For the past two decades, Atlanta has been the quiet beneficiary of an anonymous foundation whose sizable contributions have touched numerous important causes in our city. The Atlanta Business Chronicle recently broke some news identifying the generous family behind the Kendeda Fund and your blogger felt a big shout out was in order.
According to the story, Diana Blank and her three children through the Kendeda Fund vehicle have gifted between $40 million and $50 million a year for a total of $480 million to date. The largest of these gifts, a just announced $30 million grant to Georgia Tech for a LIving Building Challenge 3.0, follows a long line of support for green initiatives, homeless services, child welfare and others causes based here, around the country and across the world.
An even more stunning fact of the Diana Blank family philanthropy is that they are just warming up; the family intends to “spend down” the foundation by 2024 and more than double the amount they have already given. “I give it away and it keeps coming back,” said Mrs. Blank. “A billion dollars? That’s a lot of money. You just hope you are supporting initiatives that have value.”
Through her past and future support, Mrs. Blank, a modest and unassuming woman who according to the article flies coach, carries her own bags and loves nature, gives the Atlanta non-profit community a chance to show its stuff. While we as a city face many troubling challenges, the opportunity afforded us through support of foundations like Kendeda and many others in partnership hopefully with forward-thinking local governments gives us reason to think big and truly make a difference.
Let’s not waste it.
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