News Report

Reprinted with permission from The Morning News of Northwest Arkansas
Monday, March 26, 2001

by Lori Harrison-Stone
(The Morning News — NWAonline.net)

SPRINGDALE — When Northwest Health System privatized in 1998, the system's board of directors wanted to make sure the community-concerned agenda of the not-for-profit health care system continued.

So, it used the $140 million paid by Quorum Health Resources to make sure that happened.

The board agreed to use the profit from the sale of the system — which included Northwest Medical Center in Springdale and Bates Medical Center in Bentonville — to form a foundation that would fund community programs and projects, explained Hugh D. Means, president and CEO of the CommunityCare Foundation, Inc., and a former board member for the Northwest Health System.

"When you sell a not-for-profit, the assets have to go to a not-for-profit," said Suzanne Ward, executive director of CommunityCare Foundation. She explained that the board agreed to form the new foundation rather than turn over the profit to existing organizations.

The original endowment was invested, and interest earned on the money is given out by the CommunityCare Foundation in two rounds of grant awards each year, Ward said. A total $4.5 million has been given in grant awards since the foundation was formed in December 1998. The goal is to award about $5 million in grants each year, through grant rounds in May and November.

Surprisingly, Ward said, the foundation's grants have gone to more educational programs than health-care programs so far.

But Means believes that nearly everything the foundation supports is connected to the community served by the hospitals and meets the objective of the foundation. He pointed out that part of the foundation's mission is "to enrich the quality of life in Northwest Arkansas by promoting healthy communities through strategic grantmaking."

With careful management and direction, the CommunityCare Foundation will provide grants "far into the future, perpetually," Means said.

"I see a very bright future for Northwest Arkansas through the foundation and the work of those men and women," Means said of the volunteers who support the not-for-profit organizations receiving grants from the foundation.

The CommunityCare Foundation has five areas of interest for which it awards grants: health, human services, education, public/society benefit, and arts and crafts.

Human-service programs received 36 percent of the $4.5 million in 2000 funding from the foundation, while educational programs received 27 percent and health-care programs received 24 percent. Public/society benefit programs or projects received 10 percent of the funding last year, and arts programs were granted 3 percent.

The biggest grant awarded in 2000 went to the Harvey & Bernice Jones Center for Families for $500,000 in operating funds. The Council on Aging-Meals on Wheels Elderly Service Nutrition Program received $135,000.

Nearly $260,000 was awarded to the Springdale School District for security equipment at the district's high school and junior high schools. And another $113,000 went to technology programs in Springdale schools. The Bentonville Library received more than $73,000 for technology.

Another $70,000 was granted to the Springdale Police Department for mobile data computers in 15 patrol cars.

The Walton Arts Center received a $60,000 grant for an arts programs for children.

The Bentonville School District received the biggest grant in the health-care category, with a $125,365 grant to fund five school-nurse positions and equipment.

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