The American Vineyard Foundation (AVF) is an American non-profit public charity which aims to improve the American wine industry through research. 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. [2] It has its headquarters in Napa, California. 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. [5]