About

KEEN USA is a volunteer-run, nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization, governed by a Board of Directors comprised of both at-large members and affiliate presidents or their designees. The board directs KEEN’s operations, charts its direction, and ensures that KEEN stays focused on its core mission.

KEEN's Mission - Empower youth with disabilities and impact volunteer coaches through participation in free, non-competitive, one-on-one programs of physical activity and fun, supporting the overall health and well-being of all participants.


KEEN’s Vision - Create communities in which individuals with disabilities have equal opportunities for recreation, fitness, and friendship; provide families with respite and a supportive network; foster a lifelong commitment to positive change for volunteers through their engagement with KEEN athletes; develop partnerships to actively promote disability awareness.


Core Principles -

  •    accept every child, regardless of the nature or severity of their disability
  •    provide all programs entirely free of charge
  •    meet the needs of the individual athlete, allowing everyone to find success and joy

KEEN is a volunteer-led nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization headquartered in Washington, DC.  KEEN USA’s Board of Directors oversees affiliate operations and charts national initiatives. Each local affiliate also has a Board of Directors, comprised of parents, volunteers and members of the community who direct all local activities in accordance with KEEN‘s mission: providing free recreational opportunities to children and young adults with disabilities by pairing them with trained volunteers for fun, noncompetitive activities.


KEEN is modeled on an innovative program established in Oxford, England by Elliott Portnoy, who brought KEEN to the Washington, DC area in 1992. Together with his wife, Estee Portnoy, and with help from a handful of parents and volunteers, KEEN started as a single program. 30+ years later, because of its unique approach of individualized, one-to-one, noncompetitive programming, KEEN has expanded into markets across the nation, serving over fifteen hundred young people with disabilities each year and touching the lives of tens of thousands of volunteers.

KEEN operates programs in:

KEEN USA and KEEN Affiliates in the US

EIN #42-1657978

EIN #42-1657976

EIN# 65-1262462

EIN #26-1416505

EIN #20-5458028

EIN #03-0570681

KEEN USA is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, with the IRS deductibility code of "group." KEEN US Affiliates are subordinate organizations under this group exemption.

KEEN is a Candid Gold Participant

KEEN USA is a Candid Gold Participant


A Gold Seal status is the leading symbol of non-profit transparency and accountability.