American Friends Service Committee
Quaker-founded organization working for peace, human rights, migration justice, and fairer economies.
Last updated August 26, 2026
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Overview
The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is a Quaker-founded nonprofit organization devoted to peacebuilding, social justice, humanitarian service, and the protection of human rights. It was established in 1917 by members of the Religious Society of Friends in response to the United States’ entry into the First World War. Its initial purpose was to give conscientious objectors and other members of historic peace churches a constructive alternative to military service while assisting civilians affected by the conflict. During and after the First World War, AFSC organized relief and reconstruction work in France and later in Russia, Poland, Serbia, Germany, and Austria. Its activities included food distribution, medical assistance, refugee support, agricultural reconstruction, housing repair, and child welfare. The organization eventually received a federal role in relief for Germany after the war. These early programs established a characteristic AFSC model: combining practical service with advocacy for nonviolence and the dignity of people affected by war, displacement, poverty, and discrimination. In the 1920s, AFSC expanded its focus inside the United States. It worked on racial relations, immigration policy, labor conditions, unemployment, and economic opportunity. During the 1930s and the Second World War, it assisted refugees fleeing Nazi persecution, supported children affected by the Spanish Civil War, operated Civilian Public Service camps for conscientious objectors, and helped Japanese Americans relocate from detention and internment settings to communities and educational institutions away from the West Coast. After 1945, its relief and reconstruction work extended to Europe, Japan, India, China, and other regions. AFSC shared the 1947 Nobel Peace Prize with the British Friends Service Council, now known as Quaker Peace and Social Witness. The award recognized the international relief work of Quakers. Around the same period, AFSC became one of the first nongovernmental organizations to receive consultative status with the United Nations and supported the development of the Quaker United Nations Office. The committee has also played a role in major debates about war and peace. It supported civilians on different sides of conflicts including Korea, Hungary, Algeria, Nigeria-Biafra, and Vietnam. During the Vietnam War, it provided medical and humanitarian assistance, supported draft counseling, and participated in educational efforts concerning U.S. policy toward China and Southeast Asia. Its 1955 publication Speak Truth to Power became an influential Quaker statement on nonviolent alternatives to Cold War militarism. Since the 1970s, AFSC has been active in the peace movement, including opposition to nuclear weapons, while also working on civil rights, Indigenous rights, immigrant rights, restorative justice, gender equality, and the rights of sexual minorities. AFSC now operates through programs in the United States and a number of other countries. Its work is organized around interconnected priorities commonly described as just and sustainable peace, just economies, and just responses to forced displacement and migration. Programs may include legal services, humanitarian aid, human-rights monitoring, migrant organizing, restorative justice, economic-justice advocacy, climate-justice work, and peace education. The committee employs more than 350 staff across its U.S. and international programs and provides administrative support to the Quaker United Nations Office in New York. It remains legally connected to the Religious Society of Friends through a corporate structure whose membership includes representatives appointed by Quaker yearly meetings and at-large members.
