For information about any types of giving listed below, please contact Rebecca Rorke at rrorke@yfu.org
The Annual Fund provides annual, unrestricted operating support that is vital to both the short-term and long-term financial health of YFU. A gift to the YFU Annual Fund provides funding for student orientations, volunteer training, program recruitment, and expanding the YFU volunteer community. These activities are crucial to providing a quality exchange experience. The Annual Fund helps YFU meet rising expenses while keeping program fees affordable for students and parents.
Corporate matching gifts are a great way for YFU alumni and friends to maximize personal contributions and increase the impact of their donations. Many employers have matching gift programs as a way of enhancing contributions to charitable programs important to their employees. Employers may match, double, or triple the benefit of your gift. Some employers even match charitable contributions made by a spouse! Please contact your employer’s human resources department to learn about matching gift opportunities.
At the core of YFU is the belief that a cultural exchange experience is a catalyst for advancing intercultural understanding, mutual respect, and social responsibility and an invaluable tool for creating a healthy, peaceful global community. It is vital that ANY student who has the desire to embark upon an exchange experience be able to do so, regardless of their financial circumstances.
YFU awards thousands of dollars in need-based scholarships each year that create opportunities for more deserving students in the U.S. to study abroad. If you believe that financial circumstances should not keep a bright young person from experiencing another culture, please give generously to this effort.
Named scholarship opportunities are also available (minimum donation of $5,000 required) if you’d like to honor a loved one or your own experience while on exchange.
Since 1975, YFU has partnered with corporations and foundations to provide scholarship opportunities to deserving youth. Scholarship funding is a tangible and dynamic way to build and strengthen employee and community relations while preparing a new generation for the global workplace. View our current Corporate & Foundation Scholarship partners.
YFU is proud of the strategic partnerships formed with global companies and foundations that are actively empowering tomorrow’s global leadership. YFU will design a program to meet the specific needs of your company or foundation. Whether providing funding for students from a particular community or high school or for dependents of employees, investing in tomorrow’s leaders is an ideal way to provide support for today’s youth while growing an educated, globally-minded workforce for tomorrow.
YFU USA is now able to accept donations of stock. Please use the following to complete your transaction:
Account Name: Youth For Understanding USA, Inc.
DTC # 0443
Receiving Account: #C-53376676
Receiving Firm Name: Citi Personal Wealth Management
For further Credit Account (if applicable): Not applicable.
Have a specific project in mind? Want to target your giving to orientations? Study abroad support? Sustaining the host family experience? To a specific region? We can help you make sure your charitable contribution does exactly what you want it to do. A minimum donation may be required.
We often hear people reflecting back on their YFU experience, whether as a student, host family, or volunteer, telling us it is among the most transformative experiences of their lives. By leaving a gift to YFU in your will or trust or by beneficiary designation, you can pass on your love of cultural understanding, mutual respect, and social responsibility through educational exchanges for future generations to experience. These gifts cost you nothing now and allow you to change your beneficiaries at any time. Legacy gifts help ensure YFU has a long and vibrant future and are a way for you to make a lasting difference. Once you complete your estate plans, please contact us if you haven’t already so we may thank you for your generosity by including you in The Andresen Society. This special recognition is for those supporting YFU with a planned gift named in honor of YFU founder Dr. Rachel Andresen.
Dr. Andresen was an extraordinarily charismatic leader of volunteers, first in Michigan, where she was born and raised, then throughout the world. Her vision to build international understanding and world peace was accomplished with the creation of YFU.
Call YFU today to discuss how you can leave a legacy of love and compassion with a gift by bequest or using retirement assets – IRA, 401(k) plans, etc. – life insurance or real estate.
In Rachel’s own words:
Youth For Understanding is a dream come true…. To be part of it brings out the best in all of us. Each of us who has shared the magic of its being has contributed [to] something bigger than we are. We have learned to love and be loved, to trust and be trusted, to open our homes and our hearts to all people, everywhere.
Andresen Society Member Spotlight:
Dr. Dianne Bradley and Dr. Maurice Zeeman
In addition to serving as a founding member of The Andresen Society, Dianne also gave back as a Trustee of YFU USA.
YFU has added so much to our lives, and also allowed us to give back to the world in a most positive way. Not having had children of our own, YFU is the way that we have been able to build our diverse, successful and rewarding family. We have hosted 13 permanent and numerous temporary kids from all over the world. We have visited them at their homes, met their parents and have taken part in their weddings. Maurice even walked one of our daughters down the aisle.
We are ‘Mom and Dad’ and their family during vacations and breaks for those who have gone to college here and during school breaks for those living in their home countries. Half of our YFU kids even came back to celebrate our 25th anniversary with us, and they had great fun meeting and getting to know each other.
One of our host daughters came back to the US to go to school, got a Ph.D., got married, got her citizenship, and now lives near us and has given us the precious gift of nearby grandchildren. She is giving back to this country by doing research on HIV and teaching at her alma mater. We have played a significant role in each other’s ‘lives after exchange.’
YFU is an organization that has provided much value to our lives. While hosting, we were always impressed with the amount of support we received and the activities provided for the students and host families. It is an organization of great integrity. YFU has earned our support now and in the future.
