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In 1978, Mansfield Freeman, an American who spent much of his life in China and who helped found the company that later became American International Group, Inc. (AIG), established a trust whose primary mission would be to establish a foundation that would facilitate the development of mutual understanding among Americans and East Asians. In 1993, one year after Mansfield Freeman’s death, the family established the Freeman Foundation to promote his vision. Since then, the Freeman Foundation has touched the lives of millions of educators, students, and citizens in both Asia and the United States. The Freeman-funded National Consortium for Teaching About Asia, although only one of a number of Foundation initiatives, has provided 7,600 American teachers and more than 2.2 million of their students with the opportunity to learn about the histories, cultures, and current problems of East Asian countries.