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The Bruner Foundation was founded in 1963 using funds donated by Rudy and Martha Bruner. The foundation began with the purpose of aiding programs in health care and preventive medicine, and programs focused on Jewish concerns. Since the 1980s, the Bruner Foundation has broadened its purpose to include educational programs, evaluation of grant programs, and urban renovation. Today, the main activity of the foundation is the Rudy Bruner Award for Excellence in the Urban Environment, given every two years. The records consist mainly of the Bruner Foundation's activities since 1965. These documents include board minutes, grant records, educational programs, correspondence, conference proceedings, and the records of the Rudy Bruner Award for Excellence in the Urban Environment.

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.

Women & Philanthropy incorporated in 1977 with the purpose of elevating the status of women as decision makers in philanthropy and increasing the amount of funding for women and girls' programs. The organization's research-based advocacy served as the foundation for its agenda. Providing evidence that women were under-represented in a variety of key areas in the field of philanthropy, Women & Philanthropy developed ways to combat the problem and while providing a resource for women in the field to become educators and advocates for their gender. In 2007 Women & Philanthropy ceased as a separate organization and became a special project of the Council on Foundations. Materials in this collection cover the whole of the organization's history from its beginning until its incorporation into the Council on Foundations and provide an excellent resource for understanding the role of women as leaders in the foundation world.