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?

Drs. Sandra and Brad Johnson live in northwest Arkansas with their two children. The couple discussed giving and other financial issues before they even married, and have instilled their charitable values on their kids since they were babies. As part of our Family Giving focus this month, we asked the Johnsons to reflect on their giving. Each week, we will feature thought-provoking and inspiring answers. Read how these two doctors have applied the medical philosophy “See one, do one, teach one” to their giving.

How would you describe your giving philosophy?
An attitude of gratitude makes a big difference. In our family, we try to remember that we are part of something bigger. We are not the most important people on this planet. It is up to us to always think how to help the other person. We have been blessed to have a great family and given the resources we need to get by in life. It seems the more we give (with a cheerful heart) the more we are given.

How did you develop your family giving plan?
When Brad and I were planning to marry, we discussed our long term plans. We both know how important it is to give back some of the blessings we have been given but yet did not want to be limited to tithing to our church. Arkansas Community Foundation helped us to create a plan that accomplishes what we want. That plan means giving some of our time, talents and treasure to our church, our schools and our community. We have a plan and give from our “head,” but when a need arises that tugs at our “heart,” we also contribute to that cause.

Do you learn more about philanthropy from observing, doing, teaching or reading?
In medicine, there is a phrase of “see one, do one, teach one.” I feel like that applies to philanthropy and all of life. See others do good (be generous), we do good, we help others do good—that makes the world a better place.

What is your family’s highest priority when considering grants?
We value investing in the future. We value education and community. We place a high priority on “building”—building actual structures and programs that will impact the future.

What did you learn about giving from your parents?
There are two sayings my parents have instilled in me: “To whom much is given, much is required” and “Your life is God’s gift to you and what you do with it is your gift to God.”

What do you want your family’s philanthropic legacy to be?
We would like to be remembered as kind generous people who left the world a little bit better. In a dream world, we would like a trail system to incorporate our community of Greenwood with Fort Smith and extend north to the NWA trail system.

Giving as a family helps define shared family values, and putting those values into action helps solidify a legacy. Developing a common giving philosophy can unite all families, not just those with wealth. Beyond having a positive impact on the organizations and issues you care about, your family can reap many rewards from making generosity a group project.

Family giving can:

• Help family members develop a deeper connection and build trust by working together;
• Create an outlet for everyone to share their passion, perspective, knowledge and talents;
• Allow for direct interaction and learning between generations, from grandparent to grandchild;
• Illustrate to children that giving back to their community is important;
• Teach younger family members a wide range of skills—communication, negotiation, shared decision making, leadership, accountability and financial literacy—that can be directly transferable to business;
• Build well-being and positively affect the health and happiness of family members;
• Allow the family to control how their money is used instead of going to the federal and state taxes; and
• Offer opportunities for family members of all ages to experience the joy of giving.

For more about how you can start a family charitable fund, contact Ashley Coldiron at 501-372-1116.

A Guest Post by Andrea Price

For nine generations, my family has called the Arkansas Delta home and it gives me great joy to serve in the Delta.

From Mississippi County to Chicot County, I’ve had the opportunity to meet and work with Arkansas Community Foundation executive directors and board members who are committed to making their communities better. In many cases, the local affiliate boards of the Community Foundation are the only local, grant-making entities serving an entire county. Their service is an essential part of community life and I am honored to work with such committed public servants. In every community I serve, I take informal tours of each community and I’ve found something special in each place.

In Clarendon, I found mini libraries sprinkled throughout the town. On the town square in Marianna, there’s a playground the local affiliate of the Community Foundation helped fund. Lake Village has the largest oxbow lake in North America and members of the local board hold their meeting along this beautiful body of water. I’ve found that a picture is really worth a thousand words when I visited Helena’s famous Johnson‘s Studio, and I visited the Northern Ohio School at Parkin Archeological State Park and experienced a piece of American History. These are just a few of the attractions that make the communities special.

