About Young America’s Foundation

Young America’s Foundation is committed to ensuring 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.

As the principal outreach organization of the Conservative Movement, the Foundation introduces thousands of American youth to these principles by providing essential conferences, seminars, educational materials, internships, and speakers to young people across the country.

Young America’s Foundation has a deep relationship with President Reagan. The foundation stepped forward to save President Reagan’s Western White House, Rancho del Cielo, in the spring of 1998 to preserve it as a living monument to Ronald Reagan to pass on his ideas to future generations. President Reagan committed himself to reach young people with his ideas—a goal that is also central to the Foundation’s mission.

The Foundation has several important centers and departments, including Rancho Del Cielo, The Reagan Ranch Center, Reagan’s Boyhood Home, the National Journalism Center, Young Americans for Freedom, and Center for Entrepreneurship & Free Enterprise, etc.

In the fiscal year 2019, Young America’s Foundation spent $21,746,736 on educational programs. That accounted for 83% of YAF’s total operating expenses. It is through YAF programs – National conferences and seminars for high school and college students, the largest conservative campus lecture program in the country, Young Americans for Freedom chapters, National Journalism Center internships, and the Reagan Ranch project – that thousands of young people are inspired to become involved in the Conservative Movement.

About “Educating and Training Tomorrow’s Leader” Project

The full name of the project is “Educating and Training Tomorrow’s Leaders: Reaching the Next Generation with Pro-Freedom Ideas”.

YAF brings students at school together to advocate for individual freedom, free enterprise, a strong national defense, and traditional American values by getting them involved with Young Americans for Freedom to start a chapter. Currently, YAF has 446 chapters, including 213 colleges and 228 high schools. The chapters participate in a wide range of campus initiatives, such as the 9/11: Never Forget Project, Freedom Week, and the GPA Redistribution Contest, among others; and by hosting prominent conservative speakers. YAF provides various support to chapter leaders.

In 2021, the new president of Young America’s Foundation, Governor Scott Walker launched The Long Game, a campaign to impact America’s youth. The ambitious goal includes many future plans related to expanding YAF programing to younger generations. The “Educating and Training Tomorrow’s Leader” Project is designed align with The Long Game.

The Project includes 6 modules targeting at students of middle school, college, and high school.

Dao Feng and Angela Foundation (formerly known as Daofeng & Angela Foundation) is willing to support YAF because DAF sees the widespread problem of “political correctness” in the education system of American colleges and high schools. In the United States of free speech, the voice of conservatism cannot be expressed freely on campus. We believe that this is an educational emergency on the modern universal public value that needs to be improved urgently. Moreover, Bedrock Foundation will follow the principle of joint funding and participate in the investment in this project as a strategic partner of DaoFeng and Angela Foundation.

In addition to supporting YAF’s existing mature activities, Dao Feng and Angela Foundation pays particular attention to innovative initiatives, such as Geotargeting Research. The research, based on geo-targeted digital marketing techniques and YAF’s activities at colleges across the country, will summarize findings into a report. This digital geotargeting would be expanded to areas where a lot of middle school located, thereby extending YAF’s work to new audiences at the middle school level, and meanwhile in addition to recruiting more high school and college students.

Image Courtesy of Young America’s Foundation (below).

On December 16, 2021, the Dao Feng and Angela Foundation, Bedrock Foundation and Young America’s Foundation held a signing ceremony at YAF’s headquarters in Virginia (See images below from volunteer photographer Mrs. Mengping Chen). Dao Feng and Angela Foundation agrees to provide a grant in the total amount of US$ 471,450 to Young America’s Foundation to support the “Educating and Training Tomorrow’s Leader” Project.

The Impact

I. For the Middle School Students – Inaugural Middle School Program

YAF launched the first-ever middle school program in 2022 to combat this indoctrination, and to introduce pre-teens to the Conservative Movement.

As a new and important program, held in April of 2022 and sponsored by the Daofeng and Angela Foundation, students took part in two sessions at the Reagan Ranch Center, featuring speakers Dr. Jake Jacobs, who discussed American exceptionalism, and Peggy Grande, who shared personal stories from her time working with President Reagan and sharing his key characteristics with the young audience.

After the sessions, students went up to the Reagan Ranch for lunch and a tour of President Reagan’s beloved adobe home. While touring the Ranch and the surrounding structures, students were surprised to see the modest size of the home, reflecting the President’s humility. They also enjoyed seeing the President’s tack barn, which illustrates so well President Reagan’s commitment to hard work. Most importantly, the students left the Ranch with a greater understanding of President Reagan’s love for freedom and American exceptionalism.

By reaching younger students, YAF can help to build a new generation of students who can be a part of YAF for more than four years. Younger student involvement also works to involve more families and parents in our cause, increasing public awareness of YAF and also encouraging other siblings, peers, and home school association groups to participate in YAF programming. Students and parents also received helpful materials at this program to continue to discuss conservative ideas when they return home and with their friends.

For more information, pls visit: https://supporters.yaf.org/middleschools-impact/

II. For the High School Students – Reagan Ranch High School Conferences 

With the great support of the DaoFeng and Angela Foundation, Young America’s Foundation successfully held three impactful high school conferences at the Reagan Ranch in Santa Barbara, California. The conferences took place in March, June, and October, and each program had hundreds of students attend—students eager to hear conservative ideas.

