OVERVIEW: This Arkansas funder supports art education, K-12 education, higher education, Christian higher education, human services, Christian and marriage family relationships, children and youth.
IP TAKE: This foundation prioritizes craft arts, which is a very rare niche funding area. Any projects with a Christian angle may be favored too.
PROFILE: Based in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, the Windgate Charitable Foundation is a family foundation established in 1993. Much of the foundation is comprised of donations of Walmart stock acquired by the family over many years. This is a foundation that supports art education projects, K-12 school improvement programs, higher education initiatives, programs to strengthen family relationships, and human service programs. It supports promoting art and craft education and projects that strengthen marriage and family relationships. Some grantmaking also supports programs that serve youth and Christian higher education.
More than anything else, this is an arts and education funder. It has made headlines in the past with multi-million dollar local grants, such as the $15.5 million gift to the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith for its visual arts facility, and $10 million to create an endowment that will provide ongoing operating support for the Eureka Springs School of Art.
Another big arts support project was the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. Windgate funded a distance education project with this group, which developed online high school credit courses and new networks for classroom access through the Arkansas Department of Education and other platforms. This is especially appealing in rural and low-income school districts.
At the end of a past year, the foundation reported over $616 million in assets and more than $124 million in total grantmaking. Grants have been as low as $936 and as high as over $5.3 million in the past.
Overall, this funder maintains a large local focus on Arkansas and seeks to impact higher education and economic development in the state. It has also been a big supporter of public schools and extended its support to schools in North Carolina, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. Some other funding efforts have had a more national focus.
For well over a decade, the foundation has been giving out its Windgate Fellowship Awards, which are among the most prestigious and sought-after awards for emerging craft artists in the U.S. Past winners have specialized in wood furniture, jewelry making, fiber and textiles, ceramics, sculpture, and book arts. Universities around the country are invited to nominate graduating seniors to support their crafts and further innovations in the field of craft arts. This is a very rare funding niche. Windgate awards ten of these fellowships of $15,000 each year.
The foundation accepts grant applications throughout the year, but grant seekers should try to get it in by March 1, July 1, or October for consideration in the next grant cycle. However, Windgate stresses that grant seekers should first email the foundation before submitting a full application. Grant seekers can view a list of past grant recipients and financial data here.
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