What was the Alcoholic Foundation?
In short:
- The Alcoholic Foundation was A.A.'s first board of trustees, set up in New York in 1938 as a small tax-free trust. It had both alcoholic and nonalcoholic trustees, with the nonalcoholics in the majority by one, and an alcoholic trustee who got drunk had to resign at once.
- It was formed to receive money from wealthy donors for hospitals, missionaries and a book. That money never came, and for its first years the treasury was nearly empty. In time it became the custodian of A.A.'s funds, its central office, its book and its Traditions.
- The name was chosen to sound important, and its charter allowed it to do almost anything about alcohol except lobby for Prohibition. Later the members felt "Foundation" suggested charity, paternalism and big money.
- After the General Service Conference began in 1951, the Foundation became accountable to it, and in 1954 it was renamed the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous.
The earliest texts
The 1939 Big Book doesn't name the Foundation. In 1946 the Traditions' Long Form described its trustees' role: "The trustees of The Alcoholic Foundation are, in effect, our A.A. General Service Committee." (P-17, 1946). They were "the custodians of our A.A. tradition" and received the voluntary contributions that kept up the office in New York (P-17, 1946). In today's Big Book the same sentence reads: "The trustees of the General Service Board are, in effect, our A.A. General Service Committee." (p. 565), and P-17 notes the change of name in a footnote (P-17).
Bill's 1946 essay on money says the gifts of "devoted friends" had "made possible The Alcoholic Foundation, the book Alcoholics Anonymous and our General Office" (P-17, 1946), and reports a new resolution of the trustees to decline gifts carrying any obligation (P-17, 1946).
How it was formed (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957)
After John D. Rockefeller, Jr. refused large sums in early 1938, his associates Willard Richardson, Frank Amos and A. LeRoy Chipman, with Bill's brother-in-law Dr. Leonard Strong, still hoped to find other donors (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). By the spring of 1938 they agreed on a tax-free charitable trust, so that contributors could deduct their gifts (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). It was given a resounding name and a wide charter, to research, educate and do almost anything in the field of alcohol "except lobby for Prohibition" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). "Thus the Alcoholic Foundation got its name and its charter." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).
A young lawyer, John Wood, couldn't write a legal definition of an alcoholic and a nonalcoholic, so they used a simple trust agreement instead of a formal charter (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). The first board had five trustees: Richardson, Amos and Strong as nonalcoholics, and Dr. Bob and a New York member as alcoholics (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). The New Yorker soon got drunk; that had been foreseen: "Drunkenness on the part of an alcoholic Trustee meant immediate resignation." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). "It was May, 1938." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).
The fund-raising failed and the treasury stayed empty (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). The first money it handled was a small fund to help Bill and Lois after they lost their home in 1939, then the gifts after Rockefeller's 1940 dinner (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). In 1940 it took over the book company, and later owned the Big Book in trust for the fellowship (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). See How was the Big Book paid for and published (Works Publishing)? After 1941 the groups' contributions went to it "for A.A. office expenses only" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).
From trusteeship to General Service Board
Bill says that by the late 1940s "The Trustees had authority over our services; A.A. itself had no authority." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). After years of argument, the trustees agreed to an elected General Service Conference, which first met in April 1951 (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). At its first session the Conference suggested renaming the Foundation, and after two more years of consideration the change was made (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). P-44 (Bill, describing events through 1955) gives the reason: "The word 'Foundation' stood for charity, paternalism and maybe big money." (P-44).
In 1969 Bill recalled that "the original Foundation, now our General Service Board, was chartered to do everything in the world with respect to alcohol except lobby for prohibition" (P-53). In the Twelve Concepts (1962) he wrote that "At first the Trustees of our new Foundation took jurisdiction over money matters only." (Service Manual, Concepts, 1962), and that "in 1954 it was renamed The General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous" (Service Manual, Concepts, 1962). See Concept VI: what do the trustees of the General Service Board do?
Where the sources differ
- When it began. Bill (1957) says May 1938 (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957), and the timeline in our later printing of his book agrees (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Pass It On (1984) says the trust was "formally implemented on August 11, 1938" (Pass It On, 1984).
- Who sat on the first board. Bill's nonalcoholic trustees are Richardson, Amos and Strong (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Pass It On lists Richardson, Amos and the lawyer John Wood, with Dr. Bob and Bill R. as the alcoholics, and says Bill served on a separate advisory committee (Pass It On, 1984).
- When it was renamed. P-17's footnote and the Concepts say 1954 (P-17; Service Manual, Concepts, 1962). Bill's 1957 narrative says two years after the first Conference's suggestion (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957), without naming a year; the timeline in our later printing of his book puts it in October 1954 (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). P-44 tells it as if the renaming came quickly after the first Conference (P-44).
Read it yourself
- Appendix I, "The A.A. Tradition," Long Form (pp. 563–566), free from A.A.: https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_appendicei.pdf
- P-53, The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous: https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/literature/P-53_0725.pdf
- A.A. Comes of Age, Pass It On and The A.A. Service Manual are sold by A.A. World Services: https://onlineliterature.aa.org
- Related: Why did early A.A. turn down Rockefeller money? · How was the Big Book paid for and published (Works Publishing)? · Concept VI: what do the trustees of the General Service Board do? · Tradition Nine: is A.A. organized? Who runs it?
Sources
| Source | Pages | Date |
|---|---|---|
| P-17, the Long Form and "Money" (Bill W., Grapevine) | — | 1946; pamphlet © 2019, articles © AA Grapevine |
| Alcoholics Anonymous, Appendix I, Long Form Nine (today's wording) | 565 | text 1946, name updated after 1954 |
| P-44, A.A.'s Legacy of Service (Bill W.) | — | describes events through 1955; pamphlet © 2018 |
| A.A. Comes of Age | (timeline, later printing), 13, 74–75, 94, 100–102, 110–114 | 1957 |
| The A.A. Service Manual, Twelve Concepts (Bill W.) | — | 1962 (2024–2026 edition) |
| P-53, Bill W.'s last major talk | — | October 1969; pamphlet © 2017 |
| Pass It On | — | 1984 |
Big Book page numbers are from the fourth edition (2001). Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book, P-44, P-53, the Service Manual, A.A. Comes of Age and Pass It On are © A.A. World Services, Inc.; P-17's articles are © AA Grapevine, Inc.
These pages answer questions about A.A. from A.A.'s own published literature, read in full, with every quote checked word for word against the page it cites. Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. What we read, and when each source was written.