If you’re a business owner, odds are you already give back to your community. Like many charitably-minded people, your business likely sponsors events, makes in-kind donations, and donates cash to favorite organizations.

Many Arkansas business owners work with the Community Foundation to give back to the community where they built their businesses and developed lasting relationships with employees and customers.

The Community Foundation offers a variety of tools to help you build and grow your corporate philanthropy program, including:

  • Corporate Advised Fund. Establishing a corporate donor advised fund helps you organize your company’s giving in a convenient, easy to use tool at the Community Foundation.
  • Matching gifts. The Community Foundation can help guide your team in creating and administering a program that matches employees’ volunteer time and dollars.
  • Grant making administration and strategy. You and your colleagues likely receive dozens of requests each month from nonprofit organizations requesting sponsorships and monetary donations. Our team at the Community Foundation can help you create and implement a strategy for evaluating and responding to those requests to align with your company’s goals for supporting and prioritizing causes.

The Community Foundation is glad to help you deepen your company’s impact and connection to your community, customers, and employees by creating a philanthropy plan that supports causes that align with the wide range of your objectives. Reach out to one of our philanthropic advisors today!

As you contemplate your legacy and adjust your estate plan over the years, it’s natural to focus on your children and family as the primary beneficiaries in your will and trust. However, if you’re like many other charitably-minded individuals, you might find that your perspectives about what exactly it means to leave a legacy are expanding beyond your next of kin.

If your community is on your mind and in your heart, and you’re interested in ways you improve the quality of life for your neighbors, our team at the Community Foundation would be honored to discuss the ways we can help. Here are three options for funds you can establish with the Community Foundation to benefit your community in your overall philanthropy and estate plan:

Unrestricted fund

Major advantages of the Community Foundation include its perpetual structure, community-based governance, and ability to respond to emerging needs. An unrestricted fund allows you and your family to provide support that evolves over time as priorities in the region shift. The Community Foundation’s mission is to thoroughly understand the community and improve lives within it. TheFoundation’s board and professional staff conduct ongoing, extensive research about the needs of the community and the nonprofit programs that are addressing those needs. Establishing an unrestricted fund means you are investing in the Community Foundation to support programs that are addressing the community’s most pressing needs now, and in the future.  

Field-of-interest fund

A field of interest fund is an ideal way to target your giving to specific areas of community need (such as education, health, environment, or the arts). Your field of interest fund at the Community Foundation establishes parameters for grant making according to your wishes. The Foundation’s staff follows these parameters and uses its research and expertise to make grants that align with your intentions. Your fund can continue beyond your lifetime, for  multiple generations, providing ongoing support to your area(s) of interest.

Designated fund

A designated fund at the Community Foundation can help you secure your favorite organization’s financial future so that its mission continues, uninterrupted, even in the face of challenges. You can set up multiple designated funds if you’d like to support more than one organization. You can even set up a designated fund to support a governmental unit, such as the parks department. A designated fund allows you to decide on the timing of the distributions from the fund, such as during the organization’s capital campaign or to support a specific program or initiative. You can serve as an advisor to the fund to recommend the timing and amount of grants to the supported organization, or you can appoint the board of directors of the Community Foundation to carry out this function according to your wishes.

And here’s a bonus!If you plan to give to an unrestricted fund, designated fund, or field-of-interest fund at the community foundation during your lifetime, and you’re over the age of 70 1/2, you can direct up to $105,000 each year from your IRA to the fund. This is called a “Qualified Charitable Distribution,” or “QCD.” Not only do QCD transfers count toward satisfying your Required Minimum Distributions if you’ve reached that age threshold, but you also avoid the income tax on those funds. Furthermore, the assets distributed through a QCD are no longer part of your estate upon your death, so you can avoid estate taxes, too. 

Every year, our team at Arkansas Community Foundation works with people like you to establish endowment funds to support the needs of their communities in perpetuity. 

Here are answers to four frequently-asked questions about setting up an endowment fund:

Why does the Community Foundation offer endowment funds to individuals and families?

The Community Foundation serves as the hub of philanthropy for many families in Arkansas.  We connect donors like you to community needs you care about. This includes offering the opportunity to make a charitable investment that supports a range of community needs now and in the future. That’s the purpose of an endowment: to provide a steady stream of support,  far into the future, to meet community needs as they arise.

