The Annie E. Casey Foundation was established in 1948 by Jim Casey, one of the founders of United Parcel Service, and his siblings, George, Harry, and Marguerite, who named the philanthropy in honor of their mother. In the course of Jim Casey’s personal research with experts in the field of child welfare, he concluded that many troubled adults had grown up unhappily in foster care, often being bounced from one foster family to another. In 1966 his interest in long-term foster care led him to establish the Casey Family Programs, now an independent operating foundation in Seattle.

With the death of Jim Casey in 1983 and the increased resources from his estate, the Foundation's Board of Trustees began to explore opportunities to expand the Foundation's work on behalf of disadvantaged children. The Trustees committed the Foundation to an ambitious mission: to help build better futures for millions of disadvantaged children who are at risk of poor educational, economic, social, and health outcomes.

The challenge of helping rebuild distressed communities is at the center of the Annie E. Casey Foundation's grant-making plans for the next decade. Working with neighborhoods and state and local governments, the Foundation will provide significant grants and other forms of assistance to a limited number of sites in a long-term effort to strengthen the support services, social networks, physical infrastructure, employment, self-determination, and economic vitality of distressed communities.