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An Inspiring Gift to Help Students Grow

The Kenan Institute for Ethics has received a major gift to support undergraduate programs.

Danielle Moore T’85 has pledged a $5 million gift from the Mary Alice Fortin Foundation, the family foundation of which she is president, to support the institute’s educational initiatives for students. 

Three students sit at a picnic table overlooking a beautiful view
Students participate in civic engagement programs around the world — including Kampala, Uganda, pictured above — through DukeEngage, a program of the Kenan Institute for Ethics. Dani Moore’s gift will support additional offerings focusing on undergraduates. Photo courtesy of Ashwin Gadiraju.

Moore, who goes by “Dani” (pronounced “Donny”), is the mayor of Palm Beach, Florida. As a Duke alum, she has long been passionate about enhancing the student experience at the university. A supporter and former advisory board member of DukeEngage, a Kenan Institute for Ethics program that offers civic engagement opportunities for undergraduates with community partners all over the world, she says she is especially interested in students talking to and learning from people who are different from them. 

“The foundation has a commitment to fostering dialogue,” Moore said.

Through the Fortin Foundation, Moore has also supported Bass Connections, a unique interdisciplinary program that allows Duke undergraduates to work with faculty and graduate students on research projects addressing urgent social concerns.

David Toole, Nannerl O. Keohane Director of the Kenan Institute for Ethics, says that ethics and character formation are a primary focus of the institute’s work with undergraduates. As an example, he points to a new program launched this year, Capacious Minds, which encourages students to think outside of ideological divides and instead approach problems through the co-creation of wildly imaginative spaces. 

Two students moving in tandem in a dance studio
Two Capacious Minds Fellows participate in a movement exercise. Part of the larger Capacious Minds initiative, this two-semester fellowship aims to help undergraduate students develop “capacious minds” through experiential practices that include open-ended and non-linear modes of engagement like play, embodied movement, and the cultivation of wonder through the observation of the natural world. Photo credit: Summer Steenberg.

“Building and scaling programs like Capacious Minds is the kind of thing we envision Dani’s funding helping us accomplish,” Toole said.

To read the full story on Moore and the history of the Fortin Foundation, visit MADE FOR THIS: The Duke Campaign website.