The Alexandru Tzigara Samurcaş Foundation bears the name of the scholar who founded the museum more than a century ago. It was established in 1994, its founding members being: Pascal Bentoiu, Tudor Berza, Radu Boroianu, Horia Bernea, Corneliu Baba, Constantin Balaceanu-Stolnici, Ion Caramitru, Sorin Costina, Nicolae Constantinescu, Alexandru Duţu, Sorin Dumitrescu, Theodor Enescu, Ioan Ilişiu, Gabriel Liiceanu, Dan Nasta, Irina Nicolau, Ioan Opriş, Şerban Papacostea, Andrei Pleşu, Andrei Pănoiu, Ioan Raţiu, Speranţa Rădulescu, Georgeta Roşu, Aurelian Trişcu. The purpose of the foundation was to undertake cultural activities complementary to those carried out by the museum. Its presidents were, successively: Horia Bernea, Mihai Oroveanu, Tudor Berza and Speranţa Rădulescu.
The executive director of the foundation is Florin Iordan.
The foundation did not succeed in attracting substantial funds for its project to preserve architectural monuments throughout the country, as it had hoped. Instead, it obtained specific funding for one or another of the projects related to research and/or dissemination of ethnological research results.
The first major action organized by the foundation was to provide traditional music for the Hanover 2000 international fair. Shortly thereafter, the foundation laid the foundations for the ethnomusical continuity project Ethnophonie, a project that consists of the production and publication of a series of traditional music CDs (accompanied by bi- or multilingual brochures) and the organization of concerts under the dual aegis of the MTR and the foundation (see the website www.ethnophonie.ro). (Both types of actions start from field research undertaken by the ethnomusicological members of the foundation: Speranţa Rădulescu, Costin Moisil, Florin Iordan). Ethnophonie continues today, as it prepares the release of its 20th CD. The first ten were awarded one of the prestigious Charles Cros Academy awards in France (Coup de coeur) and the twelfth – the German Critics' Award for the disc. In the West, Ethnophonie is considered the only publishing house in Romania that produces and distributes on the market the traditional music of Romanians and the ethnic groups living there: Roma, Hungarians, Jews, Ukrainians.
There have certainly been other projects over the years, including: Furnica (consisting of collecting and inventorying material testimonies regarding life on the territory of Romania during the communist era) and Populații istorice azi (consisting of the ethnological investigation of some Romanian localities on the territory of Hungary). Smaller-scale projects dedicated to the education of children have been conducted in various Bucharest schools and/or at the MTR headquarters.
The Alexandru Tzigara Samurcaş Foundation has cooperated during its 16 years of existence with various cultural institutions: Canadian Heritage Information Network, Cité de la Musique, Wagram record label, Société Française d'ethnomusicologie (France), Musée des Arts et Traditions Populaires, Musée d'ethnographie de Genève, Ateliers d'ethnomusicologie (Switzerland), Austrian Institute of East and Southeast European Studies (Austria), Institut Français de Bucarest, Romanian Cultural Institute, Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (department of Romanians Abroad), National University of Music Bucharest, Constantin Nottara Theater, Electrecord, Popular Art School of Târgu Jiu and many others.