Winthrop Rockefeller was born on May 1st into one of the wealthiest families in history.  As the fifth of six children, Win recalled “from my earliest recollection, we were taught to respect the value of the dollar and to recognize that inherited wealth was in a sense, given to us in trust – that we were stewards – that while we would live comfortably with that which we inherited and earned, we had the responsibility to see that these resources were also used wisely in the service of our fellow man.”

Win enlists as a private in the U.S. Army. 

In 1953, win accepted Frank Newell’s invitation and settled permanently in Arkansas.  In June, he purchased a 927-acre tract atop Petit Jean mountain, 60 miles west of little Rock, where be built Winrock Farms into an internationally recognized cattle operation.  The WR brand became internationally known as a symbol of excellence among Santa Gertrudis owners.

After consulting with the Department of Education and Arkansas State Teachers College, Win chose to invest in improving the level of education in his home district by establishing Morrilton elementary school. Going further, he championed increased teacher salaries with $100,000 of his own money. Win took pride in the fact that the community supported his efforts by voting for a higher school mileage and increased property assessments. 

The new vision was realized when the Arkansas Arts Center opened; almost 1/3 of the cost came from Win Rockefeller. 

Not long after his death, the Rockwin Fund was renamed the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, to represent the views and interests and extend the legacy of the late Governor Rockefeller. 

Arkansas Community Foundation has been building philanthropy in Arkansas through its work with donors, nonprofits and communities for more than a quarter of a century. Established through the vision of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation and the commitment of a number of community leaders throughout the state, it remains Arkansas’ only statewide community foundation.

Heifer International works with communities to end hunger and poverty and to care for the earth.  In 1978 WRF supported Heifer’s Rural Economic Development efforts.  Heifer’s concept of “passing on the gift” has continued for over 60 years, touching the lives of over 8.5 million people, in 128 countries.

There is evidence from studies conducted in previous decades by the Rockwin Fund that show the state as one of the most poorly financed educational systems, resulting in mediocre-to –low talent pool of teachers.  In 1979 WRF supported the Department of Education’s PROGRAM FOR EFFECTIVE TEACHING.

During his lifetime, Rockefeller was a supporter of historically black colleges and universities. The Foundation’s support of Philander Smith College began in the early 1980’s and has ranged from cooperative planning and comprehensive marketing to curriculum and capital development.

WRF supports the College Station Community Development Fund, Inc., to fund a development program for College Station (essentially a black community), to include organization of a fund, securing and developing a forty-acre tract, establishing a land bank, planning and implementing a housing rehabilitation program, securing funding for a sanitary sewer and small business start-up assistance.

Founded in the late 1970s, the Boys, Girls, Adults Community Development Center has provided thousands of Phillips County residents with an array of services, ranging from daycare to dental care to job training.

The Foundation announced that a development bank project, Southern Development Bancorporation (SDB), was going to be taken on by the Foundation; that Shorebank Corporation of Chicago would provide needed financing and technical assistance, and that a total of $11.3 million had been raised to support the development of the project and the capitalization and its nonprofit affiliate.

Funding to the Arkansas Rice Depot Inc. supported Arkansas hunger programs with nutritious basic foods.  Today their Food For Kids program distributes backpacks and “kid friendly” foods in Arkansas public schools.

Support of Just Communities of Central Arkansas (JCCA) began with the implementation of prejudice reduction and multi-cultural coalition building training sessions for the faculties of the Little Rock public schools.  Today, JCCA’s work is critical to fulfilling WRF’s mission.

Due to changes in the economy and the help of donors, Financing Ozarks Rural Growth & Economy (FORGE), has created an emergency fund to help families in distress.  This fund in addition to their microloan fund and its USDA funds will help assure that every family in need has the potential to get help.

Shorter College’s development office landed support from WRF, to assist this organization in establishing a sound financial base in order to more effectively serve its constituent community in a manner that will allow them to positively impact the economies in which they live. 

The mission of the Arkansas Single Parent Scholarship Fund (ASPSF) is to enable low-income single parents to attain self-sufficiency through post-secondary education.  WRF’s support of ASPSF is a targeted strategy to increase college graduation rates in Arkansas.

WRF’s support of Arkansas Baptist College was to develop a program that addresses job and wealth creation, health and eldercare, housing, technology, environment, social service and community planning.

WRF made a multi-year commitment to sponsor The Jeanette Rockefeller Memorial Artmobile Tour.  It is a fitting tribute to Arkansas’s former First Lady, who played a major role in developing and expanding the Arkansas Arts Center.

Support of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra Society, Inc., was to help develop a program in 20 elementary schools statewide that provides music education using symphony musicians as "arts partners."  The Foundation ended the year embracing the vision of Arkansas as state where economic, racial and social justice is universally valued and practiced.

WRF continues support of Arkansas Science & Technology Authority to implement a science mini-grants program for middle school classrooms that encourages hands-on learning and increases the level of interest in science.   Also, to establish pilot sites for a demonstration project enabling teachers to electronically monitor student learning.

Dogwood Literacy Council is a non-profit educational facility which has served residents of Benton County, Arkansas since July of 1990.  In 2003 WRF provided support for literacy training for non-English-speaking employees in the local workforce.

A year later Arkansas Educational Television Network would serve as the vehicle for the public launch of the WRF Immigrant Population Profile.  To put a human face on the Immigrant Profile by incorporating vignettes from a companion DVD produced by Matt Bradley, providing a glimpse into selected immigrant communities across the state.

