Needmor Fund Records (Ms.2007.018)

The Needmor Fund Records include correspondence, grant applications and rejections, pamphlets, seminar brochures, notes from site visits, speeches, financial records, media presentations, administrative papers, and publications by and about the grassroots organizations supported and funding by Needmor. These materials provide a window to American philanthropy and activism from the 1970's to the early 21st century.

Originally established in 1956 by Duane and Virginia Secor Stranahan, the Needmor Fund focused on community organizations working in low and moderate income communities which showed promise of promoting a more equitable and just society. The Fund reorganized in the mid-1970's when the founder and his six children decided to pool their resources, hire a director and develop a more formal structure. Originally located in and focused on Toledo, Ohio, the Fund eventually migrated to Boulder, Colorado and then, when it reorganized again in 2003-2004, returned to Toledo. While the Needmor Fund continues to focus on problems both in Toledo and across the country, it has developed two particular areas of interest which it calls the Southeast Cluster and the Southwest Cluster. Currently, the Fund is working on a new concept called Learning Communities.

The papers are divided into the following series : grants, correspondence, the papers of Karl Stauber, the papers of Kathy Partridge, publications, subject files, technical assistance consultant files, financial papers, administrative files, network files, affinity files, and media. The grant materials dating from 1977 to 2008 are separated into the following subseries : monitoring, technical assistance (TA) grants, closed grant files, declined applicants and grant applications. Needmor kept the TA grants separate because they are meant to furnish funds for things not usually covered by charitable grants such as software, consultants and staff training on topics such as organizing focus groups. The TA consultant files compliment the TA grant files and contain letters and brochures from firms and individuals who offer technical assistance to community groups receiving aid from the Needmor Fund. The declined applicant files contain extensive staff notes which show the actual workings of the foundation as the grants are awarded. Currently, the records contain only those from 2007. The newest grant applications cover 2004-2008, but represent only a small portion of those the foundation receives

The bulk of the correspondence is dated from 1983, but there is also a small sample of general correspondence from 1987 through 1996. The Needmor Foundation administrative files also include correspondence from and to Virginia Stranahan, Duane Stranahan, Sr. and both Michael and George Stranahan in a subseries of the administrative files entitled Family. These letters have been left in their original order with the administrative files. The 1983 correspondence is arranged alphabetically by grant applicant.

The papers of Karl Stauber, an early executive director, and the papers of Kathy Partridge, who was a program officer from 1992 to 2002, comprise a substantial part of the collection. The Stauber papers contain not only materials from his years at the Needmor Fund, but also from his tenure at the Babcock Foundation. Among the Babcock papers, there is a large amount of information on early adolescence, an important interest of Stauber's at the time. Papers from his early days at the Needmor Fund include historically important details on the mid-1970's reorganization of the Fund, including legal correspondence and notes of family discussions on Needmor's mission and goals. Also included here are several years of handouts and notes from both national and local annual conventions or trade fairs of grantmaking institutions, speeches and itineraries for both site visits and conventions.

The Kathy Partridge papers include not only material on gay and lesbian issues, but also information from the original site visits in the South, which became the basis for Needmor's current interest in its Southeast Cluster Project. These site visits focus on Needmor's regional clusters for grantmaking purposes. There are also many brochures from various politically active groups across the South which cover issues such as voting rights, educational equality, property ownership by African-Americans, and welfare reform.

Publications which were funded by or pertain to causes championed by the Needmor Fund comprise another series. There are long runs of field periodicals including Clamor, Colorline, and Convoy Dispatch. These periodicals, in most cases, are professional journals published by unions or other interest groups. The publications that are the products of groups which Needmor sponsors are in a subseries called grant products. Similar in nature are the network files which contain a more comprehensive selection of publications by the funded institutions, including brochures and annual reports as well as periodicals. The network files have been arranged alphabetically by the name of the organization rather than the publication title. The affinity files contain many of the same materials, but are organized by topic : housing, taxation, transportation, voting, the work force and youth work. Several single issues of serials and nearly a dozen books have been pulled out and cataloged separately.

The financial papers provide information on the Needmor Fund's investments, and correspondence about the Fund's efforts to ensure that their investments were socially responsible. New federal regulations on payouts are also covered. As background information, there is an unsigned, handwritten account by one of the Stranahan children on the evolution of the current organization of the Needmor Fund. The administrative files include information on the Fund's history and on the philanthropic activities of various family members notably Virginia Stranahan, referred to as "Dinny", and a fund called "Mary's money". There are also the usual human resources documents, such as: sick leave and vacation policies, the handling of retirement funds, telephone trees, and how to work the phone system in the Colorado office.

The majority of the subject files were collected for information on how other charitable funds are run. There are brochures, pamphlets, booklets and magazine articles on many of the major charitable funds and agencies of the United States and on the philosophy of giving.

The media files include both DVD's and VHS tapes. These are informational and inspirational. Sample titles are "From the ground up : neighbors planning neighborhoods", "Witness : a voice for justice at Smithfield" and the "Cover all children campaign".