Little Rock, Ark. (Aug. 14, 2024) – Arkansas Community Foundation has elected Tracy Cude of Bentonville as chair for the statewide organization’s board of directors, along with four new board members: Dennis Hunt of Fayetteville, Brad Johnson of Greenwood, Osmar Garcia of Conway and Ritter Arnold of Marked Tree.

Tracy Cude

“We are thrilled to welcome Tracy’s leadership as chair to our board, along with Dennis, Brad, Osmar and Ritter as new members,” said Heather Larkin, president of Arkansas Community Foundation. “These leaders will provide excellent guidance to our statewide network. They each bring a unique perspective and a plethora of strategic skills to our board.” 

Tracy Cude served as chief financial officer of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art beginning in 2006 where she was responsible for the business services division of the museum. Prior to Crystal Bridges, she led the accounting and operational support team at the Walton Family Foundation and served as vice president for finance and planning at the Walton Arts Center where she led strategic planning functions. In addition to her nonprofit career experience, Tracy spent nine years as a private consultant and served on a merger and acquisition team for Raytheon Corporate Jets. She was named Nonprofit CFO of the Year by the Arkansas Business Journal and Accountant of the Year by the University of Arkansas in 2015.

Cude will be leading the statewide organization’s 16-member board, including four newly elected members, Hunt, Johnson, Garcia and Arnold.

Ritter Arnold was a fourth-generation leader of E. Ritter & Company. Started in 1886 as a farming and milling operation, the company is now involved in communications, agribusiness and philanthropy. Ritter is a businessman, farmer and community leader. Now retired, he and his family have two funds at the Community Foundation.

Dennis Hunt has served as an investment banker with Stephens since 1993. He is a registered Municipal Securities Principal and a Municipal Advisor Principal. He holds a master’s degree with honors from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, and has completed post-graduate training at Harvard University, the University of Texas and the University of Virginia. Dennis previously served nine years on the Community Foundation’s board ending that tenure in June 2020. He served on the Fayetteville Area affiliate board for years. He and his wife Marla are fundholders with the Community Foundation.

Dr. Brad Johnson received his certification from the American Board of Dermatology in 2004. He graduated from Greenwood High School in 1991, completed a bachelor’s degree in physics from Hendrix College in 1995 and received his medical degree from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) in 2000. He and his wife, Dr. Sandy Johnson, are fundholders. The couple has worked tirelessly in the Greenwood area to help expand walking trails and advocate for pedestrian-friendly spaces to help improve the quality of life for local communities.

Osmar Garcia, originally from Jalisco, Mexico, moved to Morrilton with his family in 1998. He earned his Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from UCA. After graduation, Osmar began a career in banking, and then joined Northwestern Mutual in 2015. Shortly after joining, Osmar and his brother Gilberto Garcia formed Garcia Wealth Management. Osmar currently serves on several boards including the Faulkner County Community Foundation affiliate. When he’s not working, Osmar enjoys spending time with his family.

Click here to see a full list of the Foundation’s board members.

New Organization Aims to Collaborate with Physician Community to Improve Arkansas’s Maternal Health Outcomes

LITTLE ROCK, Ark., (Aug. 7, 2024) – Today, the Doula Alliance of Arkansas announced its founding. A collaborative initiative aimed at improving maternal health outcomes in Arkansas, the Doula Alliance of Arkansas seeks to advance the profession of birth work through advocacy and education, improve access to high-quality doula services statewide and provide a professional support system for Arkansas doulas.

“Establishing the Doula Alliance of Arkansas is a transformative step toward addressing our state’s maternal health crisis,” said Olivia Walton, founder and CEO of Ingeborg Initiatives, which focuses on improving maternal health and women’s economic empowerment in Arkansas. “As Arkansas faces the highest maternal mortality rate in the nation, the Alliance creates a vital partnership between doulas and physicians, providing an added layer of support for moms during pregnancy and the challenging postpartum period. Ingeborg Initiatives is proud to support this collaborative effort to ensure that every mother receives the comprehensive, compassionate care she deserves.”

The Doula Alliance of Arkansas aims to develop an infrastructure that acknowledges doulas as a profession, elevates the standard of doula practice throughout the state, provides a pathway to a shared definition of certification and ensures doulas are paid equitably for their services. The Alliance also plans to increase the number of certified doulas across the state and promote the use of certified doulas by women throughout the perinatal period – from the time they get pregnant through the first year postpartum – particularly in areas of the state with higher maternal mortality rates and lack of access to maternity care and birthing services.