In addition to working with the affiliates and experiencing local attractions, I’ve had the opportunity to enjoy local fares throughout the Delta. Unique food shops and abundant fresh food stands line highways through the Delta. The smell of the best bar-b-que in the United States permeates the air in communities throughout the Delta, and the best canned chow-chow, pickled tomatoes, jams and jellies can be found in some of the most inconspicuous places. There is no shortage of good food or good people in the place I call home.

Every time I make a trip to an affiliate area, I am reminded of the history that helped shape the Delta, the people who are currently working to make it stronger and the future of this very special region of the country. For me, there is no place like home and I am honored to give back to a place that gave so much to me.

What are the biggest challenges facing older people in Arkansas?

by Dr. Jeanne Wei, M.D., Ph.D.
Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

Senior Arkansans face a daunting set of challenges that contribute to disparities in health.

Healthcare outcome disparities are directly related to the differences in access to, and availability of, health facilities and services, primarily as a result of geographical location, socioeconomic status, education, language, race, gender and/or age.

These disparities clearly have had a negative impact on the aging population in the state of Arkansas. Arkansas is ranked 50th in the U.S. in cardiovascular outcome disparities. Among the 50 states, Arkansas ranks 47th in overall senior health, 50th in food insecurity, 46th in physical activity and 41st in poverty among seniors.

One key factor in these differences is the rural nature of the state and the distance between where seniors live and the nearest hospital or physician’s office. Telemedicine has begun to help alleviate this problem and continues to demonstrate potential for narrowing the gap.
Addressing all these multiple problems simultaneously, comprehensively and with sufficient dedicated resources, is essential to solving each one and to ensuring that seniors throughout Arkansas are healthy and are receiving equal access to, and benefitting from, healthcare.

A reduction in the number of seniors living at or below the poverty line would mean more seniors eating better, healthier and not succumbing to malnutrition or even hunger. It also can mean access to affordable transportation to a senior activity center or other fitness facility where they can participate in activities to improve their health. Similarly, good nutrition would go hand in hand with taking advantage of these activity and exercise facilities.

Solving only one of these problems might not significantly improve things soon enough for senior Arkansans, but a solution that knits all of them together will likely succeed where narrower initiatives have previously failed. We all need to collaborate together to help our loved ones, our neighbors and eventually ourselves.

By Rev. Herschel McClurkin,
Retired United Methodist pastor
Alma, AR

“I miss my Sunday School class and church when I can’t go. My relationship with God is important,” say some.

“To get myself to the aquatic aerobatics two times a week helps my arthritis, but it gets tiresome. To do the exercises and walking suggested by the rehab folks following surgery and hip replacement is not easy.”

A lady, 91, says, “If we don’t keep ourselves in touch with others and have fellowship, we go down fast! My brother offered to take our sister to church after her husband died. She refused to get out of her chair. She didn’t last long!”

Some older people say, “Keeping active and staying busy is number one, and it’s difficult with lack of transportation.” Some say transportation is their main challenge.

Others have challenges for lack of food, poor nutrition, someone to check on them, citizenship, energy, medicine, finding a doctor, waiting months for an appointment, keeping up with Medicare and Medicaid changes, finding affordable home care, facing homelessness, learning about free clinics and wondering what our government is going to do next.

What is common to all? The little three-year-old, the 20-year-old college athlete and adults are all getting older! Some of us want to and some of us don’t want to get older.

Challenges for aging people abound. More are beckoning to be aided. But people who are willing to help are always a God-given blessing.

Choosing between buying food and paying the rent or purchasing medication is a reality for 240,000 Arkansans aged 60-plus. According to a 2014 report from the DHS Division of Aging and Adult Services, 40 percent of older Arkansans experience food insecurity, making Arkansas first in the nation in senior hunger.

Financial hardship, lack of transportation, living in areas with few food stores and mobility limitations are major contributors to these chilling statistics.

“We all have a part to play in reducing senior hunger,” said Tomi Townley, Older Adult Outreach Manager of the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance. “Building a sustainable statewide initiative first means educating our state about the problem.”

In Arkansas, 21 counties have been designated as food deserts, where people of all ages have difficulty obtaining nutritious meals. But for seniors, who are often isolated and inactive, the problem of receiving adequate nutrition is compounded.

