Young America's Foundation (YAF) is a conservative youth organization, founded in 1969, whose mission is to ensure that "increasing numbers of young Americans understand and are inspired by the ideas of individual freedom, a strong national defense, free enterprise, and traditional values." Alumni members include Jeff Sessions, Stephen Miller and Tom Clancy. Donors include Pat Sajak, the Koch brothers, and Amway billionaires Richard and Helen Devos. A $16 million legacy gift from Robert Ruhe resulted in a doubled of YAF's programming which includes campus speeches. By 2017, YAF had 250 high school and college affiliated known as Young Americans for Freedom, which was originally a separate organization.
Video Young America's Foundation
History
Young America's Foundation was founded in 1969 at Vanderbilt University when students formed an organization called University Information Services (UIS). UIS was established to provide students with a familial atmosphere to express their conservative beliefs. When UIS became a national organization in the early 1970s, it changed its name to Young America's Foundation. Young America's Foundation held the first National Conservative Student Conference in 1979. It is a co-founder of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference and has been a prominent supporter of the event since then.
In 1998, Young America's Foundation purchased Rancho del Cielo, the Santa Barbara, California ranch of Ronald Reagan.
Maps Young America's Foundation
Context
According to The New York Times, by 2005, there was a "renewed shift pronouncedly to the right on many defining issues". Young Americans for Freedom, Young America's Foundation, the Leadership Institute, the Collegiate Network, and the Intercollegiate Studies Institute college organizations that were "fueled and often financed by an array of conservative interest groups". By 2005, "51 percent of freshmen were for [casual sex] in 1987; [by 2005] 42 percent are. In 1989, 66 percent of freshmen believed abortion should be legal; [by 2005], only 54 percent do. In 1995, 66 percent of kids agreed that wealthy people should pay a larger share of taxes; [by 2005] it [was] down to 50 percent. Even on the issue of firearms, where students have traditionally favored stiffer controls, there [was] been a weakening in support for gun laws".
These groups spend money in various ways to push a right-wing agenda on campuses: some make direct cash grants to student groups to start and run conservative campus newspapers; others provide free training in conservative leadership, often providing heavily subsidized travel to their publishing programs; others provide help with the hefty speaking fees for celebrity right-wing speakers. Through these coordinated activities, these groups have embarked in the last three years on a concerted campus recruitment drive to turn temperamentally conservative youngsters into organized right-wing activists.
According to an article in Time by John Cloud, by 2004, there were no left-wing youth organizations as powerful as The Young America's Foundation (YAF), The Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) and The Leadership Institute. The same author stated, a "majority of 2003 freshmen -- 53% -- wanted affirmative action abolished, compared with only 43% of all adults. Two-thirds of frosh favored abortion rights in 1992; only 55% did so in last year's survey. Support for gun control has slipped in recent years among the young, and last year 53% of students believed that "wealthy people should pay a larger share of taxes than they do now," compared with 72% 11 years earlier".
Young Americans for Freedom (YAF)
On March 16, 2011, Young Americans for Freedom passed a National Board Resolution which resulted in the merger of two organizations into the Young America's Foundation on April 1, 2011. Young Americans for Freedom (YAF), was founded on September 11, 1960 at the family home of William F. Buckley in Sharon, Connecticut. The charter for the Young Americans for Freedom, written by M. Stanton Evans, the Sharon Statement,was described by K.E.Grubbs in 2010 as "the late 20th century's single most elegant distillation of conservative principles". The Heritage Foundation described the Sharon Statement as "statement is a succinct summary of the central ideas of modern American conservatism".
Organizational information
Young America's Foundation is a tax-exempt educational foundation. The Foundation's programs include lectures on college and high school campuses, conferences throughout the United States, and campus activism initiatives. These programs are broadcast on C-SPAN. Young America's Foundation also preserves the Ronald Reagan Ranch, runs the National Journalism Center (NJC), and oversees Young Americans for Freedom.
Funding
Robert Ruhe (1929 - 2013), an orthodontist in California, was the single largest donor of the YAF with his legacy estate gift of $16 million. During his lifetime he and his wife donated generously to YAF, particularly in terms of paying off the mortgage of the Reagan Ranch.
Activities
Young America's Foundation sends conservative speakers to colleges and universities. In 1998 it purchased the Reagan Ranch, "Rancho del Cielo", near Santa Barbara, California, with the help of a $10 million endowment from Amway billionaires Richard and Helen Devos. The Ruhes helped YAF "retire the Reagan Ranch note early". YAF president Ron Robinson commented that YAF's goal was "preserving and protecting" both Reagan's legacy and the ranch itself and that it would maintain the facilities as they existed when the Reagan's lived there.
The National Journalism Center
The National Journalism Center which was founded in 1977 by M. Stanton Evans, is currently a project of Young America's Foundation that places college students and recent graduates at media organizations in the Washington, D.C. area. Notable alumni include Ann Coulter, Greg Gutfeld, Tim Carney, and Malcolm Gladwell.
See also
- State Policy Network - a U.S. national network of free-market oriented think tanks of which Young America's is an associate member
- Young Americans for Freedom - Young America's Foundation's chapter affiliate active on campuses nationwide
Further reading
- Tower, Wells. 2006. "The Kids are Far Right." Harper's Magazine 313, no. 1878: 41-53. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed November 24, 2008).
- Jacobson, J. (2006, January 6). "Conservative Group Cites Colleges of Like Mind". Chronicle of Higher Education, 52(18), A48-A48. Retrieved November 24, 2008, from Academic Search Premier database.
References
External links
- Official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments