In the late 1940s, the development program at Johns Hopkins was experiencing great difficulties. While University expenditures had tripled since 1940, fundraising had dropped off dramatically. In the period from 1946 to 1949, the University received only $1,372,322, and $1.11 million of that consisted of a single large gift from Mr. and Mrs. W. L. Clayton.

By 1948, Carlyle Barton, President of the University's Board of Trustees and a major leader in previous fundraising efforts, decided that a drastic reorganization was necessary. The Board therefore formed a special committee of Trustees to conduct a study of the University's needs and reorganize the development program. Recognition of the interdependence of the various components of the Medical Institutions, as well as the problems which had resulted from a lack of coordination between the University and the Hospital in previous efforts, led to an invitation to the Hospital Board of Trustees to appoint several of its members to the committee with the understanding that the advisability of a joint fundraising effort would be explored.

In 1950, this Joint Committee retained the services of the John Price Jones Corporation to undertake a study and make its recommendations. Based upon those recommendations it was decided to launch a twofold program, with a short-term phase, the Assurance Fund, having the goal of raising $6 million in five years to cover operating expenses, and a long-term program, lasting up to twenty-five years, which would attempt to raise $72 million for endowment and new physical facilities. In order to achieve these ambitious goals, a permanent, professional fundraising office for both the Hospital and the University was to be established.

Thus, on January 16, 1951, the Johns Hopkins Fund was incorporated, with each of the parent Boards choosing four of its nine trustees, and both Boards voting for the chairman. D. Luke Hopkins agreed to serve for one year as Chairman and President of the Fund, and J. D. Colman, Vice President for Development at both the University and the Hospital, was made Director and Secretary, and placed in charge of day to day operations.

The Assurance Fund campaign was largely successful, with $6.3 million raised. Approximately $1.8 million was given by the Trustees, $1,765,000 by the Baltimore community, and the rest by national sources.

Despite this auspicious beginning, the Fund went into decline. No other major campaigns were launched, and no major capital gifts were sought. Donaldson Brown, a wealthy non-alumnus who assumed the Presidency from John M. Nelson, Jr. in 1954, attempted to reverse this trend in two ways. First he began a systematic campaign to generate national corporate interest in Hopkins. Although the funds raised were not great, this did establish a large number of contacts for the future. He also attempted to establish a scheme whereby people who had planned to make bequests to the University would commit themselves to making smaller yearly gifts instead, with Brown offering to match all such gifts from the Trustees himself. Their reaction was so unenthusiastic however, that he resigned his position in disgust, and soon lost interest in Hopkins. His resignation was soon followed by those of two key staff members, Gentry Waldo, who had been the University's Vice President for Development from 1946 to 1949, and Wilbert Locklin, who left to institute a separate non-local fundraising operation for the President of the University.

Upon Brown's resignation, no Trustee could be found who was willing to take his place. The Fund was without a President for two years, and in fact, the Fund Board of Trustees did not even meet between November 1955 and March 1957.

In the spring of 1957 Colman resigned, and the Fund was reorganized and revitalized. Charles S. Garland agreed to serve as Chairman of the Fund Board, and it was decided to hire a professional fundraiser to serve as President. By November, Gavin A. Pitt, former Personnel Director at General Dynamics, was selected to become Vice President of the University and Hospital, and President of the Fund.

In December 1957, the Decade of Development campaign was announced, with the goal of raising $76 million in ten years. Wilbert Locklin was made project director for the Medical Institutions, where his first priority was to secure funds for the new Children's Medical and Surgical Center. Similarly, Charles R. Estill was hired to direct fundraising for Homewood, where progress was being made on new buildings for the Library and the Physics Department.

On July 1, 1960, Pitt resigned to become President of Presbyterian-St. Luke's Hospital in Chicago. Instead of searching for another president, the Trustees decided, upon the recommendation of Estill and Locklin, to reorganize the Fund once again. The presidency of the Fund was to revert to being a non-salaried position held by a trustee. The actual direction of the Fund would be conducted by three vice presidents: Estill, responsible for development at the Medical Institutions; Locklin, responsible for Homewood; and Osmar Steinwald, responsible for alumni relations. Clifford Culp, the Fund's office manager, was appointed Treasurer-Secretary.

