SAINT PAUL FOUNDATION:

The Saint Paul Foundation was founded in 1940 when a group of the city's business leaders began to look to private philanthropy to supplement public funds to address community issues and needs. A community foundation provided a way to draw together many donors who could contribute money, often in their own names, to establish funds that would support a variety of community projects. The first donor was Annie Paper, a Lithuanian immigrant who contributed $5,000 in 1944 through a trust fund as part of her will. The Foundation made its first grant in 1952. The Foundation also provided grant administration services to other granting organizations, including researching grant applications and administrative support. These clients included the Mardag Foundation, the F. R. Bigelow Foundation, the Minnesota Foundation, the Paper foundations, the Jebco Foundation, and the Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library.

The F. R. Bigelow Foundation was founded in 1946 through a trust established by Frederic Russell Bigelow, the fourth president of the St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company. It was established as a trust to promote the well-being of mankind and to support the civic, educational, religious and other needs of the community. It has funded programs and helped shape initiatives to strengthen neighborhoods and downtown Saint Paul, to improve educational opportunities for youths and adults, and to enhance the quality of life in the Saint Paul area. The F. R. Bigelow Foundation became a client of The Saint Paul Foundation in 1980.

The Mardag Foundation was established in 1969, as called for in the will of Agnes Dagmar Maas Elmer Ober. Agnes was the wife of Edgar Ober, president of the 3M Company. Originally called the Ober Charitable Foundation, the name was changed to Mardag Foundation in 1976 to move away from identifying the Foundation with one donor. Mardag is a reversal of the syllables in "Dagmar." In 1979 the renamed Mardag Foundation became a client of The Saint Paul Foundation and gained access to more resources and advisory counsel. The focus of the Mardag Foundation shifted from family interests to deeper social concerns and emergency needs.

The Minnesota Foundation was established in 1949 by the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation to provide charitable giving services to donors throughout the state. The name of the organization was later changed to Minnesota Community Foundation. From 1949 to 1974 the Foundation developed programs that included accounting, investment, tax return preparation and administrative support. The Minnesota Foundation left the umbrella of the Wilder Foundation in 1984 and became affiliated with The Saint Paul Foundation.

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The collection consists of microfiche grant files of the Saint Paul Foundation and several client foundations. Accompanying paper indexes provide the grant identification number, project title, closeout date, and type of grant. These were prepared and provided by the Saint Paul Foundation. There is no index to the Jebco Foundation microfiche cards.

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Microfiche cards and accompanying paper indexes are arranged by granting foundation and alphabetically thereunder by name of grantee. From 1962-2001, the cards were organized into 49 consecutively-ordered groups. Cards received after 2001 are organized first chronologically, and then alphabetically by organization name.

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Use Restrictions:

Quotation or publication, beyond the fair use provision of the copyright law, from records less than 25 years old requires written permission.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Saint Paul Foundation Records. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 14,055; 14,056; 14,130; 14,412; 14,707; 15,169; 15,354 15,492; 15,536; 15,587; 15,685; 16,254; 16,301

Processing Information:

Processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with a Basic Project grant awarded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).

The records of the F. R. Bigelow Foundation and the Mardag Foundation formerly stood on their own as separate Minnesota Historical Society manuscript collections. In 2007 the microfiche replaced the original paper grant files (62.0 cubic feet) of the Saint Paul Foundation and the client foundations, which are no longer held or collected by the Society.

Processed by: David B. Peterson, December 2007; Shelby Edwards, June 2011.

Catalog ID number: 990017200380104294

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Saint Paul Foundation

F. R. Bigelow Foundation

Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library

J. Paper Foundation

Mardag Foundation

Minnesota Foundation

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Saint Paul Foundation

F. R. Bigelow Foundation

J. Paper Foundation

L. & A. F. Paper Foundation

Mardag Foundation

Minnesota Community Foundation

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Arts -- Minnesota -- Endowments.

Charities -- Minnesota -- Administration.

Education -- Minnesota -- Endowments.

Endowments -- Minnesota -- Administration.

Medical care -- Minnesota -- Endowments.

Scholarships -- Minnesota.

Organizations:

F.R. Bigelow Foundation.

J. Paper Foundation.

Jebco Foundation.

Lewis and Annie F. Paper Foundation.

Mardag Foundation.

Minnesota Foundation.

Ober Charitable Foundation (St. Paul, Minn.).

Saint Paul Public Library. Friends.

Types of Documents:

Microfiche.

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