Many people without children wonder how they want their legacy to take shape. Without the need to plan for biological heirs, they often have unique freedom to direct their resources, time, and values toward the broader community. In fact, Americans over 50 without children are more than four times as likely as parents to include charity in their estate plans.

If this sounds like you—or someone you advise—here are three themes to explore when creating an intentional philanthropic strategy:

1. Treat charitable giving as part of your identity.

Your giving can reflect what matters most to you. A fund at the Community Foundation can carry your name or a name that expresses your values—“Smith Family Fund,” “Building Stronger Communities Fund,” “Animal Welfare Innovation Fund,” or anything meaningful to you.

2. Integrate charitable planning into your estate plan.

Without the need to provide for children, many donors have more flexibility to create a lasting legacy aligned with their values. We can work alongside your estate planning advisors to structure charitable gifts—during life or at death—that direct your assets to the causes you care about most.

3. Expand the circle.

You may choose to involve nieces, nephews, younger relatives, or trusted community members in your philanthropy. A donor-advised fund allows you to name successor advisors who can continue recommending grants after your lifetime.

Whether or not you have children, the Community Foundation is here to help you build a charitable plan that reflects your values and strengthens the community you care about. We would be honored to support you—reach out anytime.

Every year, Americans give nearly 2% of the nation’s GDP to charitable causes—a testament to the generosity that fuels more than a million nonprofits. At the Community Foundation, we’re grateful for your trust as we help steward your giving with care and integrity.

Our commitment is twofold:
(1) to provide a home for your charitable giving, and
(2) to understand community needs so your generosity has the greatest possible impact.

Some needs are urgent—support for families in crisis. Others are long-term—education, health, and economic stability. Our job is to track these evolving priorities and help you invest where it matters most.

For donors aged 70½ or older, one particularly powerful tool is the Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD). A QCD allows you to transfer up to $108,000 in 2025 directly from your IRA to a qualified public charity. The amount bypasses taxable income and can satisfy required minimum distributions—a valuable strategy for managing tax brackets, Medicare IRMAA surcharges, and other income-sensitive considerations.

Because QCDs cannot be directed to donor-advised funds, many donors use a blended approach:

• their DAF for regular annual giving, and
• their QCDs to support unrestricted funds at the Community Foundation.

Unrestricted funds allow our board and staff to direct grants where needs are most pressing—both now and in the future. It’s one of the most impactful ways to strengthen the community you love.

Talk with your tax advisors about whether QCDs fit your 2025 plan. And remember: with new tax laws arriving in 2026, these strategies may become even more valuable.

No matter which tools you use—DAFs, QCDs, bequests, or others—we’re here to help. Thank you for partnering with us to make a meaningful difference.

by Jessica Hughes Ford

At Sylvan Hills High School in Sherwood, the future doesn’t feel distant. It hums in the hallways and feels very much present in the here-and-now. Students run gel electrophoresis in the lab, complete CPR and financial management training, and sit for mock interviews with local professionals. It is all part of the Academies of Central Arkansas, a relatively new model linking high school learning to real careers.

For senior Nathan Lam, the effect is personal.

“I’ve always wanted to help people,” he said. “Health care seemed like the place where you can directly do that. But I didn’t really know what that looked like until I got into this program.”

Through his pathway at Sylvan Hills, Lam has taken medical courses, job shadowed, and interned at Arkansas Children’s Research Institute, a partner of the Academies. There, he helped with a research project on RSV, a common respiratory infection in children and sometimes adults, and realized the lab was not daunting anymore. “I used a micropipette and did RNA isolation and thought, ‘Wait, I’ve done this in my classes.’ The hands-on work made me more confident.”

That word, confidence, comes up often among Sylvan Hills students.

Nathan credits his medical sciences teacher, Melissa Duncan. “I appreciate her humor and the way she answers questions until you get it. That makes you want to ask, which makes you want to learn,” he said.

Duncan, a veteran biology and AP instructor, has seen a major shift. “Before, even in AP biology, we did level-one labs,” she said. “Now my students are purifying proteins and talking about recombinant genes like it’s normal. That’s a shift from rote learning to doing.”

Partnerships make that possible. “I’m not a doctor; I don’t suture,” Duncan said with a laugh. “But with Academy partners, I got a physician in my classroom so students could try it. By doing so, they become confident,” she said. “They are steps ahead of most graduating seniors, and suddenly bigger goals don’t seem out of reach.”

Felicia Wheat, lead academy coach for Pulaski County Special School District, has been in her role for about three years. “In classrooms, teachers teach through the lens of a career,” she said. “In geometry, for example, you might apply formulas to calculate the cost of carpeting a room.”

