Co-mingling Expected to Grow ONSC Fund

Huntsville’s Ozark Natural Science Center on May 24 became the first nonprofit agency to have a co-mingled endowment with the Northwest Arkansas Community Foundation’s family of funds. The ONSC endowment is $10,000, but the science center hopes it will grow to $100,000 in the next few years.

NWACF, based in Springdale, has a $150 million coffer, which generates a 10-year return of about 15 to 16 percent.

That’s more than triple what ONSC could earn with traditional CDs, which are locally paying in the 3 to 4 percent range. Suzanne Ward, NWACF’s executive director, said her organization can pool such an investment for any local nonprofit.

“We can co-mingle an endowment with our funds so that they can get the same return on their investment that we do,” Ward said. “Also, any of Ozark Natural Science Center’s donors may put money into their fund, and all of the earnings will go back to ONSC.”

NWACF, founded in 1998 as the Community Foundation of Bentonville/Bella Vista, has since November 1999 served as the lead public foundation operated in connection with CommunityCare Foundation of Bentonville. It now serves all of Northwest Arkansas.

ONSC is a 487-acre (89 owned and 389 leased) living laboratory in the Bear Hollow Natural Area of Madison County. More than 2,500 elementary and high school students do field science research there each year.

Mercer Investment Consulting of Atlanta is NWACF’s investment consultant, and Wells Fargo Bank of San Francisco is its custodian. Equity managers include Alliance Capital Management Corp. of New York, Institutional Capital Management of Chicago, Westfield Capital Management Co. of Boston, Bank of Ireland Asset Management Ltd. of Greenwich, Conn., and its fixed income manager is Metropolitan West Asset Management of Los Angeles.