“Our vision is to create a coalition like No Kid Hungry that will pull all the best ideas together with the organizations who can implement them to make big strides in ending hunger among older Arkansans,” said Townley.

Today nonprofits in Arkansas are meeting this daunting challenge with creativity and persistence. Here are 10 innovative local programs and potential national strategies that could be put to work in Arkansas communities.

1. Arkansas Senior Hunger Summit – In October of 2014 the Arkansas Hunger Alliance held the first Senior Hunger Summit to learn from hunger relief experts and share information on the successes and challenges experienced by older people in Arkansas. More than 200 participants shared information about successes and the challenges of senior hunger in their communities.

2. Business Plans for Senior Meal Programs – Jerry Mitchell of Area Agency on Aging of Northwest Arkansas said running congregate meals programs for seniors can be more cost effective when implementing strategies like:

• Negotiating with grocery stores to secure a single food supplier at the lowest cost.
• Monitoring and changing menus to ensure what is being cooked is being eaten.
• Training staff to order efficiently and prepare appetizing food.
• Exploring catering for other community groups and organizations.
• Convenience Store Nutrition – For some rural Arkansas seniors, convenience stores are their only shopping option. Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance is working with these stores to provide nutritious options like fresh fruits and vegetables in rural convenience stores and to use tours of these stores to help seniors make nutritious food choices.

4. Double Dollars – More and more farmer’s markets around the state are participating in the Double Dollars program that allows older people who receive SNAP benefits to purchase twice as much food for the same price at local farmer’s markets. A recent Hunger in America survey said the number one thing seniors want more of is fresh fruits and vegetables.

5. Friends and Neighbors Network – A partnership between First United Methodist Church in Little Rock and the Arkansas Foodbank Network is helping friends and neighbors in a downtown high rise work cooperatively to reduce hunger. FANN Coordinator Elaine Bultena said twice a week 18 households come to the church to unload and distribute about 500 pounds of supplemental food that allows them to have more fresh and nutritional meal options.

For an outlay of about $200 a month from the church, the participants – about half of whom are seniors – have a consistent source of more nutritious food. The participants also hold programs to learn more about nutrition and other issues, and they decide where the small dollar dues they pay to FANN are spent – the last vote gave a donation to the Arkansas Foodbank and funded a community picnic.

6. Meals on Wheels – Area Agencies on Aging and other nonprofits statewide are a part of the national Meals on Wheels network. Home-delivered meals to homebound older people is not a new idea, but enhanced menu options and modern meal preparation allow more nutritious meals to be prepared and served to those who welcome the human contact of volunteers along with their hot meals.

7. Mobile Food Markets – Though none are up and running today in Arkansas, groups like the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance are exploring the possibility of mobile food markets that bring the chance to purchase nutritious food to small communities. In this model, a bus run by volunteers takes nutritious food into food desert counties on a regular basis.

8. Senior-Friendly Food Pantries – Arkansas Foodbank, with a grant from Walmart, implemented a program to increase seniors access to food pantries though outreach, designating special senior hours, assisting with SNAP applications, ensuring pantries have foods seniors like and redesigning delivery systems. Phase two of the program is the creation of model Food Pantry sites that exhibit best practices and help train volunteers.

9. SNAP Bingo – Fun and games are used to promote SNAP benefits to sometimes resistant older Arkansans at retirement centers and senior housing units. To get more information out on this government program that helps seniors purchase more nutritious food, the Arkansas Hunger Alliance is playing SNAP Bingo.

10. What a Waste! – The National Foundation to End Senior Hunger’s program in senior centers in Washington, D.C., measures waste from congregate meals to help guide future menu choices and uses food waste as compost for growing healthy vegetables and fruits to supplement meals.

by Dr. Thomas Bruce, professor emeritus, University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service and University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health

One of my interests over the years has been to explore other people’s giving habits. What I’d really like to know is why people give, but analyses about the reasons for giving always wind up being speculative. How people give is an easier question to answer, since records are kept broadly to document donations.

