The Near East Foundation was founded in 1915 in response to Ambassador Henry Morgenthau Sr.'s reports of governmental atrocities against Ottoman Armenians. Morgenthau referenced the deportations of intellectuals and requested urgent and immediate assistance. Former missionary and educator James L. Barton and philanthropist Cleveland Hoadley Dodge led a group of prominent New Yorkers in forming the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief. The committee raised $60,000 for direct relief at its first meeting on September 16, 1915. The money was wired to Ambassador Morgenthau for distribution. Cleveland H. Dodge personally financed the committee's operating expenses in order to ensure that all funds went to direct relief. The committee then embarked upon an unprecedented grassroots campaign to raise money and awareness across the United States. The campaign combined striking imagery, passionate celebrity spokespeople, and captivating stories from the field to inspire Americans from all economic backgrounds to become citizen philanthropists. The organization also briefly used the name American Committee for Relief in the Near East in 1918–1919; that name appears on many of the committee's most iconic posters.