The Academies began locally in 2017, when the Little Rock Regional Chamber took four superintendents to Nashville, Tennessee to study its career-connected model. Nashville’s approach helped lift graduation rates and industry credentials. Central Arkansas became one of the few regions nationwide to adopt it across multiple districts, requiring coordination of class schedules, staff roles and planning. The up-front work has been significant, but it is paying off.

The Academies’ latest annual report shows:

• Industry-recognized credentials rose from 800 to 2,899
• 94 partners contributed almost 12,000 hours, valued at $1.17 million
• Internships jumped from 112 to 894 in one year
• Students earning 3 or higher on AP exams increased 38 percent

Enrollment at Academy high schools has grown three years in a row, a counter-trend in public education. “When students have real options, they are choosing our public high schools because of the experiences they get,” said Markous Jewett, president of the Academies of Central Arkansas Foundation.

At Sylvan Hills, three academies house multiple pathways, each led by a consistent team of adults who travel with students year to year.
“Our campus grew from 680 to more than 1,500 students,” said Tracy Allen, principal at Sylvan Hills. “The academy structure created smaller learning communities so kids don’t fall through the cracks. Each academy has its own principal and counselor, and core teachers are aligned to academies.”

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Soft skills are taught alongside technical training. Last year’s theme was networking. Teachers greeted students with handshakes, practiced professional introductions, and hosted a luncheon where students learned etiquette and talked with business leaders by career interest. This year’s theme is leadership.

Freshmen meet career experts; sophomores take industry tours; juniors complete job shadows, and seniors pursue certifications, capstones and internships with direct feedback from professionals. Local partners make it real and more successful. Arkansas Children’s alone invests thousands of hours, bringing marketing, HR, IT and clinical experts into classrooms while hosting internships and certifications. WER Architects and Michael Baker International, an engineering firm, co-teach standards and host tours in engineering. At Mills High School, steel fabricator Lexicon, Inc. transformed welding enrollment from 2 to 135 in 16 months by investing in onsite welding bays.

The message from partners mirrors what students hear in labs: high expectations and real purpose. As Patrikc Schueck, president and CEO of Lexicon, told a packed auditorium of construction and welding students, “This work is hard and we’ll push you. Whether you work for us or our competitors isn’t the point. Find your purpose and pursue it.”

For business leaders trying to bring more jobs and opportunity into the state, this is economic development in action. “When companies scout central Arkansas, their second question after land is workforce,” said Jewett. “Now local leaders can point to specific workforce pipelines and the number of projected graduates by field. These new employers bring revenue back to districts, strengthening schools and neighborhoods in a full-circle way.”

There are deeper hopes too, like deterring youth involvement in harmful paths by showing them real futures. Teachers and students alike consistently attribute the transformation using the same word: confidence.

Ask Lam the greatest thing the program has given him: “Confidence,” he said. “Research used to be scary. Now the lab feels familiar. Interviews feel doable.”

Duncan smiles at that. “If they are frustrated, they are learning,” she said. “This program gives kids the chance to struggle productively, but we are setting them up to succeed in real life.”

The Academies of Central Arkansas are not just building resumes. They are building the state’s workforce and the confidence for a brighter future.

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What inspired Hytrol and the other manufacturing partners to establish the Workforce Training Consortium Endowment?
This endowment began with my grandfather’s belief that workforce development was the key to long-term community success. He understood that Hytrol’s investment in the workforce solely for the benefit of our company wouldn’t create the larger impact our region needed. By bringing manufacturers together, there was a multiplier impact on the resources that could provide more advanced training options with better accessibility than any of us could achieve on our own. We do this work not for the recognition, but rather because Community is one of our core values. We believe in doing the right things for the right reason.

Why did you choose to structure this investment as an endowment?
Another core value of ours is Commitment, which we define in part by taking the long-term view. An endowment ensures this commitment doesn’t end after a few years of investment in workforce development. It allows us to continually reinvest in employees, students, educators, and training programs making this work part of the fabric of our community, no matter how specific needs change over time.

Hytrol is known for being a leader in manufacturing. How does supporting workforce training through philanthropy fit into your company’s overall mission and values?
At Hytrol, we create material handling technology and relationships that move the world, but it’s the people and communities behind each relationship that drive our philanthropic commitment. Supporting workforce training through philanthropy reflects our values of stewardship, responsibility, and partnership. It’s our way of extending opportunity, not just for our company but for every business and individual in our region.

