GiveSmARt Blog

Smart Giving Together

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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