About AFS

AFS Intercultural Programs is an international, voluntary, non-governmental, non-profit organization that provides intercultural learning opportunities to help people develop the knowledge, skills and understanding needed to create a more just and peaceful world.

The World Has Changed but Our Impact Goal Remains More Important Than Ever

For the last few decades, the world has experienced increased interconnectedness, creating new opportunities for people to interact and collaborate globally through movement and digital innovation. At the same time, we are witnessing the rise of global inequities, political polarization and conflicts between cultures.

The AFS ambulance drivers returning from the Second World War understood the need for people to overcome the conflicts between cultures in order to build a just and peaceful world.

Today, we see more need than ever to help people develop the capacities and values needed to achieve a world that is not only more peaceful and just, but also more equitable and sustainable.

Developing Active Global Citizens Becomes Our Central Impact Goal

And, more than ever, we believe that AFS is part of the solution by developing active global citizens of all ages through our

Exchange programs,
Education initiatives,
Volunteerism
Advocacy efforts.

To achieve our mission worldwide, we need to build a larger, more prepared, and more engaged community of interculturally competent active global citizens.

How do we define Active Global Citizens?

AFS defines active global citizens as people whose informed, compassionate, and ethical compass drives them to lead lives and make decisions that contribute to a more just, equitable, peaceful and sustainable world.

Becoming an Active Global Citizen Takes a Lifetime of Practice

Global citizenship education programs and offers are about helping individuals to gain or increase their ability in four areas of development crucial for active global citizenship:

Value and belong to a common and diverse world
Inquire critically about the world beyond immediate environments
Understand and relate to others across differences
Take action toward collective well-being

Through our programs, education initiatives, volunteerism and advocacy efforts, AFS helps create them.

Find out more about our Active Global Citizenship Framework.

How does AFS develop Active Global Citizens?

We advance our impact through four areas of action:

Programs: We offer a diverse portfolio of programs, including international mobility and virtual programs.
Education: We provide a broad range of tools, services, and training to allow schools and other institutions to expand intercultural learning and global citizenship education at scale.
Volunteerism: We engage and motivate volunteers to deliver on our impact goal and broaden our reach into local communities.
Advocacy: We raise awareness of the essential role of intercultural learning in advancing active global citizenship.

How will we achieve our vision of a more peaceful, just, equitable and sustainable future?

From January 2024 to December 2028, the AFS Network is committed to allocating and prioritizing resources to accelerate progress towards achieving our impact goal.

In order for AFS to help create more active global citizens and make progress towards this vision by 2028 we will:

Expand our scholarships & fundraising to ensure that more than half of all AFS participants are scholarship recipients;
Enhance our profile as an educational organization by fostering more profound and formalized relationships with schools and educators;
Create the best volunteer experience by cultivating a volunteer force that is not only larger but also more actively involved and better equipped;
Deliver excellence and impact in our diverse range of programs so that more people (youth, adults, and families) experience the #AFSeffect.

Theory of Change: How Do We Achieve Our Mission?

At the core of all AFS exchange programs, education initiatives, volunteerism and advocacy efforts is our commitment to developing active global citizens. No matter the format, all AFS programs and offers include three elements: Experience, Learn, and Practice.

We call this our “Theory of Change.”

This is how not-for-profit organizations like AFS explain how they do what they do to achieve their mission. In other words, our theory of change is how we create impact.

Besides impacting students participating in our study abroad programs, AFS’s reach extends to others who come into close contact with them, such as AFS volunteers, family members, and the school community.

Over the years, AFS has also extended our expertise by providing other formats of in-person exchanges, virtual exchange programs, and other educational offers.

Watch this video to find out more.

AFS Annual Report

Dare to Reshape the World

The world needs more active global citizens. Together with our supporters, AFS Intercultural Program helps create them. On behalf of our thousands of exchange students, host families, and volunteers, we are proud to share the global AFS Annual Report for 2022, marking 75 years of AFS high school exchanges.

Download the 2022 AFS Annual Report

2022 AFS Audited Financials
2022 AFS 990 Form

Explore our previous Annual Reports:

2021 ANNUAL REPORT | 2020 ANNUAL REPORT | 2019 ANNUAL REPORT | 2018 ANNUAL REPORT | 2017 ANNUAL REPORT | 2016 ANNUAL REPORT | 2015 ANNUAL REPORT | 2014 ANNUAL REPORT

2021 AUDITED FINANCIALS | 2020 AUDITED FINANCIALS | 2019 AUDITED FINANCIALS

2021 AFS 990 FORM | 2020 AFS 990 FORM | 2019 AFS 990 FORM | 2018 AFS 990 FORM

Our Work is Recognized Worldwide

Select recognitions:

2023: AFS Intercultural Programs has received the 2023 PIEoneer of the Year award, in recognition of our Global STEM Accelerators program. AFS was the finalist for this award in 2022 and 2020 for the AFS Global Competence Certificate.
2022: Winner of Diversity Abroad’s 2022 Excellence in Diversity & Inclusion in International Education (EDIIE) Award, in the category of Outreach, Marketing, and Recruitment, for our work on the AFS Global STEM Accelerators program, and increasing access to refugee and displaced persons.
2021: Awarded Platinum Transparency rating by GuideStar, a premier destination for non-profit research and data for donors. Charity Navigator gives AFS 100/100 rating, encouraging donors to give with confidence.
2021: UNESCO APCEIU selected AFS Effect+ for the Classroom program as Education for International Understanding/Global Citizenship Education Best Practice. Our program was selected among 70 submissions from 27 countries for its genuine commitment to global citizenship education and ability to inspire others to create similar education programs.
2016: Awarded Franco-American Award of Blérancourt for humanitarian efforts during World Wars I & II and intercultural study abroad programs.
2016: C. Herbert Finch Online Publication Award for The Volunteers: Americans Join World War I, 1914-1919 Curriculum which helps students analyze the history of World War I through the lens of this volunteer service.
1963 and 1964: Stephen Galatti, Director General of AFS from 1936 to 1964 was nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Affiliations:

2023: Forum on Education Abroad
2020: Member of Diversity Abroad
2015: Consultative Status with UNESCO
1974: Consultative Status with UN Economic Social Council

Meet Our Select Partners & Sponsors

History

AFS Intercultural Programs began as the American Ambulance Field Service, a volunteer ambulance corps created in April 1915 by A. Piatt Andrew. Learn about how AFS was transformed from a wartime humanitarian aid organization into a groundbreaking international secondary school exchange, volunteer, and intercultural learning organization in our timeline!

View AFS Timeline

AFS is proud to partner with a large network of Global and Local Affiliates around the world.

Find out more

The world needs more Active Global Citizens. AFS helps to create them.

AFS Network Strategy 2024-2028