U.S. Embassy, Tallinn June 15, 2012
U.S. Ambassador to Estonia Michael Polt met Friday with Kim Davis and other members of the board of directors of the Baltic American Freedom Foundation (BAFF). Ambassador Polt discussed with the members ideas for additional ways that the Embassy and BAFF might find to cooperate.

BAFF was created in 2010 as a legacy foundation of the Baltic-American Enterprise Fund, which was established in 1994 to contribute to the private sector development in the Baltic States, with an endowment of approximately $40 million. The Enterprise Fund, in turn, which originated over 4,000 mortgage loans and financed over 100 businesses in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, was an outgrowth of the Congressionally enacted Support for East European Democracy Act (SEED).

Since 1989, these vehicles have provided a means for investment into the Baltic States, and today BAFF is responsible for a number of exchange programs and scholarships and is a partner with the U.S. Embassy in Tallinn on the Estonian-American Innovation Award. We look forward to continued good relations with BAFF and to increased opportunities to support the Baltic states through their work.