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Working in higher education and philanthropy, Merrimon Cuninggim gained national recognition in both fields. His early career was as a professor at various colleges and in 1951 he became Dean of the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. He remained there until 1960 when he accepted the position of Executive Director/President of the Danforth Foundation in St. Louis, Missouri, where he remained until 1972. From 1973 to 1975 he worked as an advisor/consultant to the Ford Foundation and from 1976 to 1979 served as President of Salem Academy and College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. From 1979 until his death in 1995 Cuninggim served as a special consultant to both colleges and foundations on management problems. In 1981 he was one of the 16 founders of the Center for Effective Philanthropy which was formed to advise foundations and other charitable institutions on effective management. The papers consist of correspondence, reports, meeting minutes, and notes from Cuninggim's professional life.

John J. Schwartz, fund raising executive and author, worked hard to assist in the development of standards and ethics for fund-raising professionals and to influence legislation on the national and state level. During his 41 active years in the field, Schwartz was employed by various philanthropic organizations including John Price Jones, Inc., Fund Raising for Traveler Aid Society of New York, Development for the Community Service Society, G.A. Brakeley & Co., the American Cancer Society, and American Association of Fund Raising Counsel, Inc. (AAFRC). Schwartz spent a majority of his career, 1966-1987, at AAFRC, advancing to become the President of the organization in 1973 until his retirement. Throughout his career, he has served on various boards and committees promoting the understanding of philanthropy and was instrumental in the establishment of Coalition of National Voluntary Organizations (CONVO), Independent Sector, and the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy. The papers consist of records documenting his involvement with several philanthropic organizations as an employee and as a member of professional organizations. Included are organizational information, correspondence, meeting minutes, project reports, conferences, articles and papers.

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 Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) was founded in 1971 by David Horton Smith and Bill Ready as the Association for Voluntary Action Scholars (AVAS). Their vision was to create an independent and impartial forum for researchers in the fledgling field of voluntary action and citizen participation. Major activities have included an annual conference and the publication of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly (NVSQ), formerly the Journal of Voluntary Action Research (JVAR); Citizen Participation and Voluntary Action Abstracts (CPVAA); and a newsletter. The organization's name change in 1991 signified diversification of the original mission, which now includes expanded outreach to researchers on nonprofit organizations and from previously neglected academic disciplines. The records consist of board and committee materials, correspondence, financial and administrative records, journals and newsletters, journal manuscript submissions, conference programs and proceedings, and grant proposals.

Peter Dobkin Hall was a historian of American philanthropy, who held appointments at Wesleyan (1974-1982), Yale (1973-1999), and Harvard (2000 until death), and was Scholar in Residence at the Rockefeller Archive Center in 1989. He was extensively published in philanthropy but it probably best known for his book "'Inventing the Nonprofit Sector' and Other Essays on Philanthropy, Voluntarism, and Nonprofit Organizations."

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.