are Foundation, Inc. (CF), formerly CommunityCare Foundation, was established in 1998 when Northwest Health System was sold and the assets were transferred into an endowment for the community. We continue to have deep roots in northwest Arkansas.

The hospitals in Springdale and Bentonville served as excellent providers of health care to the people of this area, and helped initiate projects such as the Cancer Challenge, Circle of Life Hospice, Communities Home Health Care, Crisis Center of Northwest Arkansas, Life Line of Northwest Arkansas, Northwest Arkansas Radiation Therapy Institute (NARTI), and Ozark Guidance Center.

GRANTS
During the first four years that Care Foundation made grants (2000 - 2003), our focus was intentionally very wide, and we supported more than 135 agencies with grants totaling $15,219,000. The median size was $40,000. This broad focus allowed the board of directors to learn about the many needs in Benton and Washington counties and gave us an opportunity to see the impact that grant dollars could have. This led to a desire to choose a few topics to work on in great depth and to measure the results of our efforts over a period of years.

Since 2004, the foundation has been working with a small number of agencies to initiate programs that the board of directors has selected as priorities. All applications are by invitation only. For more information about the selected initiatives and process, see our Guidelines. To see the grants funded under the initiatives, click here.

NONPROFIT CAPACITY BUILDING
In 2001, the Nonprofit Learning Series (NLS) was created by CF to provide capacity building assistance to local nonprofits through referrals, consulting, convening, education, training, and peer exchanges. From 2001-2004, approximately 150 local nonprofits participated in at least one of our four annual programs.

In 2005, CF contracted with The Survey Research Center at the University of Arkansas to conduct an area-wide survey on the capacity of local nonprofit organizations. The survey will provide us with information to design future programs. Announcement of new capacity-building programs are expected to be made by the end of 2005.