Methodist Foundation for Arkansas’s Grant Administration Committee Awards Nearly a Quarter Million Dollars During Q2 2025

Current grant disbursement total for 2025 surpasses $835,000

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (July 15, 2025)—The Grant Administration Committee of the Methodist Foundation for Arkansas (MFA) Board of Directors has awarded a total of 15 grants in their three monthly meetings of the second quarter, bringing total granted funds to $249,029.69 for the calendar quarter and more than $835,000 for the year to date.

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

1. First United Methodist Church of Sheridan: $14,400 for the congregation’s summer 2025 feeding ministry, which serves 400 children weekly.
2. Imprint: Central District Council on Youth Ministry of the UMC: $7,400 for food ministry supplies during a one-day mission service project at Asbury UMC of Little Rock.
3. Methodist Family Health: $35,000 for MFH’s community health initiatives Arkansas CARES ($10,000); Holiday and Christmas Celebration ($10,000); and the HERO program ($15,000).
4. Hendrix College: $50,000 toward a larger commitment supporting a major renovation of historic women’s dormitory Galloway Hall.
5. AR Kids Read: $20,650 to assist AR Kids Read in working with seven Arkansas school districts during summer 2025. The programs, housed at local libraries and out-of-school program sites, are projected to serve more than 500 students.
6. Heart of the Bay: $7,500 to assist a community feeding ministry based in Fairfield Bay that serves nearly 500 households through multiple distribution sites in Van Buren and Cleburne counties.
7. Hunter UMC of Little Rock: $3,750 to fund the congregation’s food pantry and community garden.
8. Spiritual Direction Program: a total of $20,000, allocated for no more than $2,000 per participant, for a two-year program administered through the Arkansas Conference United Methodist Church (ARUMC).
9. Fisher Street UMC of Jonesboro: $7,200 for the church’s summer feeding ministry.
10. First UMC of West Memphis: $15,000 for their food pantry, which serves approximately 12,000 meals per year.
11. ARUMC Community Outreach: $18,026 for a series of events relating to the “One More Question” community involvement emphasis of the Arkansas Annual Conference. Using “The Learning Tree” and its leaders, the Rev. Michael Mather and D’Amon Harges, they seek to provide continued training for congregations.
12. Healthy Church Academy of the ARUMC: $9,403.69 to provide two in-person learning sessions for clergy and laity on: 1. Conflict and Communication, and 2. Practices of Resilience. These sessions will serve as the launch for the Healthy Church Academy. The grant will also provide funding for congregational leaders to develop stronger connections with their pastors by understanding their perspectives and their calling.
13. Arkansas UMC Clergywomen’s Fall 2025 Retreat: $7,500 to support a three-day event at Mount Eagle Retreat Center that offers Arkansas Conference clergywomen time to come together in worship, learning, and community building to aid in self-care and spiritual renewal.
14. Loaves and Fishes Food Ministry of Salem UMC, Conway: $3,200 to assist with purchase of protein-rich entrees, canned vegetables, fruit, breakfast items, and child-friendly foods.
15. Lydia Patterson Institute (LPI): In collaboration with other Methodist Foundations across the eight-state South Central Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church, the Foundation in June announced a grant of $30,000 to assist El Paso, Texas-based Lydia Patterson Institute. LPI serves students in grades 6 through 12 who live on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, and 98% of its students go on to attend college. The Foundation has issued a matching challenge to Arkansas United Methodists, inviting them to give to the Foundation’s LPI Fund, and expects to see the amount at least doubled in response.

Additional Grants Beyond Committee Action

In addition to the grants above and those announced at the close of the first quarter, the Foundation has made other disbursements since January 1:

• to support programs that began receiving approved funding before the current fiscal year, and
• smaller disbursements that do not require committee action based upon the bylaws of the Foundation’s Board of Directors.

Like the disbursements through the Grant Administration Committee, these gifts span the 11 grant priorities of MFA, including 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.

These additional disbursements—ranging from $500 for a community “blessing box” that helps a local church address urgent food insecurity in its neighborhood to providing the final $100,000 of a three-year commitment to the Hope Scholarship initiative, which makes undergraduate education possible for students with low incomes—bring the total grant funds issued between January 1 and June 30 to more than $835,000.

“The Methodist Foundation for Arkansas is grateful to the many partners who have helped grow our endowment so that we can offer this level of support,” said MFA President and CEO the Rev. J. Wayne Clark. “So many clergy and laity have made large and small bequests over the years. The Foundation continues to manage these funds to maintain a steady flow of resources, enabling us to help our churches and communities through our Grant Program.”

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 www.methodistfoundationAR.org/grants. Churches and organizations planning to request grant funds from MFA should also visit the link above to establish a login for the Foundation’s new 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 $220 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.