“Doulas work alongside the medical team to offer emotional, physical and informational support to expectant mothers before, during and after childbirth, which has been shown to contribute to better birth experiences and outcomes,” said Nicolle Fletcher, certified doula, co-founder of Ujima Maternity Network and board chair of the Doula Alliance of Arkansas. “This Alliance will allow doulas across the state to present a unified voice for public policy advocacy, formalize our certification process and provide the structure for us to work more seamlessly with providers to ensure that every mother in Arkansas has access to the care and support she needs.”

Seven Arkansas doulas and several members of the physician and midwife communities comprise the Doula Alliance of Arkansas’s founding board. Members include:

  • Nicolle Fletcher, doula, chairperson
  • Cora Crain, doula, vice chairperson
  • Kwaeisi Golliday, doula
  • Dr. Christina Green, an OB-GYN at Saline Memorial Hospital in Benton
  • Sarita Hendrix, doula
  • Dr. Nirvana Manning, professor and chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) College of Medicine
  • Sondra Rodocker, doula, treasurer
  • Liyah Wasson, doula, secretary
  • Jamie Washington, doula

“We are excited about the partnership with the Doula Alliance of Arkansas and are grateful for Ingeborg’s dedication to improving maternal health care in Arkansas,” said Dr. Manning. “The maternal health crisis in Arkansas is complicated, and there’s unfortunately not just one solution that will fix the problem. The creation of the Doula Alliance of Arkansas is a positive step in the right direction. By bringing together doulas and healthcare providers, we can create a more integrated approach to maternal care that benefits all mothers and families in Arkansas and will help us create a lasting impact.”

The Doula Alliance of Arkansas was founded by a $250,000 seed grant from Ingeborg Initiatives. The Arkansas Community Foundation is facilitating the funds, and Excel by Eight will serve as advisors to the organization.

Currently, the Doula Alliance is seeking a compassionate, skilled executive director to lead the organization in its mission to advance the profession of birth work through advocacy, education and collaboration with the medical community. To learn more, visit doulaallianceofar.org.

About the Doula Alliance of Arkansas
The Doula Alliance of Arkansas is dedicated to improving maternal health outcomes by advocating for the professionalization of doulas, providing education opportunities for doulas and the public and fostering intentional collaboration with the medical community. The Alliance aims to increase the number of certified doulas and ensure their services are recognized and reimbursed by healthcare payers. Learn more at doulaallianceofar.org.

About Ingeborg Initiatives
Ingeborg Initiatives was founded by Olivia Walton and is dedicated to empowering mothers in the state of Arkansas by improving maternal health, advancing women’s economic opportunity and expanding access to quality care and early learning opportunities for children. “Ingeborg” is the namesake of Olivia’s maternal grandmother. The name and its personal significance embody the organization’s mission to empower mothers in Arkansas. Learn more at ingeborginitiatives.com.

About Excel by Eight
Excel by Eight is a network of hundreds of individuals and organizations focused on increasing Arkansas children’s health and education outcomes. It is committed to strengthening resource grids statewide by building local models for change, identifying and resolving policy barriers, and enhancing public understanding of early childhood development. For more information, visit excelby8.net.

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The team at the Community Foundation is committed to sharing tips and insights that can help you get more satisfaction from your charitable giving and in turn make an even bigger difference in the causes you care about.

Here are three recommendations: 

Let your values guide you.   Whether a gift to charity is $25, $2500, or $25 million, it’s cause for celebration. Philanthropic support of all shapes and sizes can make a difference. What’s even better, though, is to apply discipline to those dollars so that the strategy matches the enthusiasm. At the Community Foundation, our team is dedicated to helping you apply your charitable passions to make a meaningful impact, especially by helping you address root causes with your giving, above and beyond providing immediate relief to those in need.

Give from the heart. A recent Rolling Stone article illustrates how philanthropy can shape leaders by instilling values of empathy and responsibility. The author shares a heartwarming perspective based on participating in charitable activities as a child to rally around a sister with Down Syndrome. This makes such an important point: when your philanthropic efforts mean a lot to you, you’re more likely to stay engaged for the long term, resulting in significant cumulative community return on your personal investments. It’s really inspiring to see charitable individuals view their contributions as part of their personal and professional development.

Get your kids involved. The Community Foundation is always striving to offer ways for fund holders to involve their children and grandchildren in charitable giving. This is especially important in light of the recent decline in charitable giving overall, especially among younger generations. We encourage you to explore the factors behind this trend and reach out to the Community Foundation to discuss potential solutions and ways you can help. 

