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Dekko Foundation Moves to Community Learning Center

Tuesday, May 4, 2021
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The Community Learning Center in Kendallville

The Dekko Foundation, a private family foundation started by the late philanthropist and businessman Chester E. Dekko, has moved its office to the Community Learning Center in Kendallville.

Since it was established in 1981, the mission of the Dekko Foundation has been fostering economic freedom through education. Its grantmaking is focused in 13 counties in Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, and Alabama where Mr. Dekko had business or personal interests. 

The foundation invests in projects and organizations that support children and young people from birth through age 18 in building knowledge, skills, and character that can help them be self-sufficient and put them on the path to economic freedom.

With its move to the Community Learning Center, the Dekko Foundation joins a dynamic group of organizations working together to improve the lives of people of all ages in Kendallville, Noble County, and Northeast Indiana. The center was launched in 2019 after community members, nonprofits, and education and city leaders came together to identify a new use for a nearly 150,000-square-foot former school in the heart of the city.

The Community Learning Center’s culture of collaboration, as well as the organizations there striving to remove barriers to economic freedom, will help the Dekko Foundation be a more effective funder, said Thomas Leedy, the foundation’s president.

“We have the opportunity to work alongside these organizations and learn from them. That will help inform our efforts in all of our grantmaking priority areas and further the mission and vision that Mr. Dekko set forth for us,” Leedy said.

The Dekko Foundation’s new office is on the third floor of the Community Learning Center. Classrooms have been remodeled to accommodate the foundation’s staff and provide “hoteling” workspace for guests. The office includes a break room and boardroom that will be available for others at the center to use.

The foundation continues to own and maintain Mr. Dekko’s former home on Baby Mountain in Kendallville, which served as the foundation’s office for nearly 40 years. The house will be used to offer programs that align with the foundation’s mission.

Leedy said while the move to the Community Learning Center marks an exciting new chapter for the Dekko Foundation, its mission, its relationships with youth-serving organizations, and its connection to the communities that Mr. Dekko chose to support through his philanthropy remain solidly at the heart of its work.

“Our mission of fostering economic freedom through education is as vital today as it’s ever been,” Leedy said. “When young people are supported in developing their self-sufficiency and the knowledge and skills that contribute to their economic freedom, our communities are made stronger.”

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