Created in 2016, the William Thomas McKinley Foundation has a primary mission to perserve the legacy of McKinley's work as a composer and pianist through concerts, recordings, and scholarhsip. In addition, the foundation has a secondary mission to promote the support the work of living American composers through support grants and eductional outreach programs. The original board included members his family, as well as long-time collaborator and friend, clarinettist Richard Stolzman. Recently, the foundation has collaborated with the Boston Public Library in an effort to finalize an archive of orginal manuscripts of the composer's works, and with Subito Music in New York to publish the majoriy of McKinley's music in perpetuity. His son, composer Elliott Miles McKinley, is President of the foundation and further directs an annual composition program in coordiation with the Alba Music Festival in Italy, leveraging the non-profit efforts of the foundation for onging support of young composers through commissions and scholarships. As the foundtion grows, further grant and scholarship initiatives will be launched, including an annual award for composition and jazz studies students at the New England Conservatory of Music where McKinley taught for over twenty years.