Since its creation, the fund has already granted nearly $83,000 back into the community. How have those grants made an impact?
The projects funded through this endowment show both the diversity of our region and the creativity of our educators. The impact goes farther than Craighead County and includes initiatives in robotics engineering programs, manufacturing camps for middle school students, career awareness projects, scholarships for engineering camps, software, and virtual reality headsets. Each project creates a spark — helping students imagine career pathways and giving teachers new ways to prepare them for the workforce.

Why was Arkansas Community Foundation the right partner to hold and manage this endowment?
The Community Foundation’s mission of building stronger communities is at the heart of our efforts, too. Their local presence means decisions are guided by people who understand our workforce needs firsthand. My wife currently serves alongside other leaders in our community on the Craighead County Community Foundation board, and I have been a past member. We know how this organization functions, and we actively work to continue supporting others who also invest.

What do you see as the biggest workforce challenges facing Arkansas right now, and how do you hope this endowment helps address them?
One of the biggest challenges is preparing students early enough so they can intentionally pursue career pathways, whether in manufacturing, engineering, or other fields critical to Arkansas’ future. Another challenge is making sure the labs and spaces for learning are state of the art. These funds help bridge those gaps, by investing in projects that expose students to careers and empower teachers to bring learning to life in innovative ways.

Looking ahead, what is your ultimate hope for this fund?
My hope is that the funds from this investment will make a huge impact for decades to come because they help people create a better life for themselves. Workforce development is crucial for business, but at the heart of the issue is creating opportunities for people in our community to have meaningful work and live their lives to the fullest. We know that when students, employees, and educators are living this kind of life, our businesses are going to be successful, and our community is going to thrive for generations.

by Jessica Hughes Ford

At the Johnson County Library in Clarksville, books are just the beginning. Today, the library has become a lifeline for residents seeking the skills and confidence to enter or reenter the workforce.

For library manager Jimmy Ritchie, the mission is rooted in home. He grew up visiting this library with his mother, discovering the world through books and finding a sense of belonging. Now he is paying that forward. He is committed to making the library a bridge to opportunity for neighbors who need a hand, a skill or simply a place to start.

The library started Technology Tuesdays, a kind of tech support to help senior citizens, but demand quickly spread. “It’s turned into every day of the week,” Ritchie said. “People just show up, and we might see five to 10 in a week, sometimes more, to get help with their cell phones or laptops.”

When clothing manufacturer Hanes closed its Clarksville plant in 2023, more than 230 workers lost their jobs. The ripple effects hit families across Johnson County. The library responded with Workforce Wednesday, a program connecting jobseekers with local employers, résumé help and interview coaching.

“One woman who lost her job at Hanes came here, and we helped her build a résumé and apply for jobs online. She’d never done that before,” Ritchie said. “She got hired at Walmart, and told us she was so grateful because it meant she didn’t lose her home. That’s the kind of difference we want to make.”

Ritchie sees libraries as more than a quiet place to find books. “I’ve always viewed libraries as a community hub where people come together,” he said. “With the cost of living so high, many can’t afford computers, books or even internet access. We provide both, and a safe environment where they can find support. When it comes to workforce and career readiness, we can step in and be part of the solution.”

Collaboration has been key. The library partners with:

• Staffmark, a staffing agency that hosts monthly on-site job fairs and interviews.
• The River Valley Adult Learning Alliance, where Ritchie serves on the board, connecting adults with tutoring, laptops and Wi-Fi hotspots.
• The Johnson County Chamber of Commerce, which teams up on workshops and community programs.

Another valuable resource has been DigitalLearn.org, an online platform created by the Public Library Association. Their free courses cover everything from basic searches and email to Microsoft Word and cloud storage. Participants who finish receive a certificate to document their skills.

Ritchie hopes the short-term impact is simple: helping residents find jobs and gain confidence. But his long-term vision is broader. “I want to connect people to success and to living a life of worthiness and purpose,” he said. “If people can thrive here, they won’t feel like they have to leave Johnson County to find other opportunities.”

With new businesses moving in, along with downtown revitalization and the Chamber of Commerce promoting local tourism, momentum is building. The library is doing its part by showing how workforce development can strengthen not just individuals, but entire communities.

For Ritchie, working at the same library his mother once brought him to as a child is especially meaningful. “Reading and literacy are transformational,” he said.

“Those skills can take you anywhere. Now I get to give back to the community I grew up in and help others unlock their potential. Because you never know what someone is capable of accomplishing.”

In Johnson County, opportunities are not only found in classrooms or job sites. Increasingly, they start at the library, a community hub where people gain the tools, the confidence and the hope to build a brighter future.

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