Page 37 – Arkansas Community Foundation

When South Arkansas native Glenn Freeman talks about his philosophy on giving, he begins with his roots: “Growing up, my family was poor and didn’t have much. But we were in the same boat as a lot of other people. It was not uncommon for one of us to go next door and borrow a cup of sugar.”

Glenn Freeman is a true friend of the Community Foundation. He has created Community Foundation funds to honor his mother and his wife’s parents, and he has served as a Southeast Arkansas affiliate board member and member of the state board. Although his contributions to Arkansas Community Foundation are great in both time and donations, Freeman’s devotion to community service is the real gift.

Freeman, raised by a proud single mother who found it difficult to ask for help, strives to affect long-term change that empowers people and enables them to be self sufficient, rather than creating dependency. He believes in creating situations where people can have access to help without asking, and he supports organizations that give people opportunities to select the benefits or goods they need, such as food pantries, Goodwill Industries or The Salvation Army. Freeman also advocates for nonprofits that benefit young people, like the Ivy Center for Education (ICE), which helps high school students with ACT preparatory workshops, tutoring and mentoring programs.

But Freeman doesn’t think that kids should only be on the receiving end of gifts. He works with the Community Foundation’s Youth Advisory Council (YAC) to teach the importance of leadership and community philanthropy to high school students. Freeman also mentors college men about the value of investing so that they may one day experience the benefits and impact of giving. He hopes this exposure to philanthropy will help shape their mindset and develop a broader pattern of giving in the minority community. He states simply, “If people didn’t give, there would be nothing to receive.”

Client Conversations, FASB Not-For-Profit ASU Project and Family Philanthropy

Client Conversations

As a new year has begun, so too will a new round of client conversations. Whether you’re meeting with a new client or you’re reviewing a multi-year plan, these conversations allow you the opportunity to get to know and have a broader understanding of your client “off paper”. All topics pertinent to your client’s goals, including philanthropy, should be addressed. Whether it is a new client meeting or a multi-year plan review, these conversations allow you the opportunity to get to know and have a broader understanding of your client “off paper”. All topics pertinent to your client’s goals, including philanthropy, should be addressed. Here are two interesting articles from Investopedia on approaching the topic with every client in a professional and ethical manner:

Philanthropy and Millennials: How Advisors Can Start the Conversation
How to Discuss Philanthropy with Financial Advisory Clients

FASB Not-For-Profit ASU Project
by Corey Moline, CPA, Chief Financial Officer, Arkansas Community Foundation

In April 2015, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued a proposed accounting standards update (ASU) that when implemented will require significant changes in the way information is presented in a non-profit organization’s financial statements. This project will be completed in several work streams, the first of which will conclude sometime during the second quarter of 2016. There has been no indication of an effective date for the resulting ASU. It is likely, based on the past history of the FASB, for an adequate period of time to be given between the issuance of the final standard and its effective date so that affected organizations will have time to implement the changes into their financial accounting and reporting systems. Here’s a video that provides more information.

Did You Know This About Family Philanthropy?
by Jennifer Junker, JD, Managing Director of Trust and Wealth Management, Bank of the Ozarks

Does money buy happiness? Actually, yes, but only to a certain dollar amount estimated at around $75,000 a year. We all have basic needs and some income is, of course, necessary to provide for them. Studies have shown, however, that individuals do not have increased happiness with increased bank accounts. With adults and children of affluence experiencing higher than average levels of depression, anxiety, and substance abuse problems, the opposite is true in fact.

Why is this? In a nutshell, wealth can be isolating. In fact, it is not our wealth, but instead our connection with one another and our status with our social groups that have been shown to be critical factors in physical and mental health. So what are affluent families to do? One option is to consider charitable giving as a family. By its very nature, Family Philanthropy fosters connections between family members and with their communities, resulting in benefits for both.

Maintain Management of Client Funds
You can continue to manage your clients’ charitable funds at the Community Foundation. We have charitable giving options that are good for your clients and good for your business.

Visit Advisor’s Corner for more news, tips and tools for professional advisors.