History
AFSC emerged in Philadelphia in April 1917, shortly after the United States entered the First World War. Quakers and members of other peace churches faced an uncertain draft environment: although conscientious objectors could receive legal exemptions, local draft boards and military authorities applied the rules inconsistently. AFSC sought to identify conscientious objectors, visit them in military camps, provide moral and spiritual support, and arrange alternative forms of service. It also developed relief projects that allowed young Quakers and other volunteers to work directly with civilians in war-affected areas. During the war, AFSC collected food, clothing, and other supplies for France and sent volunteers to provide medical care, refugee assistance, agricultural support, housing repair, and reconstruction. After the 1918 Armistice, the committee expanded into Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, assisting orphans and people affected by famine and disease. It operated child-feeding kitchens in Germany and Austria and later participated in U.S.-sponsored German relief. These activities moved AFSC beyond a narrow conscientious-objector service into a broad international relief organization. The committee turned increasingly toward domestic social issues in the 1920s. It created an interracial program, advocated more inclusive immigration policies, assisted striking mine workers, and helped unemployed people acquire practical skills. During the Great Depression and the Second World War, AFSC supported refugees fleeing Nazi Germany, including people who were not being served by other relief agencies. It aided children affected by the Spanish Civil War and operated Civilian Public Service camps for conscientious objectors. AFSC also helped Japanese American students transfer to schools outside the West Coast and supported Japanese American resettlement during and after wartime incarceration. After the Second World War, AFSC undertook relief and reconstruction projects in Europe, Japan, India, China, and other regions. In 1947, it helped with refugee resettlement during the partition of India and shared the Nobel Peace Prize with the British Friends Service Council. The award recognized the wider peace and relief work of Quakers. AFSC also gained consultative status with the United Nations and supported the Quaker United Nations Office, creating an institutional channel for Quaker participation in international policy discussions. From late 1948 to 1950, AFSC administered an emergency assistance program for displaced Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Its work included registering refugees, establishing food rations, distributing infant milk, operating clinics, controlling malaria, improving water access, and organizing schools. Because a political solution and resources for a long-term program were unavailable, AFSC transferred the operation to the newly established United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. During the Cold War, AFSC continued assisting civilians affected by conflicts and political upheaval, including the Korean War, the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, the Algerian War, and the Nigerian-Biafran War. In 1955, it published Speak Truth to Power, a Quaker argument for nonviolent alternatives to militarized Cold War policy. During the Vietnam War, it provided medical supplies, artificial limbs, and programs for children in both North and South Vietnam, supported draft counseling, and participated in public education concerning U.S. policy in Asia. AFSC became more professionally staffed during the Cold War, while retaining formal and historical ties to the Religious Society of Friends. Its programmatic scope broadened further during the civil-rights era and afterward to include African American, Indigenous, Mexican American, Asian American, immigrant, women’s, LGBTQ+, and antiwar concerns. Since the 1970s, it has also worked against nuclear weapons and other forms of militarism. The organization has faced internal debate about its relationship to Quaker identity. Some Friends have argued that AFSC became too similar to a secular political advocacy group and reduced its emphasis on traditional Quaker service and pacifism. Other critics, including some supporters of Israeli government policy, have accused the committee of anti-Israel or anti-Jewish bias in its Middle East advocacy. AFSC has continued to describe its work through nonviolence, human dignity, and opposition to oppression rather than through support for any single government. In its current strategy, AFSC groups its work into just and sustainable peace, just economies, and just responses to forced displacement and migration. The organization runs programs across the United States and in numerous countries, combining direct service with organizing, legal support, public education, human-rights monitoring, and policy advocacy.
- 2020
Current strategic framework begins
[1]AFSC adopts a 2020–2030 strategic plan centered on peace, economic justice, and responses to forced displacement and migration.
- 2004
Eyes Wide Open exhibition launches
[1]AFSC begins a traveling exhibition about the human cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
- 1955
Speak Truth to Power is published
[1]AFSC publishes a major Quaker statement arguing for nonviolent alternatives to Cold War militarism.
- 1948
Gaza relief operation begins
[1]AFSC undertakes emergency relief for displaced Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
- 1947
Nobel Peace Prize and United Nations recognition
[1]AFSC shares the Nobel Peace Prize with the British Friends Service Council and receives consultative status at the United Nations.
- 1937
Penn-Craft community project begins
[1]AFSC begins developing Penn-Craft in Pennsylvania as a community for unemployed coal miners; the project continues through 1943.
- 1918
Postwar international relief expands
[1]Following the Armistice, AFSC extends relief work into Russia, Poland, Serbia, Germany, and Austria.
- 1917
AFSC is established
[1]American Quakers establish the committee to support conscientious objectors and provide relief to civilians during the First World War.
Products and positioning
A Quaker-rooted, nonviolent service and advocacy organization that combines humanitarian assistance, community organizing, public education, and policy work.
