Dear Friends,

ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) Arkansans are the heroes of every story we tell at the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation (WRF). Close to half the residents of our state work tirelessly every day and cannot afford the basics of housing, child care, food, transportation, health care, and technology.

ALICE Arkansans are heroes who work hard for all of us, but we won’t romanticize their circumstances – it’s not equitable, sustainable, and bad for the state. ALICE exists only because of the structural disparity in our economy, which we need to fix.

At WRF, we will continue to raise our voices, tackle the root causes of the challenges facing ALICE families, and actively pursue making Arkansas a state where hard work truly works for all. To that end, in 2022, we doubled down on our strategy to disrupt failing public systems and support the organizing needed to build new ones by:

• Partnering with other funders to resource the LBGTQ+ Advancement Fund to support better economic and social outcomes for LGBTQ+ Arkansans
• Scaling the Micah Fellows Program to develop Arkansas faith leaders as vocal champions for living wages, affordable housing, and reasonably priced childcare
• Supporting  the Arkansas Black Philanthropy Coalition’s (ABPC) partnership with Facebook and the Arkansas Community Foundation to distribute $1 million to Black-led organizations that build resilience in communities around the state
• Resourcing organizations like the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas, the Urban League, and DecARcerate use their voices to further an ALICE-friendly policy agenda at the state level
• Funding the Arkansas Black-Brown Power Coalition to help diversify who sits in positions of power and advocate for policies supporting communities of color in Arkansas

In addition to WRF’s  $5.4 million in grants to challenge those systemic barriers, we leveraged significant investments inside and outside the state.

• A $1M grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in support of AR Equity 2025
• An additional $70K to support immigrant-led and serving organizations that center immigrant voices through leadership development and power building as part of the Delivering on the Dream Fund
• An additional $100K from Rockefeller Philanthropies to support the coordinated campaign for a state EITC that ultimately passed as an essential tax credit for ALICE families
• Nearly $700,000 from the Walmart Foundation for Excel by Eight to pilot the Healthy Steps model 
• More than $200K in support from the Arkansas Community Foundation and the Carl B. and Florence E. King Foundation to launch a housing cohort of ALICE-serving organizations dedicated to mitigating the impact of eviction on ALICE families and building the long-term advocacy capacity for more equitable tenant rights in Arkansas

We invite you to join us in this relentless pursuit of equity for all Arkansans.