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The National Society of Fund Raisers was organized in New York City in 1960 to serve as the professional association for fund raisers in America. The organization changed its name to the National Society of Fund Raising Executives (NSFRE) in the mid-1970s, and at about the same time hired its first executive director. In 1993 NSFRE had 15,903 individual members in 131 chapters, and maintained a national office in Alexandria, Virginia. Its name was again changed January 1, 2001, to the Association of Fundraising Professionals. Since its beginnings, the NSFRE has worked to promote professional and ethical standards through annual conferences, seminars, and publications. In the late 1970s, it instituted a program of certification for fund raising executives, and it has been active in supporting research and publicity on the role of philanthropy in American life.

The Athenaeum Foundation was organized in 1991 and incorporated as a not-for-profit foundation operating under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The foundation's purposes was to acquire title to the Athenaeum, located at 401 East Michigan Street in Indianapolis; to raise funds for and supervise and direct the rehabilitation of building to maintain its architectural and aesthetic integrity as a historic structure; to educate the public about the history and significance of the Athenaeum; to foster the use of the building by the foundation itself, the building's tenants, and other organizations; and to oversee the management of the building.

The Beldon Fund was created in 1978 by environmental philanthropist John R. Hunting as a national foundation focused on advocating for environmental policy. From 1982 to 1998, the Beldon Fund provided grants to organizations like American Environment Inc., the Clean Water Fund, the Ohio Environmental Council, and the Idaho Conservation League. In 1998, John Hunting sold his stock in Steelcase Inc. and endowed Beldon with $100 million, prompting him to rethink the direction of the foundation. Hunting believed that increasing global warming and environmental destruction required immediate attention, and so he planned a ten-year spend-out of the Beldon Fund. Initially, Beldon made grants in five program areas, but in 2001, feedback indicated their scope was too broad for their spend-out timeframe. Beldon refocused into two program areas—the Key States program and the Human Health and the Environment program. The Beldon Fund made its last grants in June 2008 and closed its doors in 2009, after the completion of the spend-out. Over the last ten years of the fund, Beldon spent $120 million in grants and projects. The Beldon Fund Records consist of grant proposals, grant reports, notification of grants, board minutes, executive director records, financial and administrative records, and correspondence.

The Commission on Foundations and Private Philanthropy was formed by John D. Rockefeller, III, in 1969, and chaired by Peter Peterson, to objectively investigate foundations and their role in society. The Peterson Commission, as it was known, was designed to be influenced by neither the government nor the foundations they investigated. An objective appraisal of foundation activities was necessary to give the Commission the credibility it needed to influence Congress' decisions on foundation activities. By researching the roles of foundations in society, the members hoped to construct policy recommendations that made foundations more accountable while allowing them to maintain their independence from outside interference. This collection contains meeting minutes, correspondence, reports, speeches, the House of Representatives and Senate Hearings on the Tax Reform Law, and the foundation research collected by the commission that includes annual reports, surveys, articles, and correspondence.

The DJB Foundation, a progressive social change philanthropy, was founded in 1948 by Daniel J. Bernstein to hold the portion of his inheritance intended for donation to charities. With his death in 1970 almost five-million dollars came to the foundation. Its most active period began in 1971 when the Board of Directors decided that all assets would be given away within ten years. The grants concentrated on groups and programs generally ignored by conventional foundations because they were "controversial" -- the poor, GIs, deserters and draft resisters, ethnic groups, convicts and ex-convicts. The DJB Foundation exhausted its funds by the end of 1974. The DJB Foundation Records consist of financial summaries and grant files containing correspondence, proposals, and information about the recipient organization.

Independent Sector (IS) was founded in 1980 as a coalition of corporate, foundation and voluntary organizations for the purpose of encouraging charitable giving, volunteering and nonprofit activities in the United States. Its mission is to promote, strengthen, and advance the nonprofit and philanthropic community to foster private initiative for the public good. By 2004, the organization maintained a membership of approximately 500 of the nation's leading nonprofit agencies and funders of nonprofit work. The collection consists of board minutes, committee reports, correspondence, publications, lobbying efforts, and conference materials.

The National Network of Grantmakers (NNG) is an organization formed in 1980 to bring together individuals committed to the idea that a "fully functioning democracy depends upon involved and empowered citizens who share both the responsibilities and benefits of society." It was a progressive-minded organization committed to social, economic, and environmental justice. Records include board and committee records, program files, correspondence, financial records, and publications.

In 1947 Charles Edward Marsh founded the Public Welfare Foundation to render direct financial assistance to the needy. His purpose, to offer the greatest good to the greatest number of people, symbolized the efforts of the foundation he created. His method of distributing money, called the agent system, dispersed financial assistance to provide for the immediate needs of individuals. As tax laws required more detailed reporting, the foundation began to phase out the agent system and created a more formal method of receiving proposals from organizations worldwide. With a commitment to supporting organizations that help people overcome barriers to full participation in society, the foundation had distributed more than $400 million in grants by 2007. Its purpose continues in the spirit of Charles Marsh to focus on "ensuring the fundamental rights and opportunities for people in need."

The Quixote Foundation was established by Arthur Stuart Hanisch as a family foundation in 1997, and after his death in 2002 the organization adopted a limited-life strategy that resulted in full expenditure of all philanthropic funds by 2017. The foundation espoused a progressive world view, with a majority of grantees working for media reform, election integrity, reproductive rights, environmental equity, and social equality. The records consist predominantly of grant files, with other materials including board meeting minutes, Forms 990-PF, publications, and other materials created by or for the organization.

Waldemar A. Nielsen (1917-2005) was widely recognized for his expertise in and analysis of charitable foundations. Nielsen worked in government and the nonprofit sector before establishing a consulting agency, Waldemar A. Nielsen, Incorporated, which focused on corporate social policy. Nielsen is best known for his writing on the biggest foundations within the American philanthropic world. Through publications like The Big Foundations (1972) and The Golden Donors (1985), Nielsen examined the foundations' methods and their effectiveness. The Waldemar A. Nielsen Papers consists of Nielsen's research, notes, and drafts for the books and articles published over the course of his career. The collection also contains correspondence, reports, and publications from Nielsen's time working for the government, the Ford Foundation, the African-American Institute, and from his years as a consultant.