of the mid-1800s and amassed a sizeable fortune in the building materials industry.

S.H. and his brother Ernest followed their father’s footsteps into the family business. While Ernest left home at a relatively young age to manage the Cowells' growing interests in Washington state, S.H. lived most of his life in San Francisco where he oversaw a successful drayage and storage business founded by his father and uncle. S.H. also kept a residence in Santa Cruz from which to manage The Henry Cowell Lime & Cement Company.

Over the years the Cowells also acquired a significant real estate portfolio throughout Northern California and Washington. These holdings included commercial buildings, ranches, limestone quarries, cement mills and timber tracts—more than 80,000 acres of land, all told—spread across 14 California counties, including several prime lots in downtown San Francisco.

Like their parents before them, S.H. and his siblings lived quietly, despite their significant wealth. They concerned themselves mostly with their employees' welfare, the community at large and the land under their stewardship. Modesty notwithstanding, however, the Cowell family’s charitable interests and philanthropic activities were significant.

They underwrote the construction of the Ernest V. Cowell Student Health Center at the University of California, Berkeley and provided a scholarship fund for students from Santa Cruz to attend the University of California. In 1906, the Cowell family helped to establish the San Francisco earthquake relief fund. S.H.’s sisters, Isabella and Helen Cowell, helped build the Lighthouse for the Blind, donated a jade and art collection to the M. H. de Young Museum and the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco and were lead donors to a home for the aged.

They also gave significantly to the Visiting Nurses Association, the Congregational Church of Santa Cruz, and the City of Santa Cruz. S.H. worked extensively over his life to conserve California’s coastal areas, and donated land for the Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park in Santa Cruz.

Upon S.H. Cowell’s death in 1955, the initial bequest to the Foundation was primarily real estate. The assets transferred from S.H.’s estate to the new Foundation were valued at more than $12.5 million dollars. Making grants, increasing liquid assets, disposing of non-income generating property, and managing the real estate have been the Foundation's major responsibilities ever since.

In considering how to focus its charitable resources, the founding officers and directors took into account the types of charities the Cowell family supported, the communities where family members lived and the nature and location of their businesses and properties. Building on this legacy, grants for capital projects and similar types of charitable support dominated the Foundation's early activities. Over time, these activities evolved into more clearly defined grant programs that rely upon the experience of the board members, staff and grantees.

In 2006, the Cowell Foundation celebrated its 50th anniversary.

The Foundation’s work today is organized around a place-based grantmaking strategy, one that aims to support communities where residents, service providers, educators and civic leaders are able to create a common vision and work effectively together to improve the quality of life for children and families living in poverty.

Nearly all of Cowell’s grants invest in underserved towns, communities and neighborhoods throughout Northern and Central California. Within this place-based framework, Cowell’s grants are focused around five program areas — Family Resource Centers, K-12 Public Education, Youth Development, Affordable Housing, and Responsive Grantmaking.

Since its inception, the Foundation has made more than $220 million in grants to 3700 organizations.