A History
of  Giving 

Success in building and delivering innovation at six enterprise software companies -- including PeopleSoft, Workday, and today, Ridgeline -- over a nearly 60-year history enabled Dave and Cheryl Duffield to give back to causes and institutions that have had a lasting impact on their own lives.

The Duffields' first philanthropic interest, The Duffield Family Foundation, was founded in 1994 with the goal of revolutionizing the status and well-being of companion animals. Renamed Maddie's Fund in 1999 (after the family's beloved Miniature Schnauzer), this foundation has evolved into a national leader in shelter and companion animal well-being innovation, leadership development, education, and collaboration.

Cornell University is another institution of special interest to the Duffields. As a graduate (BSEE '62, MBA '64), Dave looks back on his college years as a special period in his life. He pitched on the baseball team, joined the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, and played bass guitar in a rock band. He also met some memorable professors who introduced him to systems thinking, automated data processing, and the IBM mainframes and programming languages of the time. 

This special and lasting experience inspired Dave to give back to the University by first building Duffield Hall and later naming the Cornell David A. Duffield College of Engineering. 
 

Today, the Dave & Cheryl Duffield Foundation, founded in 2016 in Incline Village, Nevada, is the Duffield family's current vehicle for funding transformational services and programs -- most notably, community veterinary care and Liberty Dogs. 

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