Soon after his arrival at Bancroft, Hammond realized that state funding alone would not be sufficient to build the library he envisioned. He and a group of enthusiastic users of the library founded the Friends of the Bancroft Library in 1946 as a nonprofit organization to provide supplemental funding for acquisitions The group has provided remarkable support over the years, underwriting the publication of Bancroftiana (the occasional newsletter of the Friends), the publication of an annual keepsake series (handsomely published books often derived from the resources of the Library), and the purchase of individual research items and substantial collections.