With the new year, we’re looking ahead to see what 2016 holds and it’s going to be chock-full of great opportunities that will improve communities across Arkansas. To save you some time and help you feel prepared, we’ve laid out some important dates for you to mark on your 2016 calendar:

Spring Giving Tree grant cycle: This is one of two Giving Tree grant cycles that happen every year. See the full list of affiliate offices that are currently accepting grant applications. Don’t put off submitting an application because the deadline will be here before we know it! Eligible nonprofits can apply online before February 15. Unsure how you should apply? Watch our application tutorial. Do you have a question about eligibility? Contact our central office.
Arkansas Black Hall of Fame grant cycle: ABHOF grants support programs that address challenges and opportunities in the African-American community and in other underserved communities throughout Arkansas. You can read more here on how to prepare for the application cycle that opens on February 1 and closes on April 1!
Arkansas Community Foundation Scholarships: Did you know that we offer over 100 different scholarships to a variety of students across Arkansas? These scholarship funds have been set up by people who are passionate about improving education in the lives of young people. Learn more here and don’t forget to submit an application between Feb. 1 and April 1! You can also pick up some great tips on how to submit a quality application here.
ArkansasGives: On April 7, the state of Arkansas will join together to support our nonprofit organizations that make our state better. Learn more about how you can participate in this one-day online giving event!
Arkansas Delta Endowment for Building Community: Through our Arkansas Delta Endowment for Building Community, we’ll be making grants to help improve social and economic conditions for children and families in the 26-county Delta region. See if you’ll qualify so you can be sure to start an application on May 1!

Stay tuned for important summer updates – like when we send scholarship payments to schools and when our fall grant cycles open!

If you have any questions, our central office staff or our affiliate staff are happy to help. Head over to our contact page to see how you can get in touch.

Happy New Year!

Last year more than 350 nonprofits raised a total of $2 million in 12 hours through ArkansasGives, the Community Foundation’s online giving event. Needless to say, we were blown away by the outpouring of love and support for our state’s charities.

So, yeah, we’re bringing ArkansasGives back in 2016!

Here’s what you need to know about the big day:

ArkansasGives is April 7. Put the date on your calendar and get ready to give! When you donate to your favorite charities through ArkansasGives.org between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. on April 7, you can help them compete for bonus dollars and prizes. It’s a great way to make your charitable dollars stretch further.
Nonprofits have to sign up by Feb. 14. Most nonprofit organizations will be eligible to participate , but they’ve got to sign up. Check here to see which organizations are already confirmed to participate. If your favorite charity isn’t on the list, send them a link to our registration form and ask them to get involved.
You can donate to 10 nonprofits in one transaction. We know there are many charities that matter to you, so we’re making it easy to support them all. When you donate online through ArkansasGives.org, you can earmark gifts for up to 10 participating nonprofits in a single credit card transaction, so you don’t have to re-enter your payment information over and over. Simple!
We’ll make sure you don’t forget about the big day. Sign up here to receive an email reminder on April 7. Don’t worry – we’ll only send you a message the day before, the morning of the event, and at the end of the day to let you know the results. We promise not to spam!
Big news is coming soon. Stay tuned for a big announcement later this month. We’ll be sharing details about our 2016 fundraising goals, sponsors, partners, participating nonprofits and this year’s bigger, better bonus pool of incentive dollars for participating nonprofits.

Good news! Earlier in December, Congress enacted a law that allows donors in their 70s and older to give individual retirement account (IRA) assets to charity, free from federal tax, annually.

Why is this a big deal? Prior to 2006, any distribution from an IRA was taxed, even if the funds were given to charity. But now, under the PATH Act, passed on Dec. 18, if you’re 70 ½ years of age or older, you can roll over up to $100,000 from an IRA directly to a charity (like the Community Foundation) without being taxed.

It’s a fantastic way to give more with less!

Is a Charitable IRA Rollover right for you? This option might be a good fit if:

You’re 70 ½ or older and receiving IRA required minimum distributions, but you don’t need the extra income.
You want to make a significant gift during your lifetime, rather than leaving these assets as a bequest in your will.