Humanitarian services · 1917
Humanitarian relief and reconstruction
AFSC has historically provided food, clothing, medical care, housing repair, agricultural assistance, education, and refugee support in war zones and disaster-affected communities. Its relief model is generally paired with peacebuilding, rights protection, and efforts to strengthen local capacity rather than being limited to short-term material distribution.
Legal and social services
Refugee and migrant services
Current programs support refugees and migrants through legal services, humanitarian assistance, rights monitoring, training, community organizing, and policy advocacy. AFSC presents forced displacement as both a humanitarian concern and a matter of human rights, seeking to amplify migrant-led organizing while challenging punitive immigration systems.
Peace and justice programs
Peacebuilding and restorative justice
AFSC works to reduce reliance on militarism, violence, criminalization, and incarceration. Its activities include peace education, conflict transformation, restorative justice, civic-space protection, and advocacy concerning weapons and military policy.
Public education exhibition · 2004
Eyes Wide Open
Eyes Wide Open was a public exhibition on the human consequences of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Military boots represented U.S. military deaths, while shoes represented Iraqi and Afghan civilian deaths. The exhibition traveled widely in the United States and used visual testimony to support antiwar education and public discussion.
International advocacy · 1947
Quaker United Nations Office support
AFSC provides administrative support to the Quaker United Nations Office in New York. The office represents Quaker perspectives in United Nations discussions, while a separate Geneva office is supported by European Quakers and overseen through the Friends World Committee for Consultation.
Marketing campaigns
- 20202020–2030 strategic plan
United States · International programs
AFSC organized its long-term work around just and sustainable peace, just economies, and just responses to forced displacement and migration.
Outcome. The framework continues to guide programs involving peace, immigrant rights, restorative justice, economic justice, and climate justice.
- 2004Eyes Wide Open
United States
A traveling installation used military boots and civilian shoes to convey the human cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. It appeared across 48 states and the District of Columbia and generated national media attention.
Outcome. The exhibition became one of AFSC’s most visible public-education projects on the consequences of war.
Brand decisions
1966
Expand Vietnam humanitarian assistanceStrategyBackground
The Vietnam War created extensive civilian medical and humanitarian needs, while U.S. export controls restricted some forms of direct assistance to North Vietnam.
Action taken
AFSC developed programs for children and supplied medical materials and artificial limbs to civilians in both North and South Vietnam; some goods were routed through Canada after U.S. approval was denied.
Aftermath
The committee also continued draft counseling and public education concerning the war.
1950
Transfer Gaza relief administration to UNRWAStrategyBackground
AFSC’s emergency program for displaced Palestinians faced limited resources and no political progress toward repatriation or a durable settlement.
Action taken
The committee transferred its entire Gaza relief operation to the newly created United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
Aftermath
UNRWA assumed responsibility for the continuing refugee-relief effort.
Recent events
- 2022
AFSC reports 2022 revenue and expenses[1]
Other
For fiscal year 2022, the organization reported revenue of $40.9 million, expenses of $37.8 million, and net assets of $166 million.
- 2004
AFSC launches Eyes Wide Open[1]
Campaign
The traveling exhibition displayed military boots representing U.S. service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and shoes representing civilians killed in those wars. It toured 48 states and the District of Columbia.
- 1948
AFSC begins humanitarian program for displaced Palestinians in Gaza[1]
Other
At the request of the United Nations secretary-general, AFSC administered emergency relief in the Gaza Strip, including food distribution, health services, water provision, malaria control, and schools, before transferring the program to UNRWA in 1950.
- 1947
American Friends Service Committee shares the Nobel Peace Prize[1]
Other
AFSC and the British Friends Service Council received the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of Quaker relief and peace work carried out internationally.
- 1947
AFSC receives consultative status at the United Nations[1]
Other
The committee became one of the early nongovernmental organizations granted consultative status with the United Nations, helping establish a formal Quaker presence in international diplomacy.
Sources2 sources
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