About Us
Our Vision
For all Coloradoans to have opportunity for dignity, self-sufficiency and wealth creation.
Our Mission
To create opportunity for Coloradoans to reach their fullest potential for self-sufficiency through access to entrepreneurship, meaningful employment, basic needs and an improved quality of life.
Theory of Change
The Kenneth King Foundation has refined its Theory of Change to better define our purpose through a cause-and-effect logic statement, providing a high-level view of our desired results, beyond our typical answer: jobs. Our Theory of Change outlines our strategy and assumptions that ground our mission, vision and funding interests. Our three main funding areas, Entrepreneurship, Employment and Removing Barriers to Employment, are defined with short- and long-term outcomes with related activities, processes, theoretical assumptions and principles. We believe this framework will provide additional information for organizations to determine mission alignment in seeking grants. We also took a hard look at metrics and how they align with the multitude of measurement guidelines in this industry. We took a stab at mapping metrics we are interested in measuring and how they tie to industry accepted metrics. Click on the link below to read more about our theory of change and logic models
Our Founder
Established in 1990, we are a private, grantmaking organization located in Denver, Colorado. Our founder Kenneth King was born in Texas but grew up and was educated in Denver. King pursued higher education in Chicago where he attended and graduated from Northwestern University. King later founded Columbia Savings and Loan Association in Colorado. From childhood until his passing, King was heavily involved with Denver-area philanthropic groups. He served on the boards of many charitable organizations and was very active with Goodwill Industries. King’s passion for philanthropy carried through in his pioneering work in the loan industry. He always did his best to make home loans available for those who could not otherwise obtain them. Helping others, especially those less fortunate than himself, was very important to King. Toward the end of his life, he wanted a way to continue to give back to those in need and the communities that gave him so much. He founded the Kenneth King Foundation in 1990 to continue his life-long mission of philanthropy.
Kenneth King’s success was based on his integrity, his entrepreneurial view of life and his constant pursuit to find or make a way to accomplish his dreams. His friends and colleagues knew him as a resourceful, frugal, competitive and hardworking leader with excellent financial and investment knowledge. Kenneth King’s entrepreneurial spirit, such as his commitment to “doing what works” and “getting the job done no matter what,” have him the discipline to focus on setting measurable action plans to obtain his goals and objectives. All the while, Kenneth King insisted and ensured the very highest quality standards in leadership, management and execution.
Throughout his life, Kenneth King placed high value on individuals with similar qualities to his own: a solid work ethic, and the drive and initiative to improve their lives.
Strategic Plan
In August 2019, The Foundation adopted a strategic plan to set the direction for the Foundation over the next few years. In addition to supporting organizations in our four focus areas, the Foundation will dedicate funds to achieving the following three goals:
- Increase quality jobs and entrepreneurship opportunities.
- Reduce barriers to employment, self-sufficiency and enable wealth generation.
- Sustain Foundation’s arts and legacy grantmaking.