Methodist Foundation for Arkansas’ Ends Q3 2025 at $1.9 Million in Grants Program Funds Dispersed Year-to-Date

Total for first nine months of 2025 surpasses last year’s 12-month total

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (October 22, 2025)—The Grant Administration Committee of the Methodist Foundation for Arkansas (MFA) Board of Directors has awarded a total of 25 grants across its three monthly meetings of the third quarter, bringing total granted funds to more than $1.9 million for the year to date, surpassing last year’s 12-month total of just over $1.8 million.

“We’re so incredibly grateful for the laypersons and clergy who help make our grant ministry possible,” said MFA President and CEO the Rev. J. Wayne Clark. “Their bequests of all sizes, over the course of decades, have given the Foundation the ability to help communities across Arkansas. Our goal is to manage these funds so they generate a steady flow of resources for the good of as many Arkansans as possible.”

Grantees and their award amounts from MFA’s Grant Administration Committee during the third calendar quarter are:

1. First UMC Magnolia: $10,000 to replace a HVAC unit for its Stew Pot feeding ministry, which serves three hot meals per week for a total of 26,000 individual meals per year.
2. Shepherd’s Hope Neighborhood Health Centers: $50,000 to support this source of free medical care for individuals who have no health insurance. Volunteer practitioners provide medical, dental, vision and pharmaceutical services through this ministry connected with Oak Forest UMC Little Rock.
3. 200,000 More Reasons initiative of the Arkansas Conference of the United Methodist Church: $25,000 to support this established feeding ministry of the Annual Conference that assists local United Methodist congregations provide feeding and literacy ministries in their communities.
4. Micah 6:8 Initiative: $40,000 for this ministry connected to First UMC Rogers, which serves Northwest Arkansas by providing emergency shelter, clothing and food to homeless neighbors. This request serves as part of a matching grant from another organization.
5. Parents Left Behind: $12,000 to this ministry based at Central UMC Fayetteville that provides support and counseling to families who have lost a child in death.
6. Teen Action/Support Center: $20,000 to this organization connected to Central UMC Rogers that provides counseling and housing to youth and their families when the child is experiencing a mental health crisis.
7. Methodist Village Senior Living: $25,000 to support the Advanced Dementia Practitioner Program, a service provided to the residents at MVSL through a connection with First UMC Fort Smith.
8. Arkansas Foodbank: $50,000 to this statewide foodbank providing canned, frozen, and fresh food to those in need across Arkansas.
9. Samaritan Community Center: $15,000 to support their successful and effective Backpacks for Kids ministry in the northwest Arkansas area, providing meals on weekends and during the summer months to schoolchildren across four major cities.
10. Our House: $20,000 to assist with emergency and transitional housing for homeless families.
11. Family Network: $24,400 to this national nonprofit with a northwest Arkansas location that provides diapers for families with children.
12. Museum of Discovery: $8,500 to provide science demonstrations in one of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) fields in Title I schools in eastern Arkansas.
13. CareLink: $6,732 to support the traditional Meals on Wheels program long provided by this organization.
14. Mount Sequoyah Center: $14,000 toward a wayfinding signage system that will also identify flora and fauna on the campus. In addition, the program will describe the changes predicted by climate change.
15. The Jones Center of Springdale: $20,000 supporting their established program Every Child Swims.
16. First UMC Conway: $15,000 to support a joint venture including the congregation, Hendrix College, and LifeQuest of Arkansas to promote healthy and lifelong learning and volunteerism for older adults.
17. Wesley Foundation at Arkansas Tech University: $3,250 matching grant to support ministry start-up for the fall 2025 semester.
18. Wesley UMC Conway: $2,500 to provide food-insecure neighbors with a holiday meal and related assistance.
19. Arkansas Conference of the United Methodist Church: $30,000 for an on-boarding program to provide an intentional process for newly appointed pastors to be known and to get to know their inherited staff and congregation. The newly appointed pastor is supported by a Certified On-Boarding Facilitator. This amount will be awarded per year for three consecutive years, for a total of $90,000.
20. First UMC Smackover: $4,500 to support and expand the Shoes for Buckaroos ministry by providing new shoes, clothing essentials, and school supplies to children in need within the Smackover-Norphlet School District.
21. Big Brothers/Big Sisters NWA: $12,500 toward a transformative youth leadership program that will serve communities and provides support for their High school Leadership Program and especially Project Reach.
22. Big Brothers/Big Sisters: $12,500 toward a transformative youth leadership program that will serve communities in Central and Southeast Arkansas, with a focus on Pulaski County (Little Rock) and Desha County (McGehee).
23. Arkansas Conference of the United Methodist Church: $18,000 for Creating a Culture of Renewal, a three-year, highly interactive leadership program designed to interrupt decline, increase vitality, and reconnect congregations with the gospel’s transformative mission. This amount will be awarded per year for three consecutive years, for a total of $54,000.
24. Rison UMC: $7,500 to fund the congregation’s monthly feeding ministry, which distributes between 100 and 120 boxes of food each month, feeding an estimated 6,000 people annually.
25. Defraying EV Charging Station Installation Expenses: $9,000 to assist with the installation of EV charging stations in five locations in northern and central Arkansas. The charging stations themselves were part of an earlier grant from the Foundation.

Additional Grants Beyond Committee Action

In addition to the grants above totaling $455,382 and those announced at the close of the first quarter and second quarter, the Foundation has made other disbursements beyond the committee’s purview: to support programs that began receiving approved funding before the current fiscal year, and smaller disbursements that do not require committee action according to the MFA Board of Directors bylaws.

Like the Grant Administration Committee disbursements, these gifts span MFA’s 11 grant priorities: clergy and laity educational opportunities; clergy selfcare; community health; fostering inclusivity and understanding among groups of people with differing beliefs and backgrounds; enabling education and employment; environmental awareness and energy education; evangelism and discipleship; food insecurity; ministries with unhoused persons; ministries that attempt to reverse poverty in local communities; and charitable support for organizations that provide immediate assistance to persons in need. Examples of such disbursements include $250 for Canvas Community to purchase bottled water to distribute to their unhoused neighbors and $14,588.48 in assistance for the Greater Crossett Area Feeding Hub.

MFA welcomes grant proposals from United Methodist and Pan-Methodist churches and organizations, as well as non-church-related community nonprofits that pursue goals aligning with one or more of the priorities listed at methodistfoundationAR.org/grants. Churches and organizations planning to request funds from MFA should also visit the link above to establish a login for the Foundation’s Grant Portal. Addressing food insecurity in Arkansas remains a top priority of the Foundation’s grant program.

About the Methodist Foundation for Arkansas

With a mission to establish and manage charitable funds to strengthen and expand Methodist ministries across Arkansas, the Methodist Foundation for Arkansas manages over $240 million in endowment funds and other charitable assets that benefit local churches and other United Methodist ministries. Founded in 1963, the Foundation has grown into one of the largest United Methodist foundations in the country, managing more than 800 funds that support Methodist ministries. To learn more, visit methodistfoundationAR.org.