How does an “endowment” work?

“Endowment” is the word often used to refer to a designated pool of assets that are invested by the Community Foundation. A portion of the earnings are distributed each year to charitable causes while the rest of the assets remain invested to grow in perpetuity. This growth, in turn, ensures the endowment can provide even more support each year to the causes for which it was established. The Community Foundation team is experienced at managing the accounting, investment, and distribution aspects of endowment funds. 

How can I stay involved with my endowment fund after it’s established?

First and foremost, you choose the name of the endowment, and what you want your endowment to support.  Then our team will keep you informed about the financial growth, as well as the positive change in the community that is occurring thanks to the distributions from the endowment you’ve established. We can continue to keep your children and grandchildren informed, too, beyond your lifetime. In this way, your legacy continues through the generations.   

Who decides where the endowment distributions go each year?

Depending on how your endowment is structured, you may recommend where the grant distributions go each year (Donor Advised) or entrust our team to do that on your behalf (Field of Interest, Scholarship, Etc.). Either way, our independent board of directors reviews and approves these distributions to ensure that they fulfill your charitable goals for establishing the endowment in the first place.

What does it take to establish an endowment fund?

Setting up an endowment fund is as easy as setting up any other type of fund at the Community Foundation. Our team will prepare simple paperwork capturing the name of the endowment fund and any areas of interest you’d like to support. Then, you can transfer cash—or, even better for tax purposes, you can transfer appreciated assets such as stock or real estate. You’ll be eligible for a charitable tax deduction in the year you make the transfer to establish the fund. You can make future transfers to your endowment fund each year, too, to achieve your tax and estate planning goals. Our team is also happy to work with you and your advisors to structure a bequest to your endowment fund following your death. We highly recommend considering a bequest in the form of a beneficiary designation on an IRA because of the multiple tax benefits. Related, if you are over 70 ½, making a “Qualified Charitable Distribution” from your IRA directly to your endowment fund is a very effective charitable planning tool to avoid income tax and also satisfy your Required Minimum Distribution if you’ve reached that age as well.  

We look forward to working with you to support your community and your favorite charitable causes for generations to come! 

Arkansas Community Foundation lost one of its most cherished donors in 2023, Dr. Ruth Marie Allen. However, her legacy lives on. Every step along her illustrious career she left a path of charity and endowments.

While a pioneer in biochemistry and instructional design and technology, Dr. Allen also served in the Peace Corps in Malaysia. She was an esteemed professor and practitioner at various universities across the United States and China. While she worked tirelessly to build her career, she also found a way to be of service to every community where she lived.

One of the many ways she made an impact was through establishing scholarships. At Michigan State, just one of her alma maters, she endowed several student and faculty scholarships. At the University of Arkansas’ Clinton School of Public Service, she contributed to their curriculum, and established the Dr. Ruth Allen Scholarship for students.

One of her greatest passions was orchestral music. A loyal volunteer for the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, she endowed the Dr. Ruth Marie Allen Concert Series which still provides concerts at UAMS.

Beyond the brilliance of her career, Dr. Allen was also wise with her charitable giving. She used her Roth and traditional IRAs to create the Ruth Marie Allen Endowment for Wildwood Park. Because of her foresight and smart giving strategies and planning while alive, generous gifts were immediately made to Wildwood Park for the Arts when she passed.

Dr. Allen holds a special place in the Community Foundation’s heart. She was a regular volunteer for the Foundation’s annual Arkansas Gives campaign and gave generously to various funds. Our staff worked closely with her to make sure her charitable intentions would continue to be fulfilled long after she passed. It was our honor to work with her and we are so grateful that Dr. Allen trusted us. Through the power of endowment, her legacy—like our appreciation—will live on forever.

By Jane Browning, Executive Director of Hot Springs Village Community Foundation

Does March Madness really refer to basketball, or is it all about tax season? Changing rules, changing circumstances, emerging priorities all vie for our attention at this time of year. We clearly need professional help in sorting through our financial matters to come out on top of this year’s filing season.

Fortunately, Hot Springs Village is blessed with a plethora of great professional talent in the way of accounting firms, estate lawyers, financial advisors and planners. We also have Hot Springs Village Community Foundation with its experience in philanthropic giving and planning. We are one of 29 affiliates in the state with direct access to a team of seasoned professionals with deep knowledge of the nonprofit landscape.

