The Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF) is a charitable foundation focused on improving the well-being of American children. The foundation's goals are to build better futures for disadvantaged children, and their families, in the United States. The AECF is one of the dominant organizations in child welfare issues in the U.S., and one of the most influential "watchdogs" for child welfare—famed for its publication of U.S. child welfare data, annually, through its KIDS COUNT Data Book—the most widely used reference on the subject.