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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 James C. Penney Foundation was created in 1954 by the merchant, James Cash Penney, and his wife, Caroline A. Penney. James C. Penney was born on September 16, 1875 near Hamilton, Missouri. In the early 1900s he purchased his first store, called the Golden Rule. His values, emphasizing both the customer and the employee, helped him build a chain of Golden Rule stores that was renamed the J.C. Penney Company, Inc. in 1913. Penney's personal philanthropy began with death of his second wife, Mary. He formed the J.C. Penney Foundation in 1925 in her memory to help support youth programs and the Penney Farms, a retirement community founded by Penney for ministers. The J.C. Penney Foundation folded after the stock market crash in 1929, but Penney regained his personal fortune and renewed his interest in philanthropy over the next two decades. In 1954 he and his wife, Caroline, founded a second foundation, called the James C. Penney Foundation.

The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy is a progressive organization formed in 1976 to monitor private philanthropy in the United States. The records consist of board and committee records, meeting minutes and agendas, correspondence, subject files, reports and publications, and photographs.

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.