Through the IRA Rollover provision, you can transfer assets from your IRA to several different kinds of charitable funds at the Community Foundation.* Your options include:

A designated fund, which allows you to specify in advance which charities will benefit from grants made from your fund.
A field of interest fund, which allows you to choose a general charitable cause (such as education, health, conservation, etc.) that grants from your fund will support.
A Giving Tree fund, which allows you to support a specific community in Arkansas. Grants from Giving Tree funds are selected by a committee of local leaders, who accept grant proposals from nonprofits serving that community.

*Contributions to donor advised funds currently do not qualify for the Charitable IRA rollover under the PATH Act.

Want to learn more about whether the IRA Rollover option is right for you? We’d be happy to visit with you and your attorney, CPA or financial planner. Contact Ashley Coldiron in our central office at 501-372-1116) or the Community Foundation affiliate office in your hometown.

Imagine making a charitable donation today that will still be making a difference for your favorite causes 10, 20 or even 50 years from now. How many lives would be touched by that single gift?

When you partner with the Community Foundation, that kind of long-term impact is possible through an endowed fund. Technically speaking, an endowment is a fund that is invested on the markets for future growth. The principal of the fund is never spent, but the investment returns can be granted out year after year to support charitable causes. Over the long term, you can grant many times more than the value your original gift because the endowment continues to generate income as long as it’s invested.

We use a calculation based on the average value of the fund from quarter to quarter to determine how much can be granted each year; that way, even when the financial markets are down, you can continue to support your favorite charities.

Here’s how it works:

You decide which causes you want to support. Your endowed fund is your tool to make an impact on the charitable needs that matter most to you. You might choose to focus on a particular issue if:

You want to honor or memorialized a loved one by supporting a cause close to his/her heart.
Your life has been touched by an experience in a particular issue area; for example, maybe you valued the support of an Alzheimer’s respite care program during a loved one’s illness, or perhaps your life was influenced by early exposure to an arts program.
You’ve been a committed volunteer and/or donor to a specific cause and want to provide a source of funding that will continue on even after your death.

Or, you might consider focusing on a particular place, using your fund to support a variety of programs working to improve that community. For example:

Do you want to give back to a community that has supported your family or business through the years?
Are you active with a wide range of causes in your area? Would you find it difficult to choose just one to support?
Are you a committed community leader? Do you want to provide funding so that the work you began can continue for generations to come?

You decide how hands-on you want to be. If you already know which organizations you want to support or you want to involve your children and grandchildren in your giving process, you can create a donor-directed fund. That means we’ll make grants from your fund based on the recommendations you give us each year.

But if you want help identifying the very best charities working to address your favorite cause or you want to ensure that your funds are used to support a wide variety of causes from year to year, you can also tap into the expertise of our professional staff and volunteer advisory committees. Through a foundation-directed fund, we’ll work to identify the best use of your funds from year to year, following any guidelines or parameters you give us.

We’ve got the flexibility to customize a giving solution that fits your interests and preferred level of involvement.

We manage the fund and handle the administrative details. Our expert finance committee and investment advisors handle the day-to-day management of your fund to keep it growing for the long term. We also take care of the accounting, legal compliance, auditing and other administrative details. All you’ve got to do is enjoy the satisfaction of building your charitable legacy.

Get started today! The process of creating your fund is simple and easy. We’ll gather some basic information about you and the causes you want to support and talk you through the process of choosing the type of endowed fund that best fits your needs. We can have your fund up and running in as little as a day or two.

If you’re ready to get started, contact your local affiliate’s executive director or Ashley Coldiron at 501-372-1116.

We’re excited to announce grants to five organizations working to teach and preserve Arkansas History and make information more accessible to Arkansans. Funding for the grants comes from our Bridge Fund Endowment, created at the Community Foundation in 1993 to serve as a bridge between Arkansas’s past and future by supporting education, libraries and the teaching/promotion of Arkansas history.

Grants from the endowment are made throughout Arkansas for schools, archives, local county and state historical societies and museums for projects to provide training for teachers of Arkansas history; to facilitate teaching and learning of state and local history; and to increase the knowledge and understanding of Arkansas history, especially through research and publication.

