Powering the human capital that elevates sorority and fraternity experiences
The success of the sorority and fraternity movement deeply depends on the human capital of the sorority and fraternity profession – those individuals powering the learning experiences needed to elevate sororities and fraternities. However, the work of sorority and fraternity professionals is becoming increasingly more complex in the face of governmental regulation, threats to mental and emotional health, and declining college enrollments. As professional development resources struggle to keep up with those demands, emerging and established talent continues to leave our industry. ‘Elevate the Standard’ ensures that the human capital powering the sorority and fraternity profession not only persists, but expands.
Our Need
AFA prioritizes the building and retaining of top talent as critical to our industry’s success. AFA must create a portfolio of educational and professional development programs and experiences designed to enhance and maximize the skills, talents, and overall effectiveness of the sorority & professional. AFA must be able to support cutting edge professional development that allows AFA to both build and keep talent within our industry.
Why AFA?
AFA is uniquely positioned to address the needs of sorority and fraternity professionals across the industry, more than any other organization. AFA centers the shared and interdisciplinary nature of sorority & fraternity professionals regardless of where and how they engage in that work. The work of a stronger sorority & fraternity profession is labor that is central to AFA’s mission.
AFA is laser-focused on the work of the professional community. AFA has always believed that, through our work in elevating sorority & fraternity professionals, that sorority & fraternity communities benefit as a direct result. Additionally, our ability to see alignment in our work as sorority & fraternity professionals in all contexts is a critical element of a more skilled, inclusive, and valued profession.
Our Goal
Campaign Priorities
Elevating Talent
AFA prioritizes the building and retaining of top talent as critical to our industry’s success. AFA must create a portfolio of educational and professional development programs and experiences designed to enhance and maximize the skills, talents, and overall effectiveness of the sorority & professional. AFA must be able to support cutting edge professional development that allows AFA to both build and keep talent within our industry.
Elevating Research
AFA prioritizes the research-to-practice investments necessary to translate cutting edge research into everyday professional practice. AFA must strengthen the empirical study of both the sorority & fraternity and the sorority/fraternity experience that better defines evidence-based research and professional practice.
Elevating Innovation
AFA believes that our best ideas are ahead of us, not behind us. AFA prioritizes investments in new ideas, structures, processes, and ways of knowing that transform the ways in which we think about fraternities and sororities.
Elevating Equity and Inclusion
AFA believes a stronger profession is both more diverse and more equitable – a professional space where all have the opportunity to strengthen their skills and contribute excellent work to our profession. AFA prioritizes the building and cultivating of meaningful, professional communities that allow sorority & fraternity to more effectively engage with people and ideas in an inclusive and supportive environment.
About AFA
Since 1976, AFA has ‘elevated the standard’ by building a stronger, more effective and more impactful sorority and fraternity profession. This work includes assisting over 10,000 individual members who provide service to millions of sorority & fraternity members, both undergraduates and alumni. AFA’s strategic pillars are laser-focused on how AFA ‘elevates the standard’:
- Developing Professional Competency: AFA develops a portfolio of programs and experiences designed to enhance and maximize the skills, talents, and overall effectiveness of the fraternity/sorority professional.
- Advancing Research: AFA drives the empirical study of both the fraternity/sorority profession and the fraternity/sorority experience that better defines evidence-based research and professional practice.
- Advocating for the Profession: AFA strengthens the narrative around the critical and essential role of the fraternity/sorority profession and its role in facilitating healthy fraternity/sorority experiences.
- Creating Community: AFA builds and cultivates meaningful, professional communities that allow our members to more effectively engage with people and ideas in an inclusive and supportive environment.
About the AFA Foundation
Since 1992, the AFA Foundation has worked to support the mission and educational objectives of the Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors by providing opportunities for members and friends to show their commitment to the success of our profession through charitable giving, while providing critical financial support that advances the educational mission of AFA. The AFA Foundation administers educational program endowments and individual scholarship funds in support of the mission of the Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors, individual AFA members, and our wider fraternal communities. By strengthening educational opportunities and access, the AFA Foundation works to help professionals acquire the foundational knowledge that is essential to serving as a fraternity/sorority professional.
