Our vision is that every Arkansas student will graduate prepared for success in college and the workplace. Read our New Vision for Arkansas Education.

In the pages that follow, we tell the story of Southern Bancorp and WRF’s 25-year partnership. We attempt to capture, share, and encourage conversation around some of the challenges and lessons learned during our partnership.

Access to capital can transform what it means to be an entrepreneur in Little Rock. as we imagine what’s possible following the release of the “Arkansas Small Business Access to Capital Study,” let’s talk about how we will create a future where all entrepreneurs have the opportunity to succeed. The ABCs of Equity make the economic case for equity clear: When ALICE prospers, Arkansas prospers.

FULL SPEED AHEAD is a 2018 Progress Report on Grade-Level Reading in Arkansas.

In September 2007, WRF’s Board of Directors made a bold statement by approving the Moving the Needle plan. No more low expectations, was the Board’s central message.

It committed the Foundation’s resources not just to address poverty in Arkansas, but to actually reduce it. Not simply to support education in the state, but to increase the number of residents prepared to work, attend college, start businesses, and otherwise take care of their families and communities.

The plan approved that day assured the state’s nonprofits that the Foundation was clear about their importance, and reaffirmed WRF’s non-negotiable value that strong communities are the building blocks for a prosperous state. We committed to move the needle on the data and circumstances of people and communities in every corner of the big state.

AR Equity 2025 is the foundation of our strategic direction. Take a look inside our framework for bringing about economic equity, educational equity, and social, ethnic, and racial equity to Arkansas.

Strategic Investments in education today are key to the long-term future of Arkansas. The Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation and Walton Family Foundation continue to use our resources to identify and lift up best practices. Ultimately, it will require investment from our national supporters and our state's government to scale these best practices and make certain that all our state's students are successful. Make the commitment to expect more from our state's public education system.

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