Duke Alumnus Donates $200,000 to Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership

Duke University alumnus J. Kevin Kenny Jr. has given $200,000 to help endow the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership, Duke President Richard H. Brodhead announced Thursday.

Kenny is chair of the Neighborhood Partnership's national advisory board. The Partnership was started in 1996 to connect the university with local nonprofits and residents in 12 neighborhoods close to campus to improve the quality of life and boost student achievement.

"Kevin was a leader in his days at Duke in reaching out to the Durham community and has been a wonderful advocate and advisor for the work of the Neighborhood Partnership," Brodhead said. "His investment in an endowment gift will help support Duke's partnerships with many organizations, including ones that are providing people the wherewithal to buy their first homes and to access quality health care in their own neighborhoods."

Kenny's gift is the largest to the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership from someone who is not a university trustee. Three Duke trustees – John Mack, Morris Williams and Robert Steel -- have each contributed $500,000.

Kenny said he is pleased to be able to help support Duke's institutional commitment to Durham as well as the work of student volunteers in the community. As an undergraduate at Duke, Kenny helped start Chance (Concern and Help for the Advancement and Nurturing of Children through Education), a student service organization that continues to provide tutoring to Hillside High School students.

"It is wonderful to see the positive change in Duke and Durham relations since I was a student," Kenny said. "As I have toured the neighborhoods and had an opportunity to see firsthand the many ways the quality of life has improved in this community as a result of the Neighborhood Partnership, I felt it was important for me to make an endowment gift that can help ensure the long-term viability of this important program."

Kenny earned his undergraduate degree from Duke in 1989 and his M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1994. He is the managing partner and co-founder of a global investment firm, the Emerging Sovereign Group, in New York City. He previously created a scholarship to benefit Duke students from North Carolina.

Kenny serves on the boards of a number of New York City-based nonprofits, including Boys and Girls Harbor and the Tiger Foundation.

The Neighborhood Partnership concentrates its efforts and investment in four thematic areas: education enrichment and youth development; neighborhood stabilization; strengthening community organizations; and engaging Duke students and staff in community service. An affordable housing loan to Self-Help from Duke, for instance, led to more than 120 houses being purchased for renovation and then sold to low-income homeowners in Walltown and Southwest Central Durham. Also, Duke's Division of Community and Family Medicine, in partnership with Lincoln Community Health Center, has opened health clinics in those Partnership neighborhoods. In addition, Duke provides neighborhood schools with curriculum support, tutors and improvements to their campuses, and supports quality after-school programs for low-income children at four neighborhood centers.

Overall, Duke has raised more than $12 million for the Neighborhood Partnership.