HJF in 1983
Soon after the bill establishing the Foundation was signed, attorneys began working on the details of how HJF would operate. The first few months involved the writing of bylaws and registering the Foundation as a 501(c)(3) with both the Internal Revenue Service and the state of Maryland.
Then, the business of running HJF began, as administrative forms, still in use today, were created and letters were developed to send to potential endowment donors. HJF employees were just beginning to understand how they might serve the organization’s mission as envisioned by Congress.
During those first years, HJF and USU realized that the Foundation could greatly facilitate federal research grants to USU investigators because as a private, nonprofit organization, HJF was able to receive indirect costs—a resource USU was unable to obtain from other governmental agencies.