Angel Flight West Foundation

Angel Flight West Foundation's mission is to provide long term financial support enabling Angel Flight West to arrange free air transportation for those in need.

The Beginning

Angel Flight West began more than 25 years ago with a few pilots and a commitment.

Today, Angel Flight West's few pilots have become many.  And its commitment to seeing that people with medical and other compelling human needs reach their destination has been kept more than 40,000 times. 

From the day it began, Angel Flight West was something more than just transportation.  For all the pilots who have participated, Angel Flight West has been about giving of themselves, of offering compassion and caring to people who are often confronting serious and sometimes life-threatening challenges. 

Flight-by-flight, Angel Flight West has expanded to serve the thirteen western states, increasing the scope of the mission by serving more people in need.   Person-by-person, the commitment was kept and strengthened.  Each request over two and a half decades has been a way of asking, "Is the commitment still good?" The answer has always been, "Yes."

Because of what Angel Flight West pilots have done, lives have been bettered and in many cases saved.  Discomfort has been spared. Hope has been restored.

Any organization would be proud of such a record.  We are.  Many organizations would be content to rest on their laurels.  We are not.

Angel Flight West has continually sought to spread its wings wider.  We have expanded geographically from serving only California to having local support and operation in the 13 western states.  We have identified burn camps, children's cancer camps, and other organizations that welcome our assistance.  We have increased the scope of our mission.  We have increased the number of people and organizations we serve.

We have kept our commitment.

Now we are spreading our wings once again. 

The Challenge

The challenge we face today is tomorrow.

Angel Flight West has a commitment to keep, as we have for over two and a half decades.  Our success means that we are a crucial resource for healthcare facilities and nonprofit groups throughout the West.  With the current economic state and changing health care, our services will be needed a lot more in future.

Keeping the commitment means having in place all the components needed to make each flight happen.  It takes a full time staff to receive, manage, and administer the flood of inquiries and requests, as well as to coordinate the volunteers whose efforts enable us to recruit and orient new pilot members, and to contact healthcare organizations.  It takes financial resources to make the phone calls, send the faxes, print the forms, create and maintain the website, stay in contact with myriad organizations, coordinate operations among widely distributed Wings, recruit pilots, and to do the dozens of other tasks that make every flight possible. 

For over two and a half decades, Angel Flight West's financial support has consisted of generous gifts from many of our members, our annual golf tournament, and support from a wide array of foundations.  Without the ongoing support of these foundations, Angel Flight could never have grown as it has, and the needs of thousands of people would have gone unmet.

Foundation funding has always been highly competitive and in today's economic environment it is increasingly difficult to raise funds.  As competition for funds grows ever more intense, the only way to assure that the Angel Flight West commitment can be kept for another two and a half decades is to spread our wings and establish some degree of financial independence.

The Foundation

The Angel Flight West Foundation was formed to meet the challenge.  Angel Flight West Foundation's mission is to provide long term financial support enabling Angel Flight West to arrange free air transportation for those in need.  With an endowment to support the operations of Angel Flight West, the administration and staff can concentrate their efforts on the heart of our mission, flying those in need. 

The endowment will be invested and left untouched in perpetuity.  The income derived from that investment will nurture new programs and help sustain existing ones.  It will enable Angel Flight West to know there is a base of resources at the start of each year, permitting us to make commitments that would otherwise be delayed or deferred due to the uncertainties of outside support. 

The endowment represents another facet of our commitment to helping others.  It is the method and means by which we will gain the financial strength to keep and expand our existing commitments, as well as to pursue new initiatives that fulfill our promise to the people we serve. 

The Opportunity

Angel Flight West formed more than 25 years ago, the Challenge is the future and the Foundation is the answer to the Challenge.  We invite you to help us Spread Our Wings by making a gift to the Angel Flight West Foundation. 

You will join other stewards of a 25 year tradition.  All that has been done before is in trust for all those who will go forward from here.  This is a rare and very wonderful opportunity to have a direct role in creating something of real value - value measured not just in monetary terms, but in human terms.  Not in terms of dollars gained, but lives made better. 

The gift you give today will be invested, to return over and over again as lives saved, health restored, and the human spirit strengthened.

Two and a half decades ago, a few people got together and created something very special.  You are invited to be part of a support group that will also create something very special - a legacy of giving. 

Please refer to our Contribution page to make an immediate gift or our Planned Giving page to explore legacy planning options. 

Thank you in advance for supporting the Spreading Our Wings campaign.