{{Short description|US-based non-profit organization}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}} {{advert|date=November 2022}} {{Infobox organization | name = The Asia Foundation | image = The Asia Foundation logo.svg | abbreviation = | formation = 1954 | type = Nonprofit organization | headquarters = San Francisco, California, United States | leader_title = President and CEO | leader_name = Laurel Miller | key_people = | revenue = $104,324,731<ref name="Form 990">{{cite web | url=https://asiafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/FY2019-Form-990-Public-Disclosure-Copy.pdf | title=FY2019 Form 990 Public Disclosure | website=Asia Foundation | access-date=29 March 2022 }}</ref> | revenue_year = 2019 | expenses = $104,757,151<ref name="Form 990" /> | expenses_year = 2019 | website = {{url|asiafoundation.org}} }} '''The Asia Foundation (TAF)''' is a nonprofit [[international development]] organization focused on improving lives across Asia.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.fundsforngos.org/article-contributions/asia-foundation-improving-lives-expanding-opportunities/ | title=The Asia Foundation: Improving Lives, Expanding Opportunities | website=Funds for NGOs | date=19 September 2013 | access-date=19 February 2019 }}</ref> Its programs operate in various sectors, including governance, women's empowerment and gender equality, inclusive economic growth, environmental and climate action, and regional and international cooperation.{{cn|date=April 2025}} One of the Foundation's notable initiatives is the "Let's Read" program, which provides a free digital library in local languages to support students, educators, and community leaders in over 20 countries. The Asia Foundation is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and operates as a [[501(c)(3) organization|501(c)(3) nonprofit]] organization. It collaborates with a range of public and private partners and receives funding from various sources, including agencies, foundations, corporations, and individual donors.<ref name="Form 990" /> The Foundation was established in 1954 by the [[Central Intelligence Agency|Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)]] to conduct activities on behalf of the United States government in ways that were not available to official U.S. agencies.<ref>{{cite book |last=Stonor Saunders|first=Frances |date=2000 |title=The Cultural Cold War|publisher=The New Press |page=193 |isbn=}}</ref>
==Global presence== The Asia Foundation operates at both country and regional levels through its offices in the [[Asia–Pacific|Asia-Pacific region]]. The Foundation's staff work on a range of development challenges specific to each location. In addition to its offices in Asia, the organization maintains offices in San Francisco, California, and Washington, D.C.
==History== "The Asia Foundation (TAF), a Central Intelligence Agency proprietary, was established in 1954 to undertake cultural and educational activities on behalf of the United States Government in ways not open to official U.S. agencies."<ref name="US Department of State">{{cite web|title=Doc. 132: Memorandum from the Central Intelligence Agency to the 303 Committee|url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v10/d132|website=Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, Volume X, National Security Policy|publisher=US Department of State|access-date=2 September 2017|date=22 June 1966}}</ref> The Asia Foundation is an outgrowth of the Committee for a Free Asia, which was founded by the [[United States National Security Council]] in 1951.<ref>{{cite web|title=Routing and Record Sheet: Committee for a Free Asia|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/DTPILLAR%20%20%20VOL.%201_0001.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170122214639/https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/DTPILLAR%20%20%20VOL.%201_0001.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=22 January 2017|publisher=Central Intelligence Agency}}</ref> CIA funding and support of the Committee for a Free Asia, the Asia Foundation, and Radio Free Asia (not be confused with the current [[Radio Free Asia]]) were assigned the CIA code name "Project [[DTPILLAR]]".<ref>{{cite web|title=DTPILLAR|url=https://archive.org/details/DTPILLAR|website=Internet Archive}}</ref>
In 1954, the Committee for a Free Asia was renamed the Asia Foundation (TAF) and incorporated in California<ref name="autogenerated1983">{{cite web|author1=Congressional Research Service|title=The Asia Foundation: Past, Present and Future|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/DOC_0001088617.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170118155416/https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/DOC_0001088617.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=18 January 2017|publisher=Central Intelligence Agency|date=February 1983}}</ref> as a private, nominally non-governmental covert propaganda organization devoted to promoting democracy, rule of law, and market-based development in post-war Asia.<ref name="US Department of State"/> As Price (2024) puts it: "DIPILLAR’s pro-capitalism mission was not just a pro-American propaganda mission. It was part of larger CIA operations rejecting Asians' rights to choose their own political and economic systems freely."<ref>Price, DH (2024) ''Cold War deceptions,'' p. 261).</ref>
Among the original founding officers of the board were presidents/chairmen of corporations including T.S. Peterson, CEO of Standard Oil of California (now Chevron), Brayton Wilbur, president of Wilbur-Ellis Co., and J.D. Zellerbach, chairman of the Crown Zellerbach Corporation; four university presidents including Grayson Kirk from Columbia, J.E. Wallace Sterling of Stanford, and Raymond Allen from [[University of California, Los Angeles|UCLA]]; prominent attorneys including Turner McBaine and A. Crawford Greene; Pulitzer Prize-winning writer [[James A. Michener|James Michener]]; [[Paul Hoffman (English writer)|Paul Hoffman]], the first administrator of the Marshall Plan in Europe; and several major figures in foreign affairs.
In 1966, ''[[Ramparts (magazine)|Ramparts]]'' revealed that the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] was covertly funding a number of organizations, including the Asia Foundation, which were entangled in conflicts with international pro-Communist groups.<ref name="US Department of State"/> A commission authorized by President Johnson and led by Secretary of State Rusk determined that the Asia Foundation should be preserved and overtly funded by the US government. Following this change, The Asia Foundation was classified as a private, nonprofit, nongovernmental organization under the section 501(c)(3) of the [[Internal Revenue Code]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://asiafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/20190318_IRS-Ltr-re-Tax-Exempt.pdf|title=Tax Exempt Document|website=asiafoundation.org |access-date=29 August 2023}}</ref> The foundation began to restructure its programming, shifting away from its earlier goals of "building democratic institutions and encouraging the development of democratic leadership" toward an emphasis on Asian development as a whole (CRS 1983).
On 1 February 2023, Laurel E. Miller took over as president of the Foundation. She previously directed the Asia program at the [[International Crisis Group]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2010/06/09/arnold-to-lead-the-asia-foundation/ | title=Arnold to lead the Asia Foundation | last=Rogin | first=Josh | date=9 June 2010 | website=Foreign Policy | access-date=19 February 2019 }}</ref>
==Further reading==
* Price, David H. (2024) ''Cold War deceptions: The Asia Foundation and the CIA.'' University of Washington Press.
== References == {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== *[https://asiafoundation.org/ Official website of the Asia Foundation] *[http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt5v19r7m6/ Asia Foundation Records] at the [https://www.hoover.org/library-archives Hoover Institution Archives]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Asia Foundation}} [[Category:The Asia Foundation| ]] [[Category:Organizations established in 1954]] [[Category:1954 establishments in California]] [[Category:Asian studies]] [[Category:Central Intelligence Agency front organizations]] [[Category:Charities based in California]] [[Category:Development charities based in the United States]] [[Category:501(c)(3) organizations]] [[Category:Non-profit organizations]]