This year’s grants were awarded to:

Central Arkansas Library Foundation, for an outreach project to increase access to library branches, including bus service to transport students to the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies and the Hillary Rodham Clinton Library and Learning Center.

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, for the Arkansas Declaration of Learning project, which will enable 28 Arkansas teachers and school librarians to develop lesson plans using historic objects, works of art and primary source materials from Crystal Bridges, the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies and the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Reception Rooms.

Lee Street Community Center, to establish a park and exhibit memorializing the lives lost in the 1919 race riot in Elaine, Arkansas.

UALR Center for Arkansas History and Culture, to host the Teaching a Web of Arkansas History workshop for museums, libraries, archives and secondary educational institutions. Participants will receive instruction from a professional archivist to create we-based exhibits with historical images.

Walton Arts Center, to support the touring production of Digging Up Arkansas, a play that teaches elementary school children about Arkansas history through the story of two Depression-era Works Progress Administration workers as they organize and display Arkansas history artifacts in preparation for a visit from President Roosevelt.

There’s more to giving than cash! Yes, writing a check or making a credit card donation is a simple way to give to the nonprofit organizations you support, but did you know you’ve got other options?

Arkansas Community Foundation can work with you and your attorney, CPA or financial advisor to help you turn your non-cash assets into a gift that can benefit your favorite charitable causes for years to come.

Here’s how:

Real Estate. When you donate a home, commercial property or piece of land, you can take an income tax deduction for 100% of appraised value of the property if it was held for a year or longer.

Securities. Transferring publicly traded securities to the Community Foundation is a simple transaction that can be completed in a few business days. Contact Lindsey Simmons in our central office for transfer instructions. We’re also able to accept closely held stock. Contact Ashley Coldiron to learn more.

Insurance Policies. If you’ve got a limited cash flow but want to make a large gift, donating an unneeded insurance policy could be an attractive option for you. You can defer the gift by naming the Community Foundation as a beneficiary, or donate the policy outright.

Crops or Timber. We’re even able to accept donations of agricultural products. We’ll work with a buyer to sell the products on the market and use the proceeds to support the charities you designate.

A non-cash gift might be the ideal way for you to make a significant impact on a cause you care about this a holiday season. You can partner with the Community Foundation to set up a fund or endowment to protect, grow and direct your charitable dollars. It’s not too late to start your giving legacy this holiday season.

Starting your own charitable fund is simpler than you think. Find out how it works here.

What are your giving goals? Contact our staff to set up a consultation and find out how we can help you achieve them.

Originally from Prescott, Arkansas, the late Betty Teeter Sloan made Jonesboro her home and advocating for that community her life’s mission.

This former Arkansas Community Foundation board member set up an endowment that ensures her charitable legacy and engages the current and future generations of her family in giving.

Her eldest son John T. Sloan of Jonesboro, eldest daughter Kitty Sloan of Paragould and granddaughter Caroline Sloan Bednar of Little Rock now serve as advisors for grantmaking decisions from the Betty T. Sloan Charitable Endowment. They hope to eventually involve all six children, seven grandchildren and, so far, two great granddaughters, who are spread across Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida and New Mexico. Kitty Sloan answers our questions about giving:

What are the chief challenges that you confront in your family’s giving?
Mother died November 4, 2014, at age 91. Our challenge will be to think of grants she would have supported. Sending an annual donation to the United Way of Northeast Arkansas was an easy first decision because one of the reasons she set up her endowment was to be a perpetual United Way Pillar. She was the local United Way fund drive chair 30 years ago and her support of cooperative community-based giving never wavered.

What is your family’s highest priority when considering a grant to a non-profit?
I think our guide will always be: What would Mother do? She was involved in and supportive of so many activities in Jonesboro. We want to continue her legacy. She also was always educating herself about every aspect of the community. So, this first year on our own, we decided to grant to Leadership Jonesboro, which is sponsored by the Jonesboro Regional Chamber of Commerce. Mother was involved in Chamber activities for three decades, and its community promotion award is named for her. We know she would approve of helping to train new leaders for Jonesboro’s diverse nonprofit groups. We are also looking at ideas to support The Forum, the 1926 movie theater that Mother helped transform into a city-owned performing arts venue in 1978. We will continue to try to think of grants she might have thought of herself. That will be a challenge, too, because she always had innovative ideas.

