It was founded by Zelma Long to help finance research in enology and viticulture; Long also founded the American Viticulture and Enology Research Network (AVERN).
[1] Justin Meyer was head of the foundation in the 1990s.
Jim Frisinger has been chairman of the AVF since 2010.
The foundation relies on private donors, mainly from winemakers; in 2003 they managed to get 808 competing grapegrowers and vintners to contribute $1,178,652.97 to fund cooperative research;[3] however, in the past they have often failed to make $1 million annually.
[4] In recent years they have invested in research into wine production in the states of Washington, Oregon, Texas and Virginia.