Thank you for your commitment to philanthropy! If you’re already a fund holder, we are grateful that you’ve made the choice to organize your giving by working with the Community Foundation. If you’re considering getting started, we’d love the opportunity to work together.

If you’ve already established a donor advised fund at the Community Foundation, you can understand why it’s become such a popular tool to organize your family’s giving and serve as a springboard for so many other ways to make a difference in our region. 

Recently, we’ve talked several donors who work with the Community Foundation in a variety of ways such as:

  • regularly contributing to a favorite organization’s endowment fund,
  • supporting their local Affiliate’s Giving Tree Endowment,   
  • making distributions from an IRA to a designated fund,
  • or attending our Gatherings for Good to rally around important community priorities.

Interestingly, we have discovered that some of these donors have established a donor advised fund at a national financial institution and, in many cases, did not realize that they could have set up their donor advised fund at the Community Foundation. 

It’s time to set the record straight! 

For starters, the Community Foundation offers donor advised fund holders the same tax and administrative benefits as a national financial institution, including:

  • Online access to view balances, contributions, and grants,
  • Simple process for recommending grants to favorite charities,
  • Streamlined tax reporting, often represented by just one letter to provide to an accountant at tax time, even when the donor advised fund is used to support dozens of individual charities throughout the year,
  • All back-office administration, tax receipts, recordkeeping, and other requirements for the donor advised fund’s 501(c)(3) status,
  • Favorable tax-deductibility of contributions to the fund.

Unlike the national financial institutions’ donor advised fund, the Community Foundation offers high-level, customized services to its donor advised fund holders, including:

  • Concierge-level service by knowledgeable staff to structure estate gifts to charities and accept gifts of appreciated stock or complex assets such as real estate or closely held stock,
  • In-house experts who have a finger on the pulse of community needs, the strengths of specific nonprofits, and how to structure grant making for the highest possible community benefit,
  • Opportunities to collaborate with other donors who care about similar issues and forums to tap into local and national subject matter experts,
  • Opportunities to go deep into specific issue areas, both through education and hands-on involvement,
  • Assistance with structuring and measuring the impact of grants,
  • Family philanthropy and corporate giving services to foster a well-rounded, holistic approach to philanthropy,
  • Administrative fees that are reinvested into the Community Foundation, itself a nonprofit, to help support operations, grow its mission, and help even more donors support the causes they care about,
  • Staff members who live in the community they serve and often personally know the leaders and staff of grantee organizations and regularly hear about their needs first-hand.

If you’ve established a donor advised fund at a national financial institution, we’d love to chat about moving it over to the Community Foundation. At the Community Foundation, your hard-earned assets receive the attention they deserve as you and your family strive to make a difference in the causes you care about the most. 

Delta Area Community Foundation recently presented a grant award to the Desha County Sheriff’s Office to purchase their first two automated external defibrillators (AED), with a goal of having an AED in every patrol vehicle.

Desha County has a population of roughly 12,000 people and is just over 800 square miles of mostly rural farm ground. The poverty level for the county is 25.6%, well above the national average of 13.6%. Approximately 11% of residents have no medical coverage of any kind.

“The Sheriff office’s patrol units have the greatest probability of responding to an emergency call of someone being in cardiac distress and may very well reach them before EMS could arrive,” said Sheriff Mitch Grant. “We had an incident earlier this year where a deputy responded to a call of a possible heart attack victim. The location was in a rural part of the county, about 15 miles from the responding EMS truck. The deputy arrived and began giving CPR until EMS arrived and took over the scene. The subject later died at the hospital. Had the deputy had an AED, that life may have been saved.” 

“We are thrilled to award this grant to the Desha County Sheriff’s office for this important need,” said Randi Stinyard, executive director of Delta Area Community Foundation. “This is why we exist, to make grants that help the community be a better place to live for its residents. We hope that this grant will inspire others to help as well.”

Delta Area Community Foundation serves Desha and Lincoln counties and is committed to educational enhancement, addressing poverty challenges and local community development. The grant for the AED equipment was made through the Delta Area’s Giving Tree fund. Anyone can donate to this fund to help serve local nonprofits. For more information about Delta Area Community Foundation, contact Randi Stinyard at deltaarea@arcf.org or call 870-290-3168.

Without legislation to prevent it, the sunsetting of current estate tax laws at the end of 2025 will dramatically reduce the federal estate tax exemption from $13.61 million per person in 2024 to approximately $7 million in 2026 (this includes adjustments for inflation). This change would affect many high net-worth individuals and families, likely exposing many more estates to federal estate taxes.