Arkansas Community Foundation offers tax-wise ways to give. Consider these opportunities for smart charitable giving:

Charitable Bunching. Combine multiple years of charitable contributions in one calendar year in order to exceed the standard deduction in that year and receive maximum tax benefits for those donations. Donors can use a charitable fund, such as a Donor Advised Fund, to bunch or “stack” donations in a single year. Gifts to charitable funds are tax-deductible and the assets can be invested, so charitable dollars grow tax-free. Donors can use those assets to provide ongoing support for their favorite nonprofits, even in the years they claim the standard deduction.

IRA Qualified Charitable Distributions. Utilize a retirement account to make charitable donations. A Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) allows traditional IRA account owners age 70 1/2+ to direct up to $105,000 each year to qualified charities without treating the distribution as taxable income. A QCD is particularly smart for those who take the standard deduction and would miss out on writing off charitable contributions. And an IRA owner of age 73+ can offset the tax consequences of their Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) by using it for a QCD.

Highly Appreciated Assets. Translate earnings into community impact by donating stock or another appreciated asset. Instead of selling, donors receive a tax deduction based on the stock’s full market value and avoid capital gains taxes. The gift can then be used to benefit the causes and organizations they care about most.

For more information about how March can be a little less mad, feel free to contact one of the Foundation’s philanthropic advisors by calling 501-372-1116.

Your clients certainly have no shortage of options for their philanthropic dollars. Many clients use their donor advised funds at the Community Foundation to support favorite charities across the country, including alma maters, organizations in the communities where they’ve lived in the past or have a second home, or charities in communities where their grown children are now living. 

Many clients, though, are deeply committed to the local community where they’re living now, where they’ve raised their children, and where they’ve built a business. That’s why it’s helpful to remind clients that they can reach out to the team at the Community Foundation when they want to make sure their dollars are making the biggest difference possible, right here in our community. Giving local satisfies many clients’ commitment to “take care of our own.” The unfortunate steady flow of crises and even disasters, coupled with decreasing state and federal funding to local nonprofits, means that philanthropy is playing an increasingly important role in our state. The Community Foundation, through its wide variety of fund types available to your clients (including endowment funds to support the community in perpetuity), can help your clients achieve their goals for local support, whether that takes the form of disaster recovery, supporting families in need, funding critical workforce development, or paving the way for historic preservation initiatives.

The Community Foundation team is always happy to provide insight into the challenges our community is facing and which organizations are delivering services to alleviate those needs so that your clients can provide immediate support through their donor advised funds. 

Additionally, supporting their local Giving Tree Endowment or an unrestricted fund may be a good fit for clients who want to improve lives, right here in this community, for generations to come. Supporting these types of funds may be particularly compelling for your clients who are 70 ½ or older. These clients may be eligible to make annual distributions up to $105,000 per spouse from their IRAs directly to an unrestricted fund at the Community Foundation. This transfer is called a “Qualified Charitable Distribution,” or “QCD.” Not only do QCD transfers count toward satisfying Required Minimum Distributions, but your client also avoids the income tax on those funds. Furthermore, those assets are no longer part of the client’s estate upon death, so the client can avoid estate taxes, too.

Please reach out to the team at the Community Foundation for more information on how your clients can support both current and future local needs, and also meet their own financial, tax, and generational legacy goals.

Just as each of your clients has a unique estate plan and financial plan to meet the client’s particular situation and goals, each of your philanthropic clients needs a unique charitable giving plan. For example, for some clients, giving shares of highly-appreciated stock consistently every year to their fund at the Community Foundation makes the most sense for their charitable goals and their mix of assets. For other clients, leaving a bequest to the Community Foundation to support specific areas of interest is the best fit for the client’s financial situation and community priorities.  

The Community Foundation offers charitable giving vehicles to meet a wide range of clients’ needs. In many cases, a single client can benefit from setting up multiple funds of different types. 

Here’s a quick primer on a few of the most popular fund types.

Donor advised Fund

A donor advised fund enables your client to establish a specific account for charitable giving. Your client makes tax-deductible contributions of cash (or, ideally, stock or other highly-appreciated assets) to the fund, and then recommends grants to favorite charities. 

