Thirty years ago, the late H.L. and Janelle Hembree began one of the first donor advised funds at what is now the Western Arkansas Community Foundation with a gift of $104,000. To date, Hembree family members have made almost $2.2 million in grants to nonprofits in Fort Smith and Northwest Arkansas from the proceeds of that endowment.

“The focus of my parents’ generation was higher education and youth development. They made donations to the U of A Fayetteville, U of A Fort Smith and Boy Scouts of America.” said Lawson Hembree, a financial advisor with Merrill Lynch in Fort Smith. 

The pool of nonprofits eventually broadened to include other needs like St. Edwards Mercy Hospital Hembree Cancer Center and St. John Episcopal Church. Today Lawson is coaching the next generation of givers, Lawson’s two sons and his late brother Scott’s two daughters. 

“We just started allowing the grandchildren to make grant decisions. The oldest is 30 and the rest are in their 20s,” he said. They are interested in community-based organizations like local schools and the Community Services Clearing House back-pack hunger program.”

The Hembrees chose to hold their funds at the Community Foundation rather than establishing a private family foundation because with the Community Foundation, they can focus on being philanthropists, not administrators. 

“We can fully focus on the requests we receive and make the best grant decisions without having to engage accountants and lawyers,” said Lawson. “Costs at the Foundation are reasonable for the services they provide.”

His mother and brother served on local and state Community Foundation boards. “Participating in the Community Foundation allows collaboration among philanthropists and helps in identifying community needs,” he said.  

Arkansas Community Foundation works with families to help them establish a legacy of giving across generations. We have options that enable you to be flexible about the causes you support from year to year as your family grows and interests evolve. Even after your lifetime, your heirs can continue to use your family’s fund to keep your giving legacy alive. 

Contact a member of our development staff to learn more: 

In Central Arkansas – Ashley Coldiron, 501-372-1116, acoldiron@arcf.org 

In Northwest Arkansas – Jody Dilday, 479-335-5721, jdilday@arcf.org

Arkansas Community Foundation created the Aspire Arkansas report to provide a county-by-county look at the quality of life in Arkansas. From that report, we learned that only 37.8% of our state’s third-graders can read on grade-level.

Only 37.8%.

A mountain of education research confirms that third-grade reading levels are a strong predictor of future success in school and beyond. So what can WE do to move these numbers in the right direction? 

We’ve partnered with the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading to make grants targeted to advance some simple, evidence-based strategies so that every child in Arkansas can read at grade-level by the end of third grade. Through that partnership, we’ve invested more than $350,000 statewide to support local programs working to improve our state’s reading scores.

We’ve got a lot of work to do. By partnering with the Community Foundation, you can make a difference. Here are four ways you can get involved:

• Explore AspireArkansas.org to learn about grade-level reading in your community. 
• Reach out to your local affiliate office or our central office staff to learn about organizations working to improve local reading scores and opportunities to give.
• Create a fund or endowment with the Community Foundation focused on supporting reading programs for the long-term. Contact our staff to learn more about your options.  
• Monitor your community’s progress as Aspire Arkansas data is updated each year. 

For three years, Misty Ward of Magnolia’s East Side Elementary dreamed of having a book-mobile that would deliver reading programs to kids during the summer. After doing some research and finding what worked for other Arkansas school districts, she decided to form a plan. 

With only 29 percent of Magnolia K-3 students reading on grade-level, Ward knew that providing a high-quality summer program would be key in helping boost local students’ reading scores. Known as the “summer slide,” summer learning loss happens when students lack access to quality reading programs during their months off from school. This backwards slide can often leave children up to three years behind their peers by the end of fifth grade.

Past summer reading programs in Magnolia had experienced low attendance due to rural transportation challenges and were often expensive for schools to operate. Ward believed a book-mobile could solve these challenges while providing quality programs in the most efficient way.

After Arkansas Community Foundation launched its Grade-Level Reading Initiative, Ward presented her plan to the local board of directors. With a $5,000 grant from Columbia County Community Foundation, a bookmobile program was finally within reach. “Our board was really excited to support the idea of a traveling summer reading program in Magnolia,” said Janet Rider-Babbit, Executive Director of the local Community Foundation affiliate. “Our work is about collaboration. We wanted to support programs that are working and Misty had the relationships and expertise to see a program like this succeed.”

