OVERVIEW: The Windgate Charitable Foundation focuses its arts giving on contemporary craft and arts education. It also makes grants for health, education and human services in Arkansas.
IP TAKE: Museums, schools and arts organizations involved in contemporary crafts will want to take notice of the Windgate Charitable Foundation, as it is one of the few sources of funding for this area of visual arts. Organizations and museums of every size have received support for programs and exhibitions. The trust also works thoughtfully in its home state of Arkansas to expand health care access and services for the state’s most vulnerable residents.
Windgate takes a proactive approach to funding and does not accept unsolicited applications. It’s essential to build relationships through intermediaries like shared funders and regional networks. Given its relatively narrow thematic and geographic interests, grantseekers that feel they are a good match should be able to network to get on this funder’s radar. Contact information is provided below.
PROFILE: Based in Little Rock, Arkansas, the Windgate Foundation is a family foundation established in 1993. Much of the foundation is comprised of donations of Walmart stock acquired by the family over many years. Its stated purpose is to “advance contemporary craft and strengthen visual arts education in the United States. Additional giving supports education, health and community development in Arkansas.
Grants for Visual Arts and Arts Education
Visual arts and related educational programs constitute the foundation’s main giving focus. Windgate supports art through three of its four giving streams.
- The Advance Contemporary Craft focus area is national in scope and one of the few sources of funding dedicated to contemporary craft.
- This initiative supports fellowships, residencies and career development programs, as well as educational programs and outreach.
- Funding may also support the purchase of “tools or equipment for craft programs.”
- Windgate has supported the acquisition of works of contemporary craft at art museums.
- Grantees include Montana’s Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Tennessee and the Penland School of Craft in North Carolina.
- The foundation also awards grants to Strengthen Visual Arts in Colleges and Universities.
- It supports residencies, fellowships, scholarships and visiting artist programs, as well as grants to support the purchase materials and equipment.
- Grantees include Arkansas State University, the Museum and Arts Center at Black Mountain College in North Carolina and the University of Central Oklahoma.
- Arts education giving extends to the K-12 level, where out-of-school learning, push-in programs and teacher development through arts nonprofits are supported.
- Grantees include Artspace Projects in Minneapolis, the Mid-America Arts Alliance, the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Colorado and Art School at