WELCOME TO AFFUND.ORG
The fund was established in 2000 to give fifth generation Andrus family members between the ages of twenty-five and forty-five an opportunity to learn about and participate in organized philanthropy. While AFF operates under the 501(c)(3) status of the Surdna Foundation, AFF defines and manages its own grantmaking program, process and has its own mission statement.
MISSION STATEMENT
The Andrus Family Fund, guided by the Transitions Framework and principles of racial equity, seeks to foster just and sustainable change in the United States. Specifically, we aspire to advance efforts leading to community reconciliation and improving outcomes for youth who are leaving the foster care system.
AFF GRANTMAKING
AFF’s grantmaking efforts fall within two program areas:
(1) youth passage from foster care to independence; and (2) community reconciliation.
AFF believes that social change efforts have a better chance for success when participants recognize and address the emotional and psychological effects of the change process. AFF requires grantees to employ the Transition Framework.1
AFF is also guided by a commitment toward a racially equitable society, which the Fund defines as one in which the distribution of resources, opportunities and burdens [is] not determined or predictable by race.2 We aspire to make grants to organizations who will be good learning partners in efforts toward that goal.
1William Bridges, a noted author and organizational consultant, uses the term “transition” to refer to the psychological process that a person experiences when he or she comes to terms with a new situation.
2Grantmaking with a Racial Equity Lens, available at www.grantcraft.org.