Dr. Sherece West, an internationally renowned practitioner in philanthropy, joins WRF as only the fourth president of the organization.  It is her keen insight and vision that calls for repositioning and reorganizing. 

WRF says goodbye to the “Old Foundation House”.  After operating there for over 30 years, WRF relocated offices to 225 E. Markham.

Commemorate 35th Anniversary Celebration, with a convening in Springdale Arkansas at the Henry and Bernice Jones Center for Families.  The anniversary theme is MTN in Action: Making Progress.

Win withdrew from Yale University to work as an apprentice in the Texas oil fields. Working as a roughneck and roustabout for the Humble Oil and Refining Company, he worked hard, made friends and had experiences that changed him.  Years later, it was one of those friends, Frank Newell, who invited him to Arkansas. 

Win participated in the Battles of Guam and Okinawa, leaving the service a decorated lieutenant colonel in 1946,  His decorations included the Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster and the Purple Heart.

Win establishes the Rockwin Fund as a vehicle for his personal philanthropy, and chose as its first director Mary McLeod.  

In a meeting with members of the Little Rock Junior League, Win challenged them to broaden their vision. “From the very beginning, it was taking art out to everybody – all the rural towns, the black population, white population. Wherever. It wasn’t just for the wealthy. It was about human dignity an d letting people see what humans can create and what they are capable of creating.” Anne Bartley, step daughter.

Winthrop Rockefeller is elected the first Arkansas Republican governor since 1874.   Quietly and uneventfully, he finished integrating Arkansas schools, integrated the State Police and created the Council on Human Relations.

 Tom McRae, the Foundation’s first president served from 1975 – 1988.  Under his leadership the Foundation…

With WRF initial funding, Arkansas Advocates for Children & Families (AACF) has been a dynamic and effective voice for Arkansas' children and families, for more than 25 years.

In 1979 WRF provided financial assistance to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund to in support of employment-related race and sex discrimination cases in Arkansas.

In 1979 WRF provided financial assistance to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund to in support of employment-related race and sex discrimination cases in Arkansas.

A non-traditional grant in the form of an interest free loan, from WRF to the Nature Conservancy, coupled with money from the state, made possible the purchase and preservation of more than six thousand acres of one of the few remaining tracts of bottomland hardwoods in the southern United States.

University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences  implements the first year of a three-year curriculum development project to establish a new and permanent division within the College of Medicine to be called the Division of Medical Humanities

 WRF Celebrates 10 Years

Project Vote sought to increase citizen participation in the voting process through registration of citizens to vote.  This effort in 1985 took place in Pine Bluff.  Throughout his life in Arkansas, Governor Rockefeller worked hard to clean up the election process and see that all citizens were registered to vote and then that they voted.

Support of Winrock International’s Forestry Study to analyze policy issues and development options for forest and other renewable resources in Arkansas.  Data was inventoried and meetings were organized to identify ownership and management patterns.  Today WRF, Winrock International, and Winrock Institute make up WR3.  As an entity we bear the responsibility for continuing the legacy of Governor Rockefeller.

Mahlon Martin, served as the second president of the Foundation from 1989 until his passing in 1995. He was best remembered for his…

TCOC/To support the involvement of Arkansas Association of LeadAR Alumni in a year-long organizational development training g program. 

WRF’S relationship with the Arkansas Humanities Council started with the community involvement in the form of planning grants to aid groups that want to renovate structures in their communities for socially beneficial purposes.  More recent support has been funding K-12 education mini-grants designed to enhance curriculum-based teaching and learning in the classroom.

In 1994, WRF supported Mid South Delta LISC to develop a four-year economic development program in Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas.  Mid South Delta LISC is a community development program of Local Initiatives Support Corporation.  We serve 56 distressed counties and parishes in the Mississippi River Delta of Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi. We provide training, technical assistance, funding and financing to Community Development Corporations (CDCs) to help them make communities affordable and safe places to live, work, conduct business and raise children.

Dr. Sybil J. Hampton, the third president of WRF retired after ten years of service.  She positioned the Foundation to enter the new millennium of grantmaking.

1997 was the fourth year of funding Centers for Youth and Families in the development of strategies to improve judicial, state and local government, and legislative policies that impact women in prison and their children.

Enterprise Corporation of the Delta (ECD), one of the nation's leading Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), provides financial products and services in the states of Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi and the Greater Memphis area of Tennessee.  With ECD’s professional assistance, the Delta Supreme Fish Processors, near Dumas, was founded by nine fish farmers from the local Mennonite community.

WRF supports Yale University’s School of the 21st Century Program to launch a major demonstration of the Schools of the 21st Century Program (21C) in Arkansas. The 21C model transforms schools into year-round, multi-service centers, with emphasis on early childhood education, ages birth to eight. The project will strengthen existing 21C models and help expand the model to other districts around the state. 

Life Interrupted: the Japanese American Experience in WWII Arkansas exhibit will educate the citizens of Arkansas and the region about the legacy of the Jerome and Rohwer camps through a series of exhibits at four Central Arkansas sites.

Over recent years, Arkansas has received an influx of immigrants.  The Urban Institute produced a profile of the immigrant population in Arkansas to be published and distribute to policy makers, business and community leaders.

Dr. Sybil J. Hampton, the third president of WRF retired after ten years of service.  She positioned the Foundation to enter the new millennium of grantmaking.

After meetings with government agencies, nonprofit and community leaders, WRF Board and Staff adopted the Moving The Needle (MTN) strategic plan, with four main objectives to reducing poverty in Arkansas.