As a non-profit, cultural and educational organization, the Alliance Française of Missoula supports high school and university students of French and the Francophone and Francophile public. In addition to numerous French or Francophone activities and conferences, the Alliance Française of Missoula has co-sponsored Middle-Eastern film festivals and multi-cultural conferences.
Promoting a better understanding between the American culture, Anglo-Saxon mentalities and intellectualities, and the French or French-based cultures, mentalities and intellectualities is another goal of the Alliance Française of Missoula. One thinks differently when one speaks another language.
The Alliance Française of Missoula demonstrates that French is no longer a language and a culture only and uniquely limited to high-brow culture or elitism. It is a living, popular culture with complex, multi-faceted aspects reaching into modern and postmodern artistic, popular and commercial expressions. Although French is no longer the vanguard language of modernity as defined, for instance, by the Siècle des Lumières (Enlightenment), it has never reneged on its past of resistance, socio-economic and intellectual progress. The French language and culture may offer other perspectives to the globalization of Anglo-Saxon style. It is also a language of cultural differences in many African countries, in Québec, and Asia.
The Alliance Française of Missoula is part of a worldwide organization, which was founded in 1883 by eminent figures in the arts, sciences and politics. The French government now sponsors a network of 1,085 independently operated chapters in 138 countries. In the U.S., there are 142 chapters with more than 30,000 members and 21,000 students.