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Creator
Robert Bowne Foundation
Call number
MssCol 23100
Physical description
62.79 linear feet (147 boxes, 5 volumes); 63.82 mb (626 computer files)
Preferred Citation
Robert Bowne Foundation records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library
Repository
Manuscripts and Archives Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.Restrictions apply
Status note
Audio and visual material unavailable pending digitization.

The Robert Bowne Foundation was a New York City-based grant-giving institution that primarily funded youth organizations, with a focus on after-school and out-of-school programs and research. The collection dates from 1974 to 2016, and contains the foundation's operational and financial records, chronicling the development of the institutions they funded, programs they hosted, and publications they produced.

Biographical/historical information

The Robert Bowne Foundation was founded in New York City in 1968 by Edmund A. ("Ted") Stanley, Jr., the chief executive officer of Bowne & Company, a financial printing business. The foundation, named for Bowne & Company's founder, Robert Bowne (1744-1818), was created with the mission of funding organizations that provide services for New York City youth, particularly those residing in lower income neighborhoods.

During its first fifteen years, the Robert Bowne Foundation funded such national organizations as, the Boy Scouts, Boys & Girls Clubs, Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, and YMCAs; local facilities including food banks, homeless services centers, Planned Parenthood of New York, St. Marks Church-in-the-Bowery, St. Matthew's and St. Timothy's Neighborhood Center, Children's Art Carnival in Harlem, and the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music; and large cultural institutions such as the Museum of the City of New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, South Street Seaport Museum, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and the New York Zoological Society.

In 1983, Stanley hired Dianne Kangisser as the Bowne Foundation's first executive director. Previously employed at Literacy Volunteers, a non-profit organization that provided free literacy services to adults, Kangisser steered the foundation towards an emphasis on out-of-school and after-school youth literacy programs. The foundation defined this as "engagement in reading, writing, listening, and speaking in order to better understand oneself, others, and the world." While the foundation funded over two hundred New York City-based organizations, they also provided grants to programs in other cities whose work was within the foundation's youth education mission.

In addition to funding youth programs and organizations, the Robert Bowne Foundation also provided research grants and fellowships to educators and scholars. Beginning in 2000, the foundation launched their own journal, Afterschool Matters, in order to publish ongoing research and contribute to the field of youth out-of-school programming studies. In 2007, the foundation released the book, Afterschool Matters: Creative Programs That Connect Youth Development and Student Achievement, which profiled various out-of-school programs, and discussed ways to work with youth who were struggling academically. The foundation also published a peer-reviewed biannual series entitled Afterschool Matters Occasional Papers Series, which contained more in-depth studies than their other publications; The Third Arena: Afterschool Youth Literacy Programs, published in 1999; and a variety of professional development guides.

Dianne Kangisser retired as executive director of the Robert Bowne Foundation in 1999, and was succeeded by Lena Townsend. In 2002, Anne Lawrence was hired as the foundation's first full-time program officer. R.R. Donnelley acquired Bowne & Company in 2010, and it was determined that the Robert Bowne Foundation would close. Both Townsend and Lawrence remained with the foundation until its dissolution in 2016.

Scope and arrangement

The Robert Bowne Foundation records date from 1974 to 2016 (bulk dates 1997-2009) and contain files of grants awarded, staff and board of trustee operations, the foundation's finances, and publications produced by the foundation. The collection comprises files that reveal the organizations and programs that the foundation funded, the manner in which funds were allocated, and the impact the foundation's grants had on the institutions they supported. The majority of the collection consists of grant files, providing evidence of the efforts and collaboration between grant applicants and the grant-giving foundation to efficiently utilize and budget funds, and the methods in which those activities were documented and implemented.

The additions are board of trustees minutes dated from 1969 to 2015.

The Robert Bowne Foundation records are arranged in six series:

  • Series I: Grant Records
    1981-2016
    44.6 linear feet; 833 kilobytes

    Series I contains files for over three hundred projects, programs, and organizations awarded grants by the Robert Bowne Foundation. The files are arranged alphabetically by program name, and hold proposals, award letters, correspondence, financial records, contracts, site visit reports, and questionnaires completed by the grant recipients. Some programs received funding over a number of years, so the materials included chronicle their progress over time, and may also hold final reports, brochures, promotional materials, photographs, lesson plans, and publications. Files from the 1990s and 2000s tend to contain a greater level of detail, while many files from the 1980s only hold a single award letter or proposal.

    In addition to the grant recipient files, Series I also contains files for the Edmund A. Stanley Jr. Research Grants, Julia Palmer Library Grants, and fellowships that the Robert Bowne Foundation funded. Additionally, there is a small selection of potential grantee files, which contains proposals, correspondence, and general information for organizations that did not receive funding.

  • Series II: Administrative Staff
    2001-2015
    11 linear feet; 7.5 megabytes

    Series II comprises the administrative files of Robert Bowne Foundation Executive Director Lena Townsend and Program Officer Anne Lawrence, documenting their work from 2001 to 2015. These files contain items related to the day-to-day operations of the foundation and include conference materials, correspondence, evaluations, meeting minutes, program files, project plans, reports, research materials, and strategic planning documentation.

    The Administrative Staff files provide information on the programs organized by the foundation's staff, including the Afterschool Matters Initiative, Capacity Building Project, the Julia Palmer Library Development Project, and the Networking Meeting Series. These files hold agendas, applications, notes, participant evaluations, and surveys, which address the programs' content, participants, and outcomes.

  • Series III: Board of Trustees
    1981-2009
    1.5 linear feet; 11.7 megabytes

    Records of the Robert Bowne Foundation's Board of Trustees are held in Series III. These files contain the foundation's by-laws; information on the Board's committees and its members; correspondence and memoranda; meeting agendas, minutes, and notes; presentations by and to the board; and summary reports addressing the foundation's operations and finances.

  • Series IV: Financial Records
    1974-2013
    3.1 linear feet; 44.2 megabytes

    Series IV consists of files related to the Robert Bowne Foundation's funding and financial management. These records reveal the sources of the foundation's finances, the day-to-day operating expenses, and the manner in which funds were allocated to grant recipients. The files contain accountants' reports, audits, budgets, financial statements, grant award files, and investment activity. The financial statements provide a summary and overview of grants that were awarded annually, and how much funding organizations received each year.

  • Series V: Publications
    1995-2014
    1 linear foot

    Series V includes publications authored, published, and distributed by the Robert Bowne Foundation. These publications include Afterschool Matters, Supporting Community Learning: A Staff Development and Resource Guide for After-School Youth-Education Programs, and The Third Arena: Afterschool Youth Literacy Programs.

  • Series VI: Audio and Video Recordings
    1993-2000

    Series VI consists of audio and video recorded by the Robert Bowne Foundation. The audio recordings are of meetings and events, while the video recordings contain footage of programs filmed by the foundation.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Donated by the Robert Bowne Foundation, 2016.

Processing information

Compiled by Heather Lember, 2016.

The additions were processed by Valerie Wingfield, 2017.

Using the collection

Location

Manuscripts and Archives Division
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018-2788
Brooke Russell Astor Reading Room, Third Floor, Room 328

Access restrictions

Sound and video recordings are unavailable pending digitization.