The Rural Settlement Institute (Grantee 1941–1949) was established by Edward Norman — son of Aaron Norman and a central figure in the Assistance Fund’s early decades — to promote cooperative farming as a model for sustainable rural economic development. The fund’s support for cooperative farming would deepen in the decades that followed. In the 1950s, Edward founded the Group Farming Research Institute, and in the 1960s, the foundation supported the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, the Rural Advancement Fund, and New Communities — the first community land trust in the United States — helping Black farmers in the South build economic independence through cooperative land ownership.