Agency Match Program Ups NWACF Asset Base

A total of $811,658 in new endowments, including money that must be transferred by Sept. 20 and about 10 percent that’s still being raised, has been added to the Northwest Arkansas Community Foundation in Springdale.

NWACF houses local endowments that are commingled with CommunityCare Inc.’s $150 million coffers, allowing the smaller organizations to piggyback on the high-end professional investment of that larger pool.

At 2001’s end, NWACF’s endowments exceeded $1.26 million. That total is now nearly $2.1 million.

The influx of new money is the result of a $250,000 grant given Jan. 8 by CommunityCare to NWACF to foster a pilot agency endowment match program. The program awarded agencies $2,500-$10,000, based on a 1-to-4 match ratio, as an incentive to endow their funds with NWACF. (See chart below)

Twenty new nonprofit organizations, plus four that were “grandfathered” into the program by virtue of already holding endowments with NWACF, got a piece of the $207,500 that was doled out.

Benton and Washington county agencies designated as 501(c)(3) by the IRS and that met certain mission criteria were eligible. Churches and government entities were excluded.

CommunityCare is a product of the November 1998 sale of Northwest Health Systems Inc. of Springdale to Quorum Health Group Inc. of Nashville, Tenn. Northwest Health changed owners again in 2001, when Quorum was bought by publicly traded Triad Health Partners Inc. of Dallas for $2.4 billion. But the resale had no effect on the independent local foundation.