With funding in place, Ward began the Reading and Rolling program and worked with the local school district to secure volunteers, bus drivers and transportation. She recruited colleagues, including Denise Phillips, to co-lead and visited with mayors, churches and community centers to identify locations that could serve as easy-to-access bus stops.

“We sent letters home with over 900 children in the district letting them know about the program and where the bus stops would be so they could attend,” said Ward. “We had great attendance and hope to reach more kids next summer.”

In its inaugural year, Reading and Rolling served about 30-40 children each week. Principals drove the bus with literacy coaches and teachers to local parks, churches and community centers. Each program lasted about 30 minutes and children in attendance left with a new book to take home and use for reading practice.

Ward and Phillips hope to continue to build the program so that it can become a community staple, ultimately boosting reading skills and improving grade-level reading scores for children across the county each summer.

Learn more about grade-level reading statistics in your community at AspireArkansas.org.

Look for it soon in your mailbox or read it online – the 2018 Arkansas Community Foundation Annual Report tells the story of how the people of our state are giving smart, together. It’s got all the numbers on the Foundation’s progress during the fiscal year July 2017 to June 2018, when $42 million in Foundation grants helped improve our communities.

Read about how a grant to the Center for Arts and Education in Van Buren helps fund a summer arts camp for students from nine communities. This gift exemplifies the spirit of cooperation that led the Fort Smith Area Foundation to expand its territory to Crawford County and become Western Arkansas Community Foundation.

Find out how Foundation grants throughout our state are working with the Grade Level Reading Initiative to reach the goal of each student in the state reading to grade level by third grade. See how a $5,000 grant from the Columbia County Community Foundation is combatting the “summer slide” with a book-mobile that delivers summer reading programs to Magnolia students.

Meet Little Rock attorney Shaneen Sloan who uses Arkansas Community Foundation giving tools to help her clients give smart. She works with charitable-minded people who want to make a positive impact in their communities long after they are gone.  

Discover how Conway County Community Foundation support for School Counts! helps tie personal opportunity to community growth. This workforce development partnership between Morrilton’s business community, the county’s K-12 schools and the University of Arkansas at Morrilton Foundation allows high school students acquire the technical skills they need to succeed.

Learn how three generations of one family have changed the landscape of nonprofits in their community. From a $104,000 donor advised fund created 30 years ago, Hembree family members have made almost $2.2 million in grants to nonprofits in Fort Smith and Northwest Arkansas.

A message from CEO Heather Larkin explains that the Community Foundation has learned over the years is that better information leads to better problem solving. In 2018, the Community Foundation launched the new edition of Aspire Arkansas, an online, county-by-county indicators report about the quality of life in our state. It’s one of the most important tools the Foundation can provide to Arkansans. 

The 2018 Annual Report can help you find out for yourself how smart giving, together, is helping transform our state.

After a glorious autumn in the Natural State, there’s no denying that the gift-giving season is now upon us. While some of us relish in carefully selecting the perfect gift for each person on our list, others consider the task of holiday shopping as one more to-do to mark off our list before truly enjoying everything this special season has to offer. 

Whether you’re in the first category or the second, chances are you’ve got someone on your list who is practically impossible to buy presents for.  For those folks who have everything, we’ve got the PERFECT gift idea! 

Give a gift to charity in honor of a loved one this season! 

You can make an honorarium gift any time of the year, but the holidays seem especially appropriate. Including someone else in the act of charitable giving is a gift you can both feel good about!  There’s no need to worry about choosing the right color or size…a gift to charity is always in style. Here are three easy steps to get started!

• Make it meaningful.  Think about your loved one’s interests and the community they love when choosing the charity to support.  Are they an animal-lover? A patron of the arts? An avid outdoorsman?  An active volunteer? Consider a gift to a charity that aligns with their passions. And if they have varied interests, consider giving to their community’s Giving Tree Endowment that supports many different causes for the long-term.  
• Make it personal. When you make your gift to charity, note “in honor of ______” and be sure to include your their mailing address. The Community Foundation will notify them of the contribution. (Generally, nonprofits will notify the honoree that a gift has been made, but rest assured – they will not disclose the amount.)  Of course, you too can notify the recipient that you’ve made a contribution in their honor – in a greeting card or through other means. Be creative! 
• Make it a tradition. Giving to charity is a great alternative to consumerism, an opportunity to teach children to think of others and a way to truly celebrate the season. We know many families who have discovered that supporting charitable causes has become their favorite holiday tradition. Consider creating a Donor Advised Fund with Arkansas Community Foundation and allow us to help your family create a legacy of giving.