It is impossible to predict whether legislation will prevent the sunset. Even so, it is important for advisors to prepare for client discussions and start considering estate planning strategies now, especially techniques that incorporate multi-generational gifts and charitable planning.

For a client who is charitably inclined, making larger lifetime gifts to charity and arranging for charitable bequests will help reduce the client’s taxable estate because of the charitable estate and gift tax deduction. Donor-advised, field-of-interest, designated, unrestricted, and endowment funds at the Community Foundation are flexible and effective charitable recipients of both lifetime and estate gifts. 

For some clients, you may wish to begin exploring a comprehensive, multi-generational wealth transfer plan, potentially using key tax-planning vehicles:

Multi-generational fund at the Community Foundation

A donor-advised fund at the Community Foundation can function much like a family Foundation.  With successive generations serving as advisors, or the Community Foundation stepping in after the first or second generation, an endowed fund at the Community Foundation will create a legacy for your client, carrying on a tradition of supporting the causes that have been most important to them during their lifetime. 

Charitable lead trust

Charitable lead trusts (CLTs) may be particularly effective in the current environment. These trusts can provide income to your client’s fund at the Community Foundation for a set period of time, with the remaining assets passing to family members. Right now, the higher exemption allows for potentially significant initial funding of such trusts. This is because the value of the remainder interest counts toward the client’s estate and gift tax exemption.

Generation-skipping trust

A generation-skipping trust is an irrevocable trust that can benefit a client’s grandchildren and later generations. This trust utilizes a client’s generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax exemption (which parallels the estate and gift tax exemption). This type of trust could allow a client to take advantage of the higher exemption before it potentially decreases in 2026. It is possible under some states’ laws for these trusts to go on for many generations in a “dynasty” format, such that each generation benefits from the trust’s income (and potentially principal for health and education) without the trust’s assets being included in the beneficiaries’ estates for estate tax purposes. 

Our team at the Community Foundation looks forward to working with you to achieve your clients’ long-term charitable goals.

Your clients who are corporate executives have likely wondered at some point about the benefits of aligning their companies with philanthropy, whether specific causes or particular organizations. 

In general, a community engagement strategy can be good for business, if well-executed. For example, almost half of consumers view a brand favorably when the brand supports a charitable cause. Community engagement programs can help with employee retention, too. 

But what are the risks involved in mixing business with charity?

In the spirit of aligning doing good with doing well, some companies would love to set up their own nonprofit organizations as “charitable arms” of their enterprises. Corporate leadership may like the idea of efficiency, control, and tight alignment between the company’s offerings and the charity’s mission. For example, a company that makes swimming pools might think it’s a great idea to set up a charity to build swimming pools at community centers to give more kids access to water sports. The company would like to donate tax-deductible dollars to the charity and ask its suppliers and customers to do the same. The company’s executives would serve on the board of the charity, and the charity would purchase swimming pools from the company to carry out its mission. 

Is this a good idea? 

No. This strategy plays fast and loose with the rules. Beyond setting up an obvious conflict of interest, this practice would mean that a company effectively would be using charitable funds to benefit itself. This is not a “charitable purpose” in the eyes of the IRS and could result in the loss of the charity’s tax exemption. Plus, if the news got out about this structure, the company could suffer reputational damage.

The company, its executives, and the community are all better off if the company pursues more transparent and ethical charitable strategies such as establishing a corporate fund at the Community Foundation, setting up a volunteer program for employees, establishing a matching gifts program, or aligning with wholly independent charities on cause-related marketing partnerships.

Reach out to the Community Foundation to learn more about effective corporate philanthropy strategies. We are here to help as you work with your clients to achieve their charitable goals both at home and in the workplace.  

You’re well aware that donating highly-appreciated stock to a fund at the Community Foundation offers significant advantages for your clients over making cash gifts. Communicating this benefit, however, can be challenging when clients have emotional attachments to their shares. 

How can you overcome this hurdle and help optimize your clients’ charitable giving strategies?

Start by understanding the reasons a client might be reluctant to part with certain stocks in the first place:

–Legacy: “These shares have been in my family for generations.”

–Professional: “I worked at this company for decades; it’s the source of my wealth.”

–Simple preference: “I just love this stock.” 

