Agape Foundation

The Agape Foundation "expresses its commitment to a just and peaceful world by funding the nonviolent social change organizations that will create that world...

"The Agape Foundation is a non-profit public foundation, which raises and distributes funds to groups working for nonviolent social change. Since its formation in 1969 by a group of pacifists and anti-war activists in Palo Alto, California, the Agape Foundation has provided millions of dollars to nonviolent, grassroots organizations throughout the western United States."


 * Eileen Hansen comes to Agape as our Interim Executive Director from three decades of experience within nonprofit organizations. Eileen will help us transition from Karen Topakian's 15-year tenure as Executive Director and create a plan for how best to move Agape forward.

History
"Agape began its fiscal sponsorship program in the mid 1970s in order to enable small, often new organizations that did not have their own tax-exempt status from the IRS to receive tax-deductible charitable gifts. In the past three decades, the Agape Foundation has provided this service to hundreds of peace and justice groups that may not have been able to thrive without this program. Peace centers throughout the state applied in the early years, after which the list grew to include organizations working on other issues.

"For example, in 1979, six years after the brutal coup in Chile, the Agape Foundation began fiscally sponsoring the Free Chile Center, to support its work as part of a worldwide solidarity movement formed in opposition to the new military dictatorship.

"In 1983, Agape began fiscally sponsoring Down Winders, a Utah-based group established to organize grassroots opposition to nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site and to build support for ending worldwide nuclear testing through a Comprehensive test Ban Treaty.

"In the early 1990s, Agape began its sponsorship of CDI Colombia in Nicaragua for its support of teachers who work with children who have been exposed to war.

"In the mid 1990s, Agape added Religious Witness with Homeless People to its family of fiscally sponsored projects, an advocacy organization that works to create a positive, effective and humane homelessness policy for the city of San Francisco.

"At that time, Agape also added Telling the Story, a project that uses story telling for lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgendered community building and health, and Project Underground which is working to expose environmental and human rights abuses by mining and oil industry corporations.

"Before Agape entered the 3rd millennium, it expanded its fiscal sponsorship program to include the Heart & Hand Fund, which supports women striving for peace in the Balkans. It also began its long-term relationship with Art & Revolution, which revitalizes protest by integrating dance, music, giant puppets, graffiti, art and theater into social change movements.

"Since 2001, Agape has extended fiscal sponsorshipt to three organizations working on counter-military recruitment in Bay Area high schools: MOOS -Bay, Marin H.O.P.E and BAY-Peace, in addition to sponsoring the Bay Area chapter of Grandmothers Against the War."

Trustees
Accessed October 2009:


 * Susan Fang, Incentive Award Scholar, Public Health Undergraduate, UC Berkeley Nicole Hsiang, Executive Development Assistant, Community Educational Services
 * Gwyn Kirk, Coordinator, Women for Genuine Security
 * Ian McLeod, Socially Responsible Investment Advisor,The Social Equity Group
 * Alex Momtchiloff, Principal, Alex Momtchiloff Consulting
 * Scott Ullman, Training Coordinator, The Foundation Center San Francisco
 * Ali Vogt, MFTI, Women's Therapy Center, and Principal, Ali Vogt Events

Advisory Board
Accessed October 2009:


 * Rob Boudewijn
 * S. Katherine Campbell
 * Carol M. Cantwell
 * Victor Chavez
 * Mary Anna Colwell
 * Robert Cooney
 * Orpheus Crutchfield
 * Claire Bradley Feder
 * Arleen Feng
 * Paul Hammond
 * Ruth Hultgren
 * Jane Kinzler
 * Phil Klasky
 * Rachel Lanzerotti
 * Leon Lefson
 * Patrick McDermott
 * Melanie Okamoto
 * Catherine Powell
 * Cynthia Sharpe
 * Gail W. Stern
 * Sarada Tangirala
 * Karen Topakian
 * Lee Trampleasure
 * Dave Troup
 * Mike Veiluva
 * Dena Shupe Woolwine
 * Ann Wrixon

Contact

 * Web: http://www.agapefdn.org

Related Sourcewatch articles

 * Ford Foundation/Projects supported by the Ford Foundation
 * Peace and Security Funders Group
 * Christine Ahn