Donate to the Women’s Legacy Fund
About the Women’s Legacy Fund
In 2003, a small group of women on the Community Foundation’s board noticed a gap. San Luis Obispo County had no permanent charitable resource dedicated to local women and girls. Board members Jane Sinton and Dee Lacey, among others, set out to change that.
Their idea was simple: bring people together, pool their generosity, and build an endowment to support women and girls for generations, not just a year.
The goal was audacious. Find 100 women willing to give $1,000 each and build a $100,000 endowment.
They thought it might take a year. It took three months.
Those first 100 donors became our founding Legacy Leaders. Today, that legacy continues. Legacy Leaders begin with an initial gift of $1,000 and continue their commitment with an annual gift of their choosing. Gifts are invested for long-term growth, providing grants to local organizations year after year.
The founders proved something that still sits at the heart of the Women’s Legacy Fund today: when people give around a shared purpose, individual gifts add up to something bigger than any one of them.
Generosity was just the beginning. The Fund’s founders wanted their giving to be guided by what women and girls in SLO County were actually experiencing. That commitment led to the first What Do Women Need report in 2010, grounding the Fund’s grantmaking in local data ever since.
Women and girls in San Luis Obispo County continue to face significant challenges. Our 2024 What Do Women Need report highlights affordable housing, child care, and health care, especially mental health services, as the primary barriers limiting opportunities and impacting well-being. Addressing these complex issues takes sustained investment—the same commitment to lasting change that inspired the Women’s Legacy Fund more than 20 years ago.
Learn more about these needs and the community‑driven solutions shaping the Women’s Legacy Fund’s priorities in the What Do Women Need? report.
Every big idea needs someone willing to go first.
Every Legacy Leader we celebrate in the following pages follows in the footsteps of those who came first. Meet Jane Sinton, Dee Lacey, and Barbie Butz, three of the founding legacy leaders who, alongside fellow Board members and early supporters, helped bring the Women’s Legacy Fund to life. Their vision and leadership helped build the foundation for all that has followed. Click below to see the list of Legacy Leaders.
Carry the Legacy Forward. Give Today.
We’d be honored to help you explore how your generosity can support women and girls for generations to come. Contact [email protected] or 805-543-2323 to start a conversation.
