The Links Foundation, Incorporated
Mission and Vision
The Links Foundation, Incorporated is the philanthropic arm of The Links, Incorporated, an organization of professional women of African descent located throughout the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, and the United Kingdom. The Foundation was established in 1979 to enhance and expand the philanthropic endeavors of The Links, Incorporated. The Links, Incorporated has a long tradition of promoting and engaging in educational, civic and inter-cultural activities in order to enrich the lives of members of the communities we serve.
The Foundation provides grants to innovative programs that address problems to be solved, or opportunities to be seized, that are of regional, national or international significance. It has served The Links, Incorporated well as the conduit for grant support for special programs. Under Foundation guidelines, grants are made to support the five program facets of The Links, Incorporated which include Services to Youth, The Arts, National Trends and Services, International Trends and Services, and Health and Human Services.
Philanthropy
The Links Foundation, Incorporated has contributed more than $27 million to charitable causes since its founding. In 2022, The Links Foundation, Incorporated named its sixth $1 million grantee – the Obama Presidential Center . Other million-dollar grantees include the United Negro College Fund, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., the National Civil Rights Museum and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American Culture and History, and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
In recent years, The Links Foundation, Incorporated has made donations to such entities as: Habitat for Humanity, for the rebuilding of homes in Haiti; Africare, for the construction of The Links maternal waiting homes and the assemblage of Mama Kits; and National Cares Mentoring Movement, for the advancement of mentoring opportunities across the nation. Through its Grants-in-Aid program, grants were awarded to non-profit organizations, such as the Children’s Defense Fund, Morgan State University Choir, Hurley Medical Center, schools in Jamaica and for disaster relief.
The Foundation also accepts and distributes Links chapter grants to support innovative programs that provide creative responses to changing needs in communities of African descent within the general fields of health, education, social services, and cultural and international affairs.
The Foundation is a non-profit corporation operated exclusively for charitable and educational purposes within the meaning of Section 501 (c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, as amended.
