Raising Expectations

For more than 50 years, AARP has been serving its members and society by creating positive social change.

AARP’s mission is to enhance the quality of life for all as we age, leading positive social change, and delivering value to members through information, advocacy, and service.

We believe strongly in the principles of collective purpose, collective voice, and collective purchasing power. These principles guide our efforts.

AARP works tirelessly to fulfill the vision: a society in which everyone lives their life with dignity and purpose, and in which AARP helps people fulfill their goals and dreams.

The Commonwealth Fund, among the first private foundations started by a woman philanthropist—Anna M. Harkness—was established in 1918 with the broad charge to enhance the common good.

The mission of The Commonwealth Fund is to promote a high performing health care system that achieves better access, improved quality, and greater efficiency, particularly for society's most vulnerable, including low-income people, the uninsured, minority Americans, young children, and elderly adults.

The Fund carries out this mandate by supporting independent research on health care issues and making grants to improve health care practice and policy. An international program in health policy is designed to stimulate innovative policies and practices in the United States and other industrialized countries.

The SCAN Foundation’s mission is to advance the development of a sustainable continuum of quality care for seniors.

A sustainable continuum of care improves outcomes, reduces the number and duration of acute care episodes, supports patient involvement in decision making, encourages independence, and reduces overall costs.

The SCAN Foundation will achieve this mission by encouraging public policy reform to integrate the financing of acute and long-term care, raise awareness about the need for long-term care reform and work with others to promote the development of coordinated, comprehensive and patient-centric care.