In 2022, YAF’s March Reagan Ranch High Conference had 210 participants attended this important conference, including students from 19 states and 58 high schools. The June program reached hundreds of students representing 24 states and 142 high schools. The October program also sold out with more than 400 participants from 14 states, 65 high schools, and numerous home school families and associations.

In March, students had the opportunity to hear from Katie Pavlich, Dr. Burt Folsom, Governor Scott Walker, Jerome Hudson, Anna Strasburg, Todd Starnes, and Mark Skousen, among others. These speakers were viewed additionally online, including more than 5,000 on Todd Starnes’ popular discussion entitled “Our founding fathers knew their pronouns.”

At the June conference, students heard from top conservative leaders including Michael Knowles, Liz Wheeler, Rep. Byron Donalds, Lt. Col. Allen West, Michael Reagan, Brian Brenberg, Kevin Sorbo, Peter Schweizer, and even Virginia’s Attorney General Jason Miyares. Because of the DaoFeng and Angela Foundation’s generous gift, these speakers were viewed by thousands of other young people online. Kevin Sorbo garnered an additional 17,988 views to date, and Michael Knowles of the Daily Wire reached more than 55,000 additional views on YouTube. These lectures will be posted on YAF’s YouTube channel in perpetuity, so new young people will continue to have access to these important lectures.

In October, important speakers such as Michael Reagan, Scott Huesing, Kali Fonanilla, Vince Ellison, and others took the stage to discuss important topics including communism vs. capitalism, the infection of wokeness, reasons to be proud of America, and environmentalism. These discussions led to impactful question-and-answer sessions and reached a wider audience through posting on YouTube.

More than 5,000 viewers watched the speech “The American Dream: Myth or Masterpiece” from Kali Fontanilla, and more than 10,000 others chose to watch the speech entitled “Abolish the administrative state” by Liz Wheeler. These lectures continue to educate and inspire young people to reconsider the narrative they’ve been taught, and how to think critically about key public policy issues.

The Reagan Ranch High School Conferences create an environment for students to learn new ideas, debate with top conservative leaders and peers, learn the key characteristics of President Reagan, and equip students to continue their involvement in the Movement in their communities and schools. Students were able to leave the conference with a solid education in conservative values and also receive books and materials that they can take back to their schools to share with their peers or to further their own education.

For more information, pls visit: https://supporters.yaf.org/reaganranch-impact/

III. For the College Students – Campus Lectures Video Streaming

Overall, in 2022, YAF held 69 campus events. During these events, more than 24,000 people attended in-person, and additionally, 62 million people viewed these campus events online under the DaoFeng and Angela Foundation and its co-funding partner Bedrock Foundation’s support to promote the streaming of these key campus events so that they can be published online and reach young minds all over the country, and the globe.

The lecture streaming for the following events was supported by DaoFeng and Angela Foundation and Bedrock Foundation:

1. Liz Wheeler at Wisconsin Lutheran College – 10,239 views to date
2. Zuby ats A&M University – 10,439 views to date
3. Matt Walsh at the University of Wisconsin-Superior — 220,042 views to date
4. Liz Wheeler at DeSales University — 10,884 views to date
5. Matt Walsh at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign — 211,252 views to date
6. Matt Walsh at the University of Central Florida — 180,431 views to date
7. Matt Walsh at The Catholic University of America — 274,857 views to date

See more info: https://supporters.yaf.org/campuslectures-impact/

YAF’s YouTube channel: YouTube.com/YAFTV

IV. For the College Students – Activism Training Seminar

In January 2023, Young America’s Foundation welcomed 90 students to their national headquarters to participate in an impactful Activism Training Seminar, sponsored by the DaoFeng and Angela Foundation.

More than 22 states and the District of Columbia were represented at this program, including college students totaling 58 males and 32 females. Forty of the students are already active in their Young Americans for Freedom chapters on campus, and 36 unique campuses were represented at the program. Since many student leaders graduated during the pandemic, this program also hosted 42 first-time YAF conference attendees.

Throughout the weekend, the young leaders and YAF team members had the chance to share how they became involved with YAF. Seminar speakers included YAF staff who work in a variety of roles, including public relations, development, campus advancement, legal, and other key positions.

The opening lecture taught students how to be effective leaders within their chapters—even if they do not have a formal leadership role. Through an Activism 101 lecture, staff focused on tabling to attract new members, securing campus funding, and knowing their target audience.

The YAF team encouraged students to bring leading conservative voices to their schools, discussing steps, tips, and roadblocks students need to be prepared for when hosting a speaker on campus.

YAF’s legal team taught students to fight for their First Amendment rights on campus, sharing examples of YAF’s free speech success stories and highlighting the Foundation’s work to protect students’ constitutional rights.

Students were also introduced to the importance of branding and marketing their chapters, how to meaningfully interact with each student they meet, and how to use the media to bolster chapter awareness. A highlight of the weekend, YAF President Governor Scott Walker inspired the group by stressing the need for the young activists to have courage and optimism.

For more information, pls visit: https://supporters.yaf.org/impact-of-your-support-activism-training/

We will have other sub-projects of this project extended to be ongoing in 2023 and expect more impact YAF created for the young generation.