Ten years ago, Dorothy Largay decided to convert her good fortune into good fortune for others. She gathered a group of respected colleagues and dear friends to brainstorm the vision, goals, and mission for what would become the Linked Foundation. Lynne Cage, who was instrumental in facilitating dialog at their offsite meetings, led Dorothy, Margi Mainquist, Nancy Swanson (now executive director), Marcia Bailey, and Karen Seabury through the process of sussing out the nonprofit’s goals.
Acknowledging that they wanted to deploy the majority of the funds during their lifetimes, and that all such organizations have ramp-up and wind-down periods, the team was acutely aware that a clearly defined mission would be paramount to their success. Inspired by Muhammad Yunus’s Grameen Bank which pioneered the concepts of microcredit and microfinance (Yunus would later win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006), the team made social entrepreneurship in the arena of healthcare for women their focal point. On October 7, 2005, the Linked Foundation became a California Nonprofit Benefit Corporation, and the real work began.