The Commission for Relief in Belgium began in 1914 follwing the outbreak of World War I. United States President Herbert Hoover supported the Commission and after the war, the Belgian American Educational Foundation took over the Commission for Belgian Relief. The Commission for Relief in Belgium Educational Foundation was incorporated in 1920 and endowed with residual funds from the liquidation of the assets of the Commission for Relief in Belgium. Its operations included the sponsoring of Belgian-American exchange fellowships, the fostering of Belgian-American cultural relations, and aid to child health and nutrition programs in Belgium. In 1938, it changed its name to the Belgian American Educational Foundation (B.A.E.F.).

The American Relief Administration was established by the U.S. Congress on February 24, 1919, as a relief mission to Europe and, later, post-revolutionary Russia. Its immediate predecessor was the United States Food Administration. Herbert Hoover, future president of the United States, who had headed both the United States Food Administration and the Commission for Relief in Belgium, was the program director. Congress provided the A.R.A. with a budget of $100 million, which was supplemented by an additional $100 million in private donations. The ARA delivered more than four million tons of relief supplies to 23 war-torn European countries. It ended its operations outside Russia in 1922, and in Russia in 1923.