A Development Office for the American Province of the Poor Handmaids was organized in 1988 with the help of a grant from the Lilly Foundation with the assistance of Sr. Bernadette Kalscheur, SSSF. Sr. Wilma Sehr was the first director of the Development Office.

Records from the Development Office include Lilly Foundation grant information; correspondence and minutes of meetings between Sr. Wilma Sehr and development mentor, Sr. Bernadette Kalscher, SSSF; material collected from the development offices of other congregations; reports to Provincial Council; information on Development Office policies; a capital campaign study; grant application materials; address lists; and correspondence. Development Office mailings and fund-raising materials may be found in Printed Material.

The beginnings of the vocations office are found in the post- Vatican II period. The need for a vocation directress was raised by the pre-1966 Chapter Formation Committee. In March 1968 a Vocation Committee was established with Sr. Julienne Smith as chair. In August 1968 Sr. Julienne was asked to be Vocation Directress. As Vocation Directress, Sr. Julienne also served on the Formation Team which was created in 1970 and the pre-1972 Chapter Formation Committee.

The archives has one folder belonging to Sr. Julienne Smith containing Fomation Committee minutes and other formation related documents. More recent vocations material, including promotional brochures, may be found in Printed.

Materials related to the foundress, Mother Mary Katherine Kasper, include transcripts and translations of her correspondence and other writings or sayings by the foundress, including her maxims and precepts; articles and books written about the foundress; and printed material related to the foundress's beatification. Official documents related to the beatification may be found in the Provincial Office files.