Field-of-interest Fund

Clients who want to target their giving to specific areas of community need (such as education, health, environment, or the arts) can set up a field-of-interest fund to establish parameters for grant making under the ongoing guidance and expertise of the Community Foundation’s staff.  

Designated Fund

A designated fund allows a client to direct giving to a specific agency or purpose. Over time, the Community Foundation’s staff manages the distributions from the fund according to the terms established by your client.

Organizational Fund

An organizational fund is similar to a designated fund, except in the case of an organizational fund, the source of the initial contribution is the beneficiary nonprofit organization itself. If your client serves on boards of directors of charities, they’d likely be interested in learning more about organizational funds. Indeed, if you represent nonprofit organizations and their board members in your practice, it’s helpful to keep in mind that organizations frequently establish organizational funds at the Community Foundation to set aside endowment reserves or rainy day funds. The team at the Community Foundation is adept at navigating the specific accounting standards that are unique to this type of arrangement.

Scholarship Fund

Clients can set up funds to support students’ educational pursuits based on the parameters and application requirements they outline with help from the experts at the Community Foundation. 

Unrestricted Fund

The Community Foundation has its finger on the pulse of the community’s most pressing issues. An unrestricted fund gives your client the opportunity to support community needs that can’t be identified until the future. One of the biggest benefits of a Community Foundation is its perpetual structure that allows clients and their families to offer support to nonprofits that evolves over time as priorities in the region shift. 

Here’s a pro tip: If you represent clients who are age 70 ½ and older, consider recommending a Qualified Charitable Distribution from a client’s IRA to a fund at the Community Foundation. All of the fund types noted above are eligible recipients, with the exception of only the donor advised fund.

We look forward to working together to discover the type of fund (or funds!) at the Community Foundation that could be a good fit for each client’s unique charitable giving needs. 

Tax time has its silver linings! Going over a tax return with a client helps start a productive conversation about ways to plan gifts to charity more effectively. As you scan 2023’s charitable contributions, talk with the client about whether those charitable gifts were made with cash or with other assets and then steer the conversation toward discussing the most effective assets to give to charity during 2024 and beyond. 

Here is a four-point checklist that can help you advise your clients about the range of charitable giving options. 

–Remind clients that cash is not king when it comes to charitable giving. Cash is typically not the most tax-effective form of charitable giving. Instead, encourage clients to consider giving highly-appreciated assets, including publicly-traded stock, to their fund at the Community Foundation to support their favorite charities.   

–Think beyond stock. Encourage clients to explore not only highly-appreciated stock as a potential gift to charity, but also the various forms of “noncash” assets that can make great charitable gifts. After all, American households’ most valuable assets are retirement accounts and personal residences, not cash. Examples of assets that could be excellent charitable gifts depending on the client’s circumstances include gifts of real estate, closely-held stock, and, for clients who are age 70 ½ and older, direct transfers from an IRA (known as a Qualified Charitable Distribution) to a field-of-interest or unrestricted fund at the Community Foundation. 

–Make it easy on yourself and your client. Reach out to the team at the Community Foundation for assistance! We are happy to help you and your client evaluate the best assets to give to a donor advised or other type of fund at the Community Foundation to achieve the client’s charitable goals.

–Close the loop on IRS reporting. Remember that the reporting requirements are different for noncash gifts to charity versus cash gifts. Make sure you are familiar with IRS Form 8283, which must be filed with any tax return claiming a deduction for noncash assets valued at $500 or more. The IRS expects strict adherence to the terms of the form, especially the requirement for a qualified appraisal. On our end, the Community Foundation will handle the confirmation of receipt and a commitment to document and notify the IRS if disposition occurs within three years.

Opening up the full range of charitable giving options for a client can help you structure a holistic estate and financial plan that meets the client’s objectives for family wealth, philanthropy, and tax effectiveness. Reach out anytime to the team at the Community Foundation to discuss techniques and strategies. 

Before getting married, the Johnsons made agreements about where and how to raise their children. It landed them in Greenwood, Arkansas.

“It was love at first sight for me, but it took him a little longer,” said. Sandy Johnson M.D., cofounder of Johnson Dermatology. “He came around quickly though.” Sandy and her husband, fellow dermatologist Brad Johnson, M.D., established their clinic in nearby Fort Smith in 2006.

