Greenlee Family Foundation

Greenlee Family Foundation

The Greenlee Family Foundation was established in 1996 by Bob and Diane Greenlee in Lafayette, Colorado. Bob Greenlee made his wealth across several industries, including radio broadcasting, restaurants and breweries, venture capital, and real estate. Diane Greenlee remains an active community volunteer, art collector, and board member at the Denver Art Museum. Their daughter, Anne Marie Kemp, serves as the foundation's president, while their son, Robert D. Greenlee, is a trustee, cementing a second-generation leadership structure. The foundation's grantmaking centers on economic self-sufficiency, with giving directed to programs that help individuals achieve financial independence through education and workforce development. Its investment assets are managed alongside other family holdings through Centennial Investment & Management, a related vehicle that holds a significant mixed-use real estate portfolio in Colorado. Known properties tied to the family include 1800 Glenarm Place, a mixed-use building in downtown Denver, and One Lincoln Park, a high-rise residential tower on Lincoln Street. The foundation's grantmaking is geographically concentrated in Colorado, though the Greenlee School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Iowa State University reflects the family's educational philanthropy outside the state. Diane Greenlee's community involvement gives the foundation an unusually public-facing posture for a private family entity. She has served two six-year terms on the University of Colorado Foundation board and sits on the board and marketing committee of the Denver Art Museum, where the family has donated significant works, including the large-scale sculpture "Big Sweep." The Boulder Chamber of Commerce has recognized Diane with its Entrepreneur of Distinction award. These institutional relationships create a network that shapes the foundation's visibility and likely its grantmaking priorities. In recent years, the foundation has operated without publicizing staff headcount or total assets, operating discreetly from its Lafayette base. What sets the Greenlee structure apart from a standard grantmaking foundation is the tight integration with Centennial Investment & Management, the active family office that manages Bob Greenlee's operating and real estate assets. This dual architecture — a private foundation alongside a direct-investment entity — allows the family to separate philanthropic grantmaking from principal-investing activities while keeping both under family governance. The foundation's second-generation leadership signals a succession structure that peers will watch as assets and grantmaking scale.