Lynne and Joe Horning usher a visitor into a quiet, well-appointed apartment in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Washington, D.C. This is their home, but much of their philanthropy goes across town to Ward 8, an area that’s fought for decades to reduce extreme poverty.
Since Mr. Horning started a real- estate development firm with his brother in 1958, he and his wife have been deeply invested in efforts to improve the lives of Washington’s poor. In the past decade alone, the Hornings have given at least $25 million to nonprofits working to help the city’s disadvantaged children and low-income families, particularly those in the predominantly black Ward 8. Most recently, the couple gave $10 million in cash and land to help open a new central office in Ward 8 for Martha’s Table, a service charity run by Patty Stonesifer, former chief executive of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Both Hornings grew up in households where giving was the norm, and both attended Catholic schools where teaching about the social activists Thomas Merton and Dorothy Day left a deep impression. “It was just kind of a mind-set of philanthropy, only we didn’t call it that back then,” says Mr. Horning.
One day, Mr. Horning’s father took him to the street that divided the city’s black and white neighborhoods. Blacks, he explained to Mr. Horning and his brother, Larry, were not allowed to live or own property on the whites’ side of the street.
His father’s message was clear: The Horning family may not have had a lot of money, but they lived free of prejudice and harassment. “It was his way of showing us we were living in a Southern city,” says Mr. Horning.
The lesson stuck. The real-estate development company he and his brother started has made it a priority to build in black neighborhoods and hire African-American partners and employees. The firm, which has built thousands of apartments, was one of the first to invest in two neighborhoods that were destroyed in the city’s 1968 riots but are now blooming in a renaissance.
Today, the Hornings’ philanthropy totals about $1.8 million a year, including gifts of roughly $800,000 made through a donor-advised fund.
The Hornings are hands-on, and often long-term, donors. “Where my real energy comes from is helping an organization grow,” says Mr. Horning. “It’s being a devil’s advocate, asking questions, helping them rethink and make their case or refine it, and to just be there to support them without being a nuisance.”
He has helped establish and solidify several nonprofits, including Higher Achievement, an after-school and summer academic program for middle-school students in at-risk neighborhoods; Live It Learn It, an experiential-learning program; and the Washington School for Girls, a tuition-free private school for grades three through eight in Ward 8.
Ms. Horning, a lover of music and art, directs the couple’s cultural giving. She describes herself as a “rover” and keeps her eyes and ears open for anything that might help a nonprofit expand. “Music and art were always my areas but were influenced by Joe’s outreach,” says Ms. Horning.
She helped the Levine School of Music move in the 1970s from a small church basement to facilities that now include a large building and several satellite locations.
Talking in their apartment about their philanthropy, the two listen intently to each other’s opinions. Married for 55 years, they interrupt each other, finish each other’s sentences, tease, and coax. Though they give to different causes, each champions what the other does.
“When she has a cause she wants to support, I’m totally in support of it,” says Mr. Horning.
They sometimes make gifts without talking it over first. “We have a $5,000 rule,” says Ms. Horning. “We can give anything $5,000 or under without telling the other one.”
Recently, the Hornings began planning to hand off their giving to the next generation. They are phasing out giving through their donor-advised fund and are starting a private foundation to involve their four children, and eventually their nine grandchildren.
But neither Horning is stepping away completely. “With our personal philanthropy, I see it continuing in measured form,” says Mr. Horning. “I welcome chances to get invested [in nonprofits] as a consultant, as a person who’s offering advice.”
Nearly 60 years after they got started in philanthropy, the Hornings aren’t done yet.
