The Links, Incorporated
The Links, Incorporated is an international, not-for-profit corporation, established in 1946. It celebrates over 75 years as a premier women’s volunteer service organization committed to enriching, sustaining and ensuring the cultural and economic survival of African-Americans and other persons of African ancestry. It is one of the nation’s oldest and largest volunteer service organizations with more than 17,000 members in 299 chapters located in 42 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, and the United Kingdom.
The members of The Links, Incorporated are dedicated women who are active in their respective communities. They include influential decision makers, corporate and civic leaders, lawmakers, medical and healthcare professionals, educators, role models, mentors, activists and volunteers who work towards a common vision by engaging like-minded organizations and individuals for partnership. Each member works toward the realization of making the name “Links” not only a chain of friendship, but also a chain of purposeful service.
Links members contribute more than 1 million documented hours of community service annually – strengthening their communities and enhancing the nation. The organization is the recipient of awards from the UN Association of New York and the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation for its premier programs. In 2019, The Links, Incorporated was nominated for a Luxembourg Peace Prize by the Schengen Peace Foundation and recognized by the late Congressman John Lewis as a distinguished organization of outstanding community service and influence.
The outstanding programming of The Links, Incorporated has five facets which include Services to Youth, The Arts, National Trends and Services, International Trends and Services and Health and Human Services. The programs are implemented through strategies such as public information and education, economic development, and public policy campaigns.
The Links Foundation, Incorporated
The Links Foundation, Incorporated, the philanthropic arm of The Links, Incorporated, has made more than $27 million in charitable contributions since its founding. 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.
In 2022, The Links Foundation, Incorporated named its sixth $1 million grantee – the Obama Presidential Center.
Other million-dollar grantees include: the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital; the Smithsonian National Museum of African American Culture and History in Washington, D.C.; the United Negro College Fund; the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.; and, the National Civil Rights Museum.
Additionally, 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 have been 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.
For more information, visit www.linksinc.org.
Also, visit The Southern Area of The Links, Incorporated at www.salinksinc.org