Give Smart Blog

By Jessica Ford A VOAD Long-Term Recovery Group (LTRG) is a collaborative effort that emerges after a disaster. It’s a who’s who of national and local organizations working together to provide disaster response and recovery services. VOAD stands for “Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster.” Human, material, and financial resources flow into communities after a disaster, […]

Creating Incentives for families to apply for free and reduced lunches Arkansas Community Foundation recently made a grant to the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance in response to a lower number of Free/Reduced School Meal forms being turned in across the state. Just because a family has qualified for free or reduced lunches doesn’t automatically mean […]

Don’t forget that August is National Make-A-Will month. Even if your estate planning documents are already in place, this is still a good time to review your will, trust, and beneficiary designations to ensure that they still capture your financial and family situation, as well as your intentions.  It’s hard not to be inspired by […]

Despite the recently-announced decline in 2022 charitable giving, we continue to hear inspiring stories from you and other fundholders. And we continue to work with new individuals and families to establish their own charitable funds at the Community Foundation, and nothing could make us happier! Increasing charitable giving and connecting donors to important causes are […]

Over the years, you’ve probably taught your young children, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews lessons along the lines of “share and share alike” and “better to give than to receive.” But how do you transition these lessons into more concrete instruction about charitable giving, without risking the youngest members of your family becoming overwhelmed or bored? […]

By Kim Dishongh Usually when a university president discusses growth, he is referring to academics, student enrollment or budgets. Richard Dunsworth, president of the University of the Ozarks in Clarksville, has plenty to say about those topics — but he might also share updates on his crops. He put in a garden behind the president’s […]

Camille Wrinkle is the CEO and executive director at the Harvest Regional Food Bank in Texarkana. Through her leadership and experience with Arkansas Community Foundation, the organization is meeting people’s need for food now but investing in future needs too. The food bank serves a 10-county area and has provided 4.5 million meals in the […]

One priority for grantmaking at Arkansas Community Foundation is early literacy. The Foundation makes a wide array of grants to support programming to improve literacy throughout the state, including Story Walks! A Story Walk is an interactive and outdoor activity that combines reading and walking. It typically involves displaying the pages of a children’s book […]

By: Adena J. White Overconsumption of processed foods has been linked to the rising rates of diabetes, hypertension and other chronic health conditions. Access and cost are the major barriers.  To address these barriers and help improve the physical and economic health of Jefferson County, Communities Unlimited was recently awarded an “Access to Local Foods”’ […]

Urban Patchwork and its network of growers promote urban farming across Pulaski County By Adena J. White “Growing food is in my blood.” For Gabe Bland, farming is part of his lineage. The Elaine, Arkansas, native comes from a family of sharecroppers. He calls Little Rock home, too, splitting his time between Elaine and the […]