Over Three Decades of Accomplishment & Service

From Bilateral Initiative to Multilateral Organization

The American Austrian Foundation was founded in 1984 by a group of Americans and Austrians keen on fostering closer ties between the two countries. The board included prominent individuals such as David Rockefeller, Cyrus Vance, Billy Wilder, John Leslie, and Ambassador Milton Wolf.

Initially a bilateral initiative, the American Austrian Foundation has grown into a multilateral, international organization, partnering with leading institutions in academia – Weill Cornell Medicine, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, Duke University, Case Western Reserve, the Medical University of Vienna, the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna, to name a few; in art and music – the Metropolitan Museum of Art the Kunsthistorisches Museum, the Salzburg Festival, and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

The American Austrian Foundation is a public, non-profit organization incorporated under the laws of Delaware and has 501(c)(3) status with the United States Internal Revenue Service.

To facilitate the operation of programs in Austria, in 1995 the American Austrian Foundation founded the Salzburg Stiftung of the AAF, a private, non-profit foundation with tax exempt status in Austria.