Emotional ties like these can create psychological barriers to effective charitable planning. There is, however, a potential solution that can satisfy both your clients’ emotional needs and their philanthropic goals: The client donates shares of the highly-appreciated, emotionally significant stock to their fund at the Community Foundation, and then the client purchases shares of the same stock in their personal investment portfolio. 

Here’s why this can be such an effective strategy:

–Maximize tax deductions: Publicly-traded securities are typically deductible at fair market value (and the tax savings could potentially help fund the repurchase).

–Reset cost basis: This transaction effectively resets the cost basis of the stock in the client’s personal portfolio to its current market price, potentially reducing future capital gains taxes.

–Emotional satisfaction: Clients can support charities while maintaining their shareholder status in the company they like.

–Community impact: The Community Foundation can sell the donated shares tax-free, thereby maximizing the proceeds flowing into the client’s fund, and the fund in turn can be used to support the client’s favorite causes.

As you share this strategy with a client, be sure to acknowledge the emotional value of the stock and emphasize the client’s opportunity to maintain ownership in the company. Building on this, you can show the client how the tax benefits of giving stock allow the client to make an even bigger difference than if they’d given cash instead. 

As always, the Community Foundation can help you assist your clients with selecting the best assets to give to charity, evaluate tax implications of various giving strategies, and structure gifts to achieve strong community benefit. We look forward to a conversation! 

On June 21, 2024, Fordyce, Arkansas endured horrific violence when a gunman opened fire at a Mad Butcher Grocery store, killing four people and wounding nine. The entire state is heartbroken.

Were you or someone you know directly impacted by the Fordyce shooting on June 21? Below are some resources currently available. For questions, call Anita Busch at 213-440-1771.

To request immediate financial assistance or other resources, victimsfirst.org/intake or call 213-440-1771.

Click here to see a list of mental health providers.

Accepting donations to support victims, recovery efforts following mass shooting

Little Rock, Ark. (July 1, 2024) – Arkansas Community Foundation (ARCF) has established the Fordyce Survivors Fund in response to the devastating mass shooting event on June 21 in Fordyce, Arkansas. 100% of donations to the fund will provide financial support for survivors of the shooting.

“Like so many, we are shocked and saddened by this terrible tragedy. A shooting isn’t something you want to plan for,” said Heather Larkin, president and CEO of Arkansas Community Foundation. “But we have gained experience in helping rebuild communities following other disasters over the years, and we work with partners that have vast experience in mass shootings. The death of four Arkansans and the recovery needs of the survivors gives us an unfortunate reason to put some of the lessons we’ve learned to use.”

More information can be here.

“We are heartbroken at this senseless violence, right here at home,” said Sen. Matt Stone, District 2. “None of us ever imagined we would have to respond in the aftermath of a shooting in a peaceful town like Fordyce. But we’re determined to rally around this community to help it recover and heal. Working with the Community Foundation is an important step in that recovery.” 

Donations may be made to victims and survivors at arcf.org/fordycefund or by mail to:

Arkansas Community Foundation
Attn: Fordyce Survivors Fund
5 Allied Drive, Suite 51110
Little Rock, AR 72202

Contributions to the Fordyce Survivors Fund will be distributed with guidance from the Community Foundation and a community-led steering committee of Fordyce residents and local leadership.

The Community Foundation will be partnering with Victim’s First, a volunteer-led nonprofit helping with immediate needs, along with the Mass Violence Survivor’s Fund led by Jeff Dion, both national entities with experience serving communities following more than 50 mass shootings nationwide. The Community Foundation and these two organizations will ensure that the funds are managed in a way that is transparent, victim-centered and trauma informed.

The Foundation’s normal administrative fees will be waived and 100% of the donations will go to support victims. *A credit card company fee of approximately 3% will be applied to donations made by credit card.

For more information, visit arcf.org/Fordyce or contact Jessica Ford at 501-372-1116 or jford@arcf.org

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Arkansas Community Foundation, a statewide nonprofit organization, provides resources, insight and inspiration to build stronger Arkansas communities – communities where our kids will want to raise their kids. The Community Foundation is the largest grantmaker in the state in the number of grants made each year. Since 1976, the Foundation has provided more than $460 million in grants to nonprofits. The Foundation staff works directly with donors, professional advisors and nonprofits to help strengthen Arkansas communities through strategic philanthropy and focusing on local needs. Its assets rank among the top 60 out of more than 900 community foundations in the United States. Serving statewide and local initiatives, the Community Foundation helps connect those who want to give to the causes they care about. Contributions to Arkansas Community Foundation, its funds and any of its 29 affiliates are fully tax deductible.