The Beldon Fund was founded in 1978 as a Clifford Trust focused on advocating for environmental policy. It gave its first grants to environmental groups in 1982 and made its last grants in June 2008.

Beldon was established by philanthropist John R. Hunting, from Grand Rapids, MI. John Hunting was born on November 7, 1931, to Mary I. and David D. Hunting. He graduated from Cranbrook private school and attended Denison University, where he completed his BA in English. After serving two years in the army, teaching English at Cranbrook for three years, and earning a masters' degree at the University of Michigan, Hunting moved to New York City for a year. There he studied psychodrama, singing, and dancing before returning to Grand Rapids and performing at the Grand Rapids Civic Theatre. During the Depression Hunting's father had purchased stock in the Metal Office Furniture Company (now Steelcase Inc.), where he was an employee. He split his shares between his three sons, which gave John Hunting a comfortable income. In 1961, Hunting used this income to found the Dyer-Ives Foundation, which focused on empowering local organizations to revitalize the central city of Grand Rapids. After running the Dyer-Ives Foundation for 15 years, Hunting moved back to New York and began to get involved in philanthropy and in environmental causes.

Hunting began making anonymous donations to environmental causes through the Stern Fund. He worked with David Hunter, the Stern Fund's executive director, to select organizations that Hunting was interested in supporting. In 1978, the Beldon Fund, which eventually became Beldon I, was established as a Clifford Trust. Around this time Hunting moved to Washington D.C. in order to help further the national environmental agenda by getting involved in politics. In 1982 Hunting hired Judy Donald as Beldon's first executive director and they began giving out grants directly through the Beldon Fund, instead of through the Stern Fund. At first the grants averaged about $8,000 per grant and went to national groups working to protect environmental laws from the Reagan administration's anti-regulatory environmental policy. As national environmental groups became stronger, Beldon's focus shifted to support state-level groups trying new policies that might also work on a national level. In 1987 Beldon began making more grants that focused on supporting environmental groups' infrastructure, in order to strengthen the underpinnings of the movement.

Beldon I's ten-year trust expired in 1988 and the fund was reestablished as a 501(c)(3) "pass-through" private foundation. That same year, Hunting established the JRH Foundation (the name was soon changed to Beldon II) as a separate 501(c)(3) private foundation with $2.5 million in assets to support the work of the Beldon I Fund. Together, Beldon I and Beldon II were known publicly as the Beldon Fund.

In 1995 Hunting made a gift of stock worth $12.5 million to Beldon II, thereby increasing the grant-making capability of the Beldon II Fund. The majority of the organization's grantmaking and all of its administration switched to Beldon II. Then, in 1997, two major changes happened at Beldon. First, the decision was made to make more 2-year and challenge grants from Beldon II while Beldon I's focus shifted to making one-year grants and small grants. Second, Steelcase, the company in which John Hunting owned stock, went public. Hunting sold his shares and endowed Beldon II with $100 million.

This infusion of funds prompted the Beldon Fund to shift directions. Hunting and Beldon moved back to New York, formed a board of directors, and began searching for an executive director to lead Beldon through the biggest change of all. With this influx of funds came the decision to spend-out the Beldon Fund over the course of the next ten years. Hunting's concern about the environment led him to decide that the Beldon Fund could do more good with more impact in the immediate future, instead of setting up the Beldon Fund in perpetuity. Hunting believed that the current state of the environment made the future uncertain, and so it was important for current philanthropists to make immediate changes and leave the future to the next generation.

For the first two years, the reorganized Beldon Fund focused on five program areas, but in 2001 Beldon hired Headwaters to conduct a survey to see how the fund was doing. The survey resulted in a realignment after it became clear that Beldon's focus was too widespread to be effective in the fund's short time-frame, and as grantees expressed frustration with unclear guidelines about who would be funded. Beldon put in place a more clear and focused strategy for its last several years, updated its explanations of what types of organizations would receive grants, and narrowed its programs down to two areas—Key States and Human Health and the Environment. The Key States program provided grants to organizations in states Beldon had identified as key to making state-level changes that would help shift national environmental policy, and the Human Health and the Environment program focused on eliminating environmental risks to public health. Subsequent feedback led to the Human Health and the Environment program eventually trimming its focus to chemical policy reform. The survey also resulted in the creation of the Discretionary Fund, which gave Beldon the option to make some grants to organizations that no longer fit into their focus areas.

As Beldon's closing date neared, it made sure to work with its grantees to help them find alternate funding streams for after Beldon spent out. It also conducted several evaluations of what Beldon had done right, and what it could have done better. Beldon made its last grants in June 2008 and closed its doors in 2009. From 1998 to 2008 Beldon gave out grants totaling $120 million. After the spend-out, Beldon published "Giving While Living: The Beldon Fund Spend-Out Story" to offer other philanthropists and foundations insight on the lessons Beldon learned during the spend-out process.