“I’m originally from Ohio. And Brad comes from a long line of community activists that are well known in Greenwood,” said Sandy. “Many in his family were educators and believed in giving back to their community. My family also held similar values, but both of our families did their charity work through the church. Brad and I wanted to be a little more intentional about our giving — make a different kind of impact more specific to our passion.”

The Johnsons established the Brad and Sandra Johnson Endowment in 2002 at Arkansas Community Foundation. They’ve made several grants every year since then.

“Brad and I used to live in Little Rock, and one of the things we loved most about the city were the walking trails,” said Sandy. “We knew we wanted to have the same kind of trails where we were raising our family.”

Both runners, Sandy and Brad are proponents of a pedestrian-friendly lifestyle. They believe that when kids — or anyone for that matter — can be outside more and feel safe outdoors, it helps improve communities.

“When we first moved here, our kids couldn’t walk to school,” she said. “They are in college now, but now walking to school is possible for more local students. Our ultimate goal, which is why our fund is endowed, is for all the area’s schools to be connected by walking trails.”

That goal is on its way to becoming reality. Because of the many donations made to Greenwood Parks and Recreation, nature walks can be found all over the Greenwood and Fort Smith communities. The Johnsons have funded trails, sidewalks, path lighting and various other small projects to make nature walks accessible for more people. They are deeply involved. More than funders, they review drawings, attend planning meetings, and are committed to making sure implementation is right.

“Greenwood is well-known for its good education system, and that was a huge reason why we raised our kids here,” said Sandy, “But from the beginning of our relationship, we’ve enjoyed the outdoors and being in nature. It’s always been as important as just about anything else.

“Over time, we have learned that our marriage is better when we go on walks, simple as that,” she said. “Nature has been good for our family. And we want for more people to enjoy it, too.”

In 2023, EAST applied for and was awarded a three-year grant from the IMPAC Endowment through Arkansas Community Foundation. This grant helped provide technology training and professional development to EAST facilitators throughout Arkansas for their 2023 seminar held at Oaklawn.

The “Off to the Races” event was three full days including 39 unique breakout sessions with 45 presenters for 215 EAST facilitators, including on-demand participants. The on-demand option afforded individuals who may be affected by time or travel barriers the opportunity to participate and still receive quality training at their convenience.

“I loved every session I attended,” said one participant. “I loved that other facilitators presented their best practices. This was one of the best seminars you guys have put on!” Another teacher said, “The most valuable part of EAST Seminar is the networking and camaraderie we develop with other facilitators. Once I return to my classroom, I now have 8-10 new friends to reach out to for questions and advice.”

Learn more about the EAST Initiative mission here.

Attendees received 2,848 hours of professional development from the live event and 712 hours was received by on-demand participants. Of the 39 sessions, 32 were technology focused, including topics such as cyber security, data science, technology repair, environmental science, tech certifications, engineering, 3D printing, AI, eSports, ArcGIS, videography and podcasting.

The event had a variety of ways to engage, including a wide array of exhibitors present to provide information about the field, morning posts designed to energize attendees, prizes for participants, staff recognition and networking groups and events.

Following the Seminar and thanks to survey results from attendees, 98% of facilitators felt better prepared to lead their classroom, 82% improved their understanding and skills with technology, and 95% felt better prepared for the new school year. They also identified areas to explore in the future like AI workshops, classroom management, 3D printing, design software, among others.

The purpose of the EAST Seminar was to create a relevant educational experience for EAST facilitators intentionally designed to inspire and recharge, cultivate networking and collaboration, and encourage continuing professional development and growth.

The Seminar was also made possible through generous sponsors, including the IMPAC Endowment, University of Arkansas, Avad3, ArcBest Technologies, Acxiom and Tesla Software.

When asked if EAST accomplished this goal, teachers responded with a resounding “Yes!”

“The breakouts were great, informative, and gave me ideas to take back this year,” said a local teacher. “I am glad some of the sessions I wanted to see were recorded! I love the network piece and getting to know other facilitators. It is one of the best seminars I attend that prepares me for the upcoming school year.”

The IMPAC Endowment that helped fund this seminar exists to provide research, development and implementation of computer technologies in Arkansas schools. To help increase the impact of this endowment, click here to make a donation.