FROM THE PRESIDENT AND CEO
FEBRUARY 2026
As AFN looks ahead to its biennial conference this October 6–8, we were intentional in choosing Philadelphia as the venue. The timing and the place both matter.
We understood that the nation is marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, whose words provide the foundational philosophy and aspirations for our nation:
1. We have inherent natural rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;
2. It is a self-evident truth that all men are created equal;
3. Any government exists with the consent of the governed;
4. Government’s purpose is to protect these rights; and
5. When government fails, people can alter or abolish it to create a new one that ensures their safety, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.
AFN’s vision is an aspirational, universal goal where society, government, policies, and systems ensure “economic opportunity and prosperity for all.” Like the vision articulated by our nation’s forefathers, this aspirational goal is merely the start. Hence, our mission is to engage philanthropy in its many forms to advance equitable wealth building and economic upward mobility through grants, investments, influence, and advocacy. AFN’s values are equally clear: innovation is essential for progress, and the status quo is not enough to achieve economic justice and equity.
This work is grounded in the acute awareness of all the inequities created by policies and practices that advantaged some Americans and disadvantaged others by class, race, ethnicity, immigration status, gender, and other attributions unrelated to their potential, essential value, or economic contribution.
The path forward today is not to be quieter and less clear about past exclusion. We cannot move forward by turning away from realizing the Declaration’s unrealized promise of equal opportunity and prosperity. The path of progress to achieve this goal requires confronting, nullifying, and pursuing a corrected course from the real forces driving division and exclusion: the cultivation of fear, the weaponization of racism and sexism, the narrowing of opportunity to thrive, and the protection of privilege. In many ways, our current economic system normalizes the idea that progress, social needs, and economic injustice should depend on the generosity of the wealthy rather than strategic and collective systemic innovation coupled with democratic decision-making.
Employment segregation, housing insecurity, homeownership barriers, healthcare inequity, educational inequality, bad debt collection abuses, climate exclusion, and income security all stem from the same structural arrangements— systems that concentrate wealth while creating artificial scarcity for too many who are working hard to be included in prosperity and achieve upward mobility. Addressing these problems requires challenging fundamental systemic policies, practices, and risk management frameworks that we take for granted or accept because they have been in place for decades.
Philanthropy must drive innovation that rethinks policies built with economic assumptions that are fifty to nearly one hundred years old. A lot has changed. The goal today is to foster reality-based economic innovations, to reject a scarcity framework, and to build responsive governmental policy with democratic institutions organizing social goods as collective rights. Social Security for retirement got this collective responsibility right. We now need the ideas, testing, advocacy, and organizing for a meaningful basic income for the 21st century, universal healthcare, post-secondary education without debt, market affordable housing, inclusive actions to expand resilient and affordable energy, and community wealth-building approaches funded through progressive taxation.
To make the promise of America available to everyone in the 21st century, the coming decade must be one in which we alter our assumptions, radically expand our solutions, and broaden who is included in prosperity. This is achievable – and it will require sustained leadership, collaboration, and action. AFN’s 2026 conference will bring our network to advance this work, with early-bird registration opening March 1 for AFN members and March 16 for non-members.
Make plans now to join us!
