The purpose of the Foundation was to collect, systematize, and provide information concerning the history of the Hungarian minority in Romania, with a special focus on the period after 1989. One further aim was to provide an institutional background for Hungarian social scientific research in Cluj, especially in political science and contemporary history. With this end in view, the Foundation regularly organizes roundtable discussions and seminars, and it continuously enlarges its collection of manuscripts, the collection of audio materials (interviews) and documentaries, the collection of periodicals (beginning in 1990), and its library.

The Foundation has no paid employees, neither for research nor for administration. The library is run by university students. New materials which are made part of the collection are also organized mostly by students, and professional input is furnished by researchers Nándor Bárdi and József D. Lőrincz. The organizational functioning is ensured by researcher Izabella Györgyjakab and the president of the Foundation, István Székely.