Our staff at the Community Foundation would be happy to help you give the PERFECT GIFT this season! Contact us at 501-372-1116 or arcf@arcf.org.

Arkansas Community Foundation is ready to assist you as you begin to make year-end giving plans. So that we can provide the best possible service and ensure your charitable gifts qualify for a charitable income tax deduction in the 2018 tax year, please keep these important dates in mind:

• Checks sent via the U.S. Postal Service to the Community Foundation or any affiliate office must be postmarked by December 31, 2018.
• Gifts sent via other means must be physically received at the Community Foundation or any affiliate office on or before December 31, 2018.
• Gifts of stock, IRA or complex assets take more pre-planning, so please contact us in early December to ensure they can be attributed to this calendar year.
• If you would like to give to a nonprofit from your fund before the end of the year, grant recommendations must be received by Friday, December 21. Checks will be mailed Friday, December 28.
• Credit card gifts made by phone or online may be made until December 31, 2018.
• Call 501-372-1116 to contact any of our staff for assistance.

Year-end grant recommendations:

Donor-advised fundholders may wish to recommend grants to support nonprofits’ year-end campaigns or provide holiday contributions. So that these nonprofit recipients receive grant checks by the end of the year, recommendations should be made by Noon on Friday, December 14. Donor advised grant recommendations should be made online through our secure donor portal.

Please also note, the timing of donor advised grants has no effect on your 2018 charitable income tax donations since your charitable contribution was made when you contributed it to your donor advised fund.

Year-end office hours:

Arkansas Community Foundation is ready to help you support the causes you care about at year-end with our staff available to provide answers and process transactions until the last day of the year. Our offices will be closed on Monday, December 24 and Tuesday, December 25 but will be open for business as usual Wednesday, December 26 through Monday, December 31 from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Alden Napier brings more than just a positive attitude and strong leadership to his role as executive director for Credit Counseling of Arkansas. He can personally testify to the surprises that life can bring and the importance of smart financial planning.

When Napier was young, his family lost three businesses in the span of a year, leaving them to rely heavily on others in their community. This taught Alden and his siblings about the importance of access to financial services within a community, especially when families are facing uncertainty.

Today, Napier leads a nonprofit agency founded on education and leadership that helps people conquer their debt and create smart financial habits for their future. Through the services provided by expert staff members and a large network of volunteers, CCOA connects people to mainstream financial services so they can experience stability and financial freedom — at a very low cost.

“A community will be in a better position to thrive when they have help repaying their debts,” said Napier. “That’s what we’re here to do — get people out of debt.”

CCOA’s product is debt consolidation and they work with creditors to recover delinquent accounts. In turn, creditors pay them 4 cents on the dollar for every dollar recovered — allowing them to further their mission and provide more services.

“Our priority is education,” said Napier. “We’ve given away nearly 2,000 free appointments last fiscal year because we’re here for community members — we want them to succeed.”

While the industry average is 25 minutes, CCOA schedules appointments by the hour. “A lot of people have a hard time discussing their financial decisions. Everyone who walks through our doors is treated with compassion and paired with a staff person who is ready to listen and provide the necessary steps to move forward,” said Napier.

Not only does CCOA deploy compassion through their staff, they have a network of professional volunteers who are trained and ready for action when any opportunity arises. Volunteers serving as educators are part of the “Community Action Board,” a group that is ready to respond when nonprofits and other community groups need financial training for those they serve.

“When a nonprofit approaches CCOA to deliver a training or speak to their clients, we call on a member from the Community Action Board to present,” said Napier. “Oftentimes they’re a banker or a retired attorney and they’re the ones delivering those meaningful messages of financial freedom.”

Napier went on to stress the importance of having bankers on the volunteer board because they’re able to deliver the message of “let me teach you the basics,” decreasing the stigma about banks and changing attitudes about the services they’re providing to communities.

Nonprofits like NWACC, Havenwood, Peace at Home and Returning Home are some of the organizations CCOA has partnered with to provide these trainings and services. Approaching its 21st anniversary, the CCOA team is like a family, reminding Napier of his own experiences at such a young age. 

“My family was surrounded by such a compassionate, capable community when we faced hard times,” said Napier. “I was the beneficiary of very generous and highly-skilled people and that’s something that CCOA is working hard to provide to Arkansans.”

You can learn more about CCOA and the services they provide at a very low cost by visiting CCOACares.com.