Series 3, Subseries 1, Grants Approved, 1940-1961, consists of grant proposals, approval notices, correspondence, progress and final reports, and audits. These files also provide a rich source of organizational histories. Each applicant often provided the Fund with copies of brochures and articles documenting the activities of their respective organizations.

Those receiving monies from the Fund were a various mix of religious, civil rights, educational, fraternal, and other voluntary organizations. The largest beneficiary was the Southern Regional Council, which received over $700,000, to support their educational programs in race relations throughout the South. As a result, the Southern Regional Council was able to strengthen its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia and staff twelve state affiliates with full-time professional personnel. It should be noted that the Fund was one of the few philanthropic organizations to be active in the explosive arena of racial discrimination, and allocated large amounts of money for this purpose.

Another area of initial interest for the Fund was immigration, although only one grant was made to an immigrant aid organization. The Common Council for American Unity received monies from the Fund to expand its legal representation of immigrants and provide an analysis of the cases it handled. The analysis provided an objective view of how certain provisions in the United States's immigration laws were actually working.