Notre Dame's first campaign to build an endowment -- variously known as the Endowment Drive, the Greater Notre Dame Movement, the Notre Dame Expansion Campaign, etc -- was initiated in the summer of 1921. These records primarily document the Endowment Office's collection of pledges. The bulk of the records is correspodence (dating 1923-30) regarding the scheduling of pledge payments, while the rest is correspondence, reports, and miscellaneous records (dating 1921-30) concerning collection activities, prospects, financial transactions, and news reporting of activities at Notre Dame Those primarily involved in the Office's work, as revealed by the records, were University Treasurer Rev. Bernard J. Ill, CSC (during 1923-25), President Emeritus Rev. James A. Burns (during 1924-27), and Endowment Secretary Henry Watts Eicher (during 1925-30). Eicher was also Burns' personal secretary until Burns became Provincial in 1927 so a (very) few personal Burns items have found their way into the Office's records. The bulk of the files were originally organized in one alphabetic series, but of these, only files A-De and M-Qui (excluding Mc) are now extant. A few other files (mainly the Miscellaneous Correspondence re Pledges) have been returned to this group after having been separated from it some time after the office was closed. Annotated box/folder inventory available. Processed by Peter J. Lysy, July 1985 and September 1988.

Originally these records were organized in one alphabetical series, but during processing non-correspondece folders were separated and filed in their own sub-series. There may remain, however, some non-correspondence folders still filed among the folders of correspondence with persons regarding their pledges.