Early in the lives of both Keith and Katherine Dunleavy, the importance and value of intentional philanthropy was clear. For Katherine, this came in the form of receiving a scholarship from John Motley Morehead III’s creation of the Morehead Foundation (now, the Morehead-Cain Foundation) supporting her college education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the first merit scholarship program in the United States at the nation’s first public university. For Keith, this came in the form of philanthropic associations lending him money for medical school when all other forms of loans and financial aid had been exhausted. As Keith and Katherine came together and their lives progressed, they knew that if able, they too would look for opportunities to translate successes in their lives to the benefit of others.

In 2006, this ambition began to play out when Keith and Katherine made their first major charitable donations, creating the Dunleavy Philanthropic Trust, formally setting aside assets to grow for benevolent purposes. With these resources dedicated, the Dunleavys advised a myriad of donations, supporting dozens of local and national organizations aligning with their philosophy of focusing on investment in organizations, people, and ideas that promote sense of purpose, self-reliance, impactful leadership, and a lasting benefit to society.

As their lives progressed, Keith and Katherine were increasingly exposed to wide-ranging experiences across spectrums of education, healthcare, technology, and the selfless sacrifices of the military and other public servants. Their work showed them the demands and challenges of building, running, financing, managing, and growing meaningful and sustainable organizations. Their growing number of relationships exposed them to the importance of people, partnerships, dialog, finding common goals, and the forms of diplomacy that can lead to cooperation and mutually beneficial outcomes. All of this served to help form a set of views and provide experiences to not only inform what areas of focus could help achieve a greater good in people’s lives and society, but also the hands-on operational experience and learned failures to be able to bring to bear more than simply financial support, but real-world guidance and mentorship as well.

In 2020, significant additional donations by Keith and Katherine were made and the Dunleavy Foundation was created and subsequently granted 501(c)(3) status as a private foundation. With the increase in assets, greater resources were planned and committed to enable increasing attention to a vision of a lasting stewardship and achieving an enduring positive impact.

Today, the combination of the Dunleavy Philanthropic Trust and the Dunleavy Foundation serve as a pool of resources as well as hard-won experiences from a lifelong journey standing ready to support the mission of the Dunleavys — paying back kindness that was provided to them, enabling for others cornerstones of a positive and fulfilling life, and ultimately working to deliver on the principal focus of the Foundation: to bring a lasting benefit to society.