SOURCE OF WEALTH: Cox Enterprises
FUNDING AREAS: Health, Conservation & Environment, Education
OVERVIEW: James Kennedy and his wife Sarah have made large personal contribution in health, conservation, and education. The James M. Cox Foundation also focuses on these causes. The Southeast and intermountain west serve as important regions of giving.
BACKGROUND: James C. Kennedy graduated with a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Denver. Kennedy's grandfather, James M. Cox, founded Cox Enterprises in 1898 when he purchased the Dayton Evening News. Kennedy has been with Cox since 1972 and is currently chairman.
ISSUES:
HEALTH: The James M. Cox Foundation and Kennedy recently made a combined $2.5 million gift for the construction of the James C. Kennedy Fitness Center at Emory Saint Joseph's Hospital. Kennedy, meanwhile, has given Emory University more than $35 million through personal and foundation funds to address Alzheimer’s disease, patient-centered care models and cancer research. The forces here are personal as Kennedy was diagnosed and treated for prostate cancer in 2014. Kennedy has also provided more than $2 million to further autism research at the Marcus Autism Center. Kennedy also established a Health and Wellness Center in partnership with Tallahatchie Co. Memorial Hospital in Charleston, Mississippi. He also provided $1 million to help build Barrett Hospital in Dillon, Montana.
ENVIRONMENT: Kennedy is former president of Wetlands America Trust, Inc. and has served on the boards of The Nature Conservancy and Ducks Unlimited. Through personal and foundation giving, Kennedy is the single largest donor to Ducks Unlimited with more than $50 million to the organization. Kennedy is also interested in conservation easements as a tool for land protection. Land on his property in Mississippi and South Carolina, as well as in Montana, are protected by conservation easements.
Kennedy serves on the board for the PATH Foundation, "dedicated to creating an interconnected network of greenway trails throughout the Atlanta region." Via personal funds and the James M. Cox Foundation, PATH has received at least $26 million. Kennedy also supports Atlanta BeltLine, one of the nation’s largest rails-to-trails redevelopment programs. In 2008, Kennedy donated $1 million to the University of Montana to support its Boone and Crockett Wildlife Conservation Program endowment. He later established an endowed chair at Mississippi State University focused on wetlands conservation along the Mississippi Flyway, as well as endowed a chair in Wildlife Management at Warner College of Natural Resources at Colorado State University.
In 2014, meanwhile, Kennedy endowed Clemson University’s Waterfowl and Wetlands Conservation Center and created an endowed chair in Waterfowl and Wetlands Conservation at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. The same year, he also participated in a land exchange with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. The land exchange in Mississippi enabled the public to access the area for outdoor enjoyment and furthered habitat restoration of the Tallahatchie and Coldwater River National Wildlife Refuges. In 2016, he endowed a chair in Wetlands and Waterfowl Conservation at Colorado State University.
EDUCATION: Kennedy supports learning at all levels. Through a $10 million grant to the University of Denver’s Morgridge College of Education, he created the James C. Kennedy Institute for Educational Success to identify "innovative and cost-effective means for promoting and sustaining the educational success of vulnerable children." A $2 million gift to the University of Georgia supported the Terry College of Business. The University of Colorado, Georgia Tech and Georgia State University each received $1 million from Kennedy to further education initiatives. In 2021, Kennedy gave $26 million to the University of Denver to establish the James C. Kennedy Mountain Campus.
Kennedy established the Jim Kennedy Scholarship Fund, a $10 million endowment that supports children of Cox employees. The program annually awards ten $10,000 scholarships. Kennedy has also supported early childhood education through more than $9 million in grants to organizations like Atlanta Speech School and Drew Charter School.
LOOKING FORWARD: Expect Kennedy to strongly continue to focus on his issue areas.
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