University of Massachusetts Amherst. All rights reserved.
2003 University of Massachusetts Amherst. All rights reserved.
In 1939, a group of Amherst citizens determined a need "to develop cooperation between social agencies ... in the interest of financial support of such agencies, and the effective planning and execution of the social services program in this community." The major work of the Amherst Community Association was the Community Chest Drive and allocating those funds to such local and national social service organizations as the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, Amherst Boys Club and Girls Club, Children's Aid and Family Services, S.P.C.C., Hampshire County Association for Retarded Citizens, and Camp Anderson.
In 1943 the Association combined the Community Chest with the National War Fund for a common drive. In 1969, when neighboring towns dissolved their independent Community Associations and reorganized as the Hampshire United Fund, the Amherst Community Association remained autonomous. In 1975, the Association and the Hampshire United Way (formerly the United Fund) hired an Executive Director. The services of Fritz Heinemann were divided between the United Way and the Association 80% - 20%. Three years later, in 1978, the two service organizations merged to form the Hampshire Community United Way.
The records span the life of the Amherst Community Association (1939-1978) and include by-laws, incorporation papers, minutes of the Executive and Budget committees; budgets, correspondence, reports, and flyers for campaigns and annual fund drives; and agency profiles, budgets, reports, and correspondence. Early records of the Association were maintained by the Secretary. The later records, c.1970-1978, were collected by the Secretary, President, Campaign Chairman, and Executive Director, resulting in some duplication of materials.
This collection is organized into three series:
The collection is open for research.
Placed on deposit in the University of Massachusetts by John Sheehan on behalf of the Hampshire Community United Way.
Collection processed by Anneliese Ostendarp, 2003.
Minutes are arranged in chronological order and include some minutes of the Executive and Budget Committees.
Contains by-laws (1939-1972), incorporation papers (1970) and minutes (1930-78). This series also includes some campaign material and agency correspondence, which may duplicate information in the following series.
Records of this series were collected by a number of individuals and, therefore, are not regular in their organization. Campaign records are divided chronologically. They are generally in the order of budget/progress reports, campaign organization, correspondence, and publicity.
Documents the annual fund-raising drives. Included are organization materials solicitation lists, budgets, campaign progress reports, correspondence, and campaign publicity.
The records are divided by year and are organized by agency type (Family, Health, Community) with the later years arranged alphabetically.
Contains agency budget proposals, allocations, profiles, and correspondence. There are also some Budget Committee records mixed with the series. This series dates from 1966-1976 with the most complete records between 1972-1976.