NWA Community Foundation Awards $88,497 in 77 Grants

The Northwest Arkansas Community Foundation awarded 77 grants in April totaling $88,497 from two separate funds.

Each grant is $1,000 or less, but the need for the funds is so great that the Foundation increased its giving for its first round of grants from unrestricted funds.

Fifty-nine grants totaling $58,157 were awarded from unrestricted funds. The grants were awarded to nonprofit agencies in Benton, Carroll, Madison and Washington counties.

The Foundation’s board of directors only planned to award 50 grants of about $1,000 each from unrestricted funds that allow the board to award grants without a recommendation from the fund’s owner for the specific grant.

Adrian Luttrell, chairman of the foundation’s board of directors, said the great need for the funding was “apparent” when almost 200 grant requests were submitted.

“We felt it was more important to address these needs than to hold fast to a particular dollar amount,” Luttrell said.

In addition to the grants from unrestricted funds, 18 grant recommendations totaling $30,340 were approved from the Northwest Medical Center Auxiliary Fund, a donor-advised fund within the foundation.

During its three-year history, the Foundation has created an endowment of more than $4.6 million with more than 50 funds and has awarded more than $1.5 million in grants.