Under the direction of these three men, as well as the new Fund President Eli Frank, Jr. and University President Milton S. Eisenhower, Hopkins embarked upon its first comprehensive capital campaign since 1946, the Ford Foundation Matching Challenge. The University had secured a $6 million grant from the Ford Foundation, but it was contingent upon raising an additional $12 million by mid-1963. The campaign to raise the additional funds relied heavily upon alumni for both contributions and volunteer work. Due to large contributions from individuals and other foundations, the $12 million was raised by April 1962. The Ford Foundation then granted another $6 million, again contingent upon the University raising $12 million within the next three years. This was raised by March 1964, also a year ahead of schedule.

In May 1965, Frank resigned as President, turning the Fund over to a Hospital Trustee, B. H. Mercer. At the same time Culp turned over responsibility for running the Fund office to Anna Ray Suter, and began devoting all of his time to the National Resources Committee, acting as the Fund's main contact with national corporations and foundations. In November of that year, Wilbert Locklin resigned, and his duties were assumed by Ronald A. Wolk.

At the same time, inflation and other increases in costs were beginning to have an impact upon the needs of the University and Hospital. In the decade preceding 1966, the endowment of the University had doubled but the budget had tripled. A 1963 report estimated that the University and Hospital would need at least $130 million over the next ten years. The 1958 goal of $76 million by 1968 was as obsolete as the earlier 1949 goal of $76 million by 1976. A 1966 report estimated that more money would be needed in the next ten years than in the last ten, and outlined several building projects that were considered urgent. At the end of the Decade of Development in 1968, $95 million had been raised, and the Fund was still collecting about $10 million a year in private gifts, yet the University still had great financial needs.

In the fall of 1967, the Fund was reorganized yet again. M. Jenkins Cromwell, who had assumed the duties of Chairman and President from Mercer in November 1966, turned over the Presidency to a professional fundraiser, Gerald Burns, who was simultaneously appointed Vice President for Development of the University and the Hospital. At the same time, Estill and Wolk resigned and the Vice Presidencies of the Fund were also reorganized. Steinwald remained as Vice President in charge of alumni relations. Culp was promoted to Vice President and placed in charge of national development, and James Egan was hired as Vice President for local development and also given responsibility for planning the University's upcoming capital campaign.

At the end of 1968, Burns resigned as President of the Fund, to be followed in the spring of 1969 by Egan. Both left over differences concerning the organization of the new campaign then being planned, the Hopkins Hundreds. Also in 1968, Cromwell died, and John M. Nelson III was elected to take his place.

In May 1969, Ellery B. Woodworth was elected President of the Fund and Vice President for Development of the University. He held the position for two years, until May 1971, when he resigned to become Special Assistant to the President in charge of government relations. During his tenure, morale was improved after the successive administrative shake-ups of the preceding two years, planning was begun in earnest for the Hopkins Hundreds campaign, and efforts were made to decentralize development, and make the divisional development officers responsible to their deans rather than to the Fund.

It was also under Woodworth's supervision that the Fund ceased functioning as an independent entity. The Fund Board of Trustees held its last full meeting on May 11, 1970. After that, the organization dissolved due to disputes between the University and the Hospital over the timing of the upcoming campaign. The members of the Fund Board who were also University Trustees continued to hold special meetings into early 1972, when their planning functions were taken over by the Campaign Committee of the Board of Trustees, chaired by John M. Nelson, III, the former chairman of the Fund Board.

Upon Woodworth's resignation, Ross Jones, the University's Vice President for Institutional Affairs, assumed the Presidency. David W. Ellis assumed responsibility for day-to-day operations and was appointed Executive Director of the Fund and Director of Development at the University. Ellis left the University at the end of 1972 and was replaced by John R. McFarland.

In February 1973, officials of the University and Hospital announced the Hopkins Hundreds campaign, seeking $100 million by May 1976. This figure, although the most ambitious in Hopkins history, was substantially lower than the amounts being sought or planned at the time by several other universities. Of that amount, $34 million was to go for building and plant improvements, $59.5 million for increasing endowment, and $6.5 million for operating expenses. A total of $108.9 million was raised, about half in receipts and about half in deferred form. Foundations contributed 17.5 percent of the total, corporations 4.7 percent, alumni 36.7 percent, and other individuals 41.1 percent. As in the past, a relatively large percentage of alumni contributed, 25-30 percent, but their dollar amount was rather small.

In 1979, McFarland retired, and Robert Haley was appointed Vice President for Development. As part of a general reorganization, it was decided to create a separate University Office of Development. The Fund, which had been essentially dormant for a decade, was renamed The Fund for Johns Hopkins Medicine and became active once again as the fundraising body for the Medical School and Hospital.