What is philanthropy to your family?
We inherited a community-based vision of philanthropy from both parents. Our father, James E. Sloan, who died in 1979, was very active in his hometown of Jonesboro. With the help of friends in the Craighead County Farm Bureau, a scholarship for agriculture majors at Arkansas State University (ASU) was established in his name (now named for both Betty and Jim Sloan). After raising six children, Mother became more involved in the community. She often noted that if she could not give a lot of money, she gave a lot of her time. Even as president of E. Sloan Farms, she would also list her occupation as “community volunteer.” Arkansas Community Foundation will now be an opportunity for each generation to remember “Nana” and her generous spirit.

To what extent do you give from the head versus the heart?
The heart will always be guided by the head, just as Mother was. A valid question for each project might be: Will this be a practical path to an emotional payoff? Years ago, when the family was approached to make a pledge to the Flo and Phil Jones Hospice House in Jonesboro, the donation was a way for us to contribute to the community and also to recognize the late Flo Jones, the nurse who introduced the hospice concept to Jonesboro and who counseled us when we were caring for our father at home during the months he was dying from untreatable prostate cancer. Part of the emotional payoff is that we personally know how families benefit from having the option of the Hospice House available. It is rewarding to have our family’s name attached to the furnishings of the family room there.

C.J. and Karen Duvall prioritize giving to nonprofits that provide educational opportunities to young people and actively involve their two teenage daughters, Alisha and Alana, as advisors in their giving. Ultimately the Duvalls hope that their legacy is framed by the number of people they meet, touch and serve who, in turn, move towards a giving spirit themselves.

What is philanthropy to your family?
Giving has always been intentional in our family and is born out of a history of communal sacrifice. Our parents and grandparents taught us to give regularly through time and money. We were taught to tithe in church and volunteer time in our community. Arkansas Community Foundation allows us to carry on this family tradition on another level.

To what extent do you give from the head versus the heart?
Head versus heart is a constant balancing act, so having a personal mission plan or statement of purpose to guide your giving can help eliminate the gray along the way.

What makes you happiest as a donor? What is most frustrating?
We are happiest when we can see the result of our donation. For example, the joy of watching a scholarship recipient graduate or hearing that a recipient is giving back to our community makes us very happy. On the other hand, our biggest frustration is discovering that a nonprofit has not been a good steward of the donation by channeling the donation away from the original purposes intended by the gift.

What are the chief challenges that you confront in your family’s giving?
The biggest challenge is always the same: defining our priorities in the face of knowing that there are so many great causes to support. We have a set list of priorities that makes it easier to make decisions annually; however, it is not set in stone and we evaluate periodically if the donor recipient list will change. The great thing about the Community Foundation is that the on-line tools and recordkeeping provide a history of our philanthropy to use as a historical map of past philanthropy.

What would you like your children & grandchildren to learn from you about giving to others?
I would like my children and grandchildren to know that giving is not about having a lot of money. Our grandparents were poor, but they gave as part of a communal renaissance. My parents were not wealthy but they gave to advance others. I want my children to know that they have the same DNA that spawned my giving ethic. If they act intentionally I doubt if they will be able to escape the desire or intention to give.

What is philanthropy’s importance to society?
If we were to remove the effort of intentionally promoting goodwill and service to others what kind of world would we have? If we removed both our private family and Community Foundation donations, a recovery center that serves hundreds of adults a year would not have had the land and initial capital to be constructed. Several hundred students would not have a cafeteria and student activity center. And several students that did not have the means to go to trade school or to college would not be actively employed today in occupations that provide them with a way to feed their family and “intentionally” give back to their community today.

Are you interested in learning more about how Arkansas Community Foundation can help establish good giving habits with your family?