In some instances the results of giving studies do reflect indirectly on the why question. For example, it is simple logic that financial giving is related to income: the more money you make, the larger donations you can afford to give.

But if one moves away from the actual dollar amount that’s donated, an interesting thing can be seen. As a percentage of income, the more you make, the less you give. For example, IRS records document the contributions of all Americans. One can take a standard deduction or itemize the deductions if desired. This discretionary income and charitable giving data is available here in an interactive tool created by the Chronicle of Philanthropy. 

Consider just the data for Arkansas… family households in 2012 with less than $25,000 in annual discretionary income (that portion left after paying taxes and basic food/housing costs) gave 12.36 percent for charitable purposes. Those with more than $200,000 in annual discretionary income gave 3.50 percent for charity. So it isn’t just a modest aberration, it’s big!

And at income levels in between, one finds gradations of the same sort:

• $25,000-$50,000 (6.68% contributions)
• $50,000-$75,000 (5.34%)
• $75,000- $100,000 (4.63%)
• $100,000-$200,000 (4.00%)

What was, perhaps, most intriguing about the study was its geographic analysis. Percentage giving at every income level was higher in the poorest areas of the state (South Central, South East, and East Central regions) than in the wealthiest areas of the state (North West, North Central, West Central). The Central metro area fell somewhere in the middle. The three most generous regions are rural agricultural or forestry zones with sizable African-American populations and some of the state’s most challenging social problems, i.e. high poverty, low educational achievement, and poor health.

This study suggests that giving patterns are socially driven, in considerable part. If one sees needy individuals around on a regular basis there’s a tendency to try to respond, whereas those who live in more affluent neighborhoods seem to spend discretionary income more for personal uses, “keeping up with the Joneses,” if you will, rather than helping others.

This also may also explain why Arkansas is commonly rated as one of the most generous states (the “generosity index”), along with other low-income states such as Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana (Utah was rated most generous last year).

To protect privacy, the IRS does not provide information about the specific charities that people supported, so what is known about beneficiaries has to be drawn from other studies. Giving to churches and other faith groups is very high, usually about two-thirds of all donations, and this may be another reason why Arkansas and other Bible Belt states rate high in the” generosity index.” An analysis by New York Times Economics reporter Catherine Rampell, however, showed that religious giving also varies a good bit with income, dropping to 17 percent with higher incomes. Arkansas Community Foundation fund holders gave more for educational and health purposes in 2013 than they did for religion.

Bottom line: understanding better why people give of their time, talent, and resources remains an intriguing interest, and is at the heart of why studies on the nature of benevolence have such important policy implications for Arkansas and the nation.

When the term ‘Renaissance Man’ is used to describe someone, Robert Zunick would have to fall into that category.

He graduated magna cum laude in chemistry yet became a financial advisor. He grew up playing music and now creates Zuni inspired stone carvings in his spare time. When he became a father, Robert began to realize yet another part of himself: he finds great joy in giving to youth and to human service.

Robert said he and his wife started the giving process when their two boys were young.

“We’d sit down as a family every Thanksgiving to decide on how to give to others,” he said. “It was a great exercise to make them think about what to support. Now that they’re grown, we see them giving freely.”

One of his pet projects is Hot Springs Area Community Foundation’s Youth Advisory Council (YAC), where he has served 12 years as a youth advisor.

“It’s encouraging to see teenagers embrace philanthropy so naturally. So many people complain about young people and their occasional shortcomings, but after one hour watching these kids your faith in humanity and our future is fully restored!” One of the other organizations his family fund has supported is Jackson House, a crisis center that helps folks down on their luck and helps kids from going hungry.”

“I believe Woodrow Wilson sums it up best: There is no higher religion than human service. To work for the common good is the greatest creed,” Robert said. “In this time we have on earth, we should make it a better place. We have an obligation to do that.”

We partner with people like Robert to talk about their goals for charitable giving and how we can make those goals a reality. If you’d like to schedule a time to talk with us, please don’t hesitate to reach out via email or give us a call at 501-372-1116.