The Jay Heritage Center (JHC) is thrilled to acknowledge a major gift of more than $20,000 from Fred Alger Management, LLC, an investment management firm based in Manhattan, to help support JHC’s educational programming in social justice and racial inequality.
Over the past thirty years, JHC has served as a regional leader in offering thoughtful programming about history, social justice, and environmental stewardship. Events are held at the Jay Estate, a 23-acre site on the shore of Long Island Sound that was once the home of Founding Father, jurist, peacemaker, and antislavery advocate John Jay.
Past speakers have included Annette Gordon-Reed, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “The Hemingses of Monticello”; Gretchen Sorin, author of “Driving While Black”; and Brent Leggs, director of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Each year JHC also hosts the Westchester County African American Advisory Board’s Trailblazer Awards, as well as the American Women of African Heritage’s Martin Luther King Literary Celebration. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, JHC regularly partnered with NY State Parks to facilitate educational field trips to Westchester for thousands of students from underserved Title 1 schools.
The Alger donation is an outgrowth of the firm’s Candlelight Giving Committee, an employee-supported program that began in 2007 with the mission of giving back to the community and the underserved. Alger employees regularly work through the committee to volunteer and donate to worthy causes that have included Habitat for Humanity, the ParentChild+ Program, and many others. Alger also encourages employees to donate to the causes of their choice through the Alger Matching Program.
Alger is led by Dan Chung, its CEO and chief investment officer. Chung also serves as a board member and is former chair of the New York State chapter of The Nature Conservancy.
“We are pleased that Alger and its employees are able to support JHC and its mission to address social justice and racial inequality,” said Chung. “We targeted our recent employee-supported charitable initiative to charities in the New York City metro area as a way of helping our neighbors. We believe that we can all be part of a better America by doing what each of us can to embrace and encourage racial equality.”
Alger was introduced to JHC by Brad Neuman, Alger’s senior vice president and director of market strategy, who joined the JHC board in March 2020.
“I am elated to connect two organizations that do so much good for their local communities,” said Neuman. “With Alger’s help, I believe JHC will be able to make a difference in our neighborhoods, promoting equal opportunity and respect for all members of society through dynamic educational programs.”