Contacts:
Margaret Hall, National Executive Director
GreenLight Fund
Phone: 617-912-8980
Sally Thelen, Corporate Communications Manager
Duke Energy
Phone: 513-287-2432
Investment enables GreenLight Cincinnati to continue to identify and import nation’s best social innovations targeted to improve lives of low-income children and families
Duke Energy, one of the nation’s largest utility and energy providers, today announced a $125,000 investment in GreenLight Cincinnati. The funds will be distributed evenly over the next 5 years to the Fund. GreenLight Cincinnati, part of a national venture philanthropy organization, raises and invests funds to bring innovative, high-impact approaches to Cincinnati that improve the economic mobility, opportunities and outcomes for low-income children and families.
“Our customers know Duke Energy as being committed to helping find solutions to issues facing our diverse community, said Jim Henning, president Duke Energy Ohio and Kentucky. “By partnering with GreenLight, we know we will be able to help transform the lives of low income families through innovative programs that can truly make a difference.”
Duke Energy joins a group of local founding investors announced last year, including the Deaconess Associations Foundation, Bethesda Inc., the Cincinnati Regional Business Committee, Interact for Health, P&G, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, United Way Greater Cincinnati, the Cincinnati Business Committee, Bank of America Charitable Foundation, John and Susan Simon, and other local philanthropic entities including the Woods Family, the Johnson Family, Dan and Susan Fleming, Marylou and John McIlwraith, the SC Ministry Foundation, the Crossroads Church and the Manual D. and Rhoda Mayerson Foundation.
“We couldn’t be more thrilled to add Duke Energy to our diverse coalition of investors dedicated to improving outcomes for low-income communities in Cincinnati,” said Tara Noland, GreenLight Cincinnati Executive Director. “As we complete our second selection cycle, this investment will accelerate our momentum and ensure ongoing portfolio success and growth.”
GreenLight Cincinnati works with the community to identify unmet and pressing needs facing families and children in poverty. With the help of its local Selection Advisory Council, GreenLight conducts a thorough diligence process and selects a nonprofit program with proven and measurable success to bring to Cincinnati.
GreenLight Cincinnati’s first portfolio organization, Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO), was announced in October of 2016 and launched earlier this year with a $600,000 investment. GreenLight brought CEO to Cincinnati to provide a brighter future for anyone with a recent criminal history who wants to work. CEO is already working to reach some of the 1800+ men and women who return home from prison to Hamilton County each year. In its other locations, CEO’s program has shown a 16-22 percent reduction in recidivism and higher levels of immediate and long term employment.
The GreenLight model was launched in Boston in 2003 to address urban core needs such as college access and persistence, family economic mobility, academic success, youth recidivism and youth aging out of foster care. In addition to Cincinnati and Boston, GreenLight has expanded to Philadelphia, the San Francisco Bay Area, Detroit and Charlotte, announced earlier this week.
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About GreenLight Fund
The GreenLight Fund, headquartered in Boston, MA, transforms the lives of children, youth and families in high-poverty urban areas by creating local infrastructure and a consistent annual process to: identify critical needs; import innovative, entrepreneurial programs that have a significant, measurable impact; and galvanize local support to help programs reach and sustain impact in the new city. Established in Boston in 2003 and now in six cities – Boston, Philadelphia, the San Francisco Bay Area, Cincinnati, Detroit, and Charlotte, GreenLight aims to grow a national network of GreenLight sites that learn and work collaboratively to find and spread proven nonprofit solutions that achieve meaningful and measurable impact in our communities on the issues that matter most. Learn more at: www.greenlightfund.org.
Duke Energy Ohio/Kentucky
Duke Energy Ohio/Kentucky’s operations provide electric service to about 850,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in a 3,000-square-mile service area and natural gas service to approximately 529,000 customers.
Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Duke Energy is one of the largest energy holding companies in the United States. Its Electric Utilities and Infrastructure business unit serves approximately 7.5 million customers located in six states in the Southeast and Midwest. The company’s Gas Utilities and Infrastructure business unit distributes natural gas to approximately 1.6 million customers in the Carolinas, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. Its Commercial Renewables business unit operates a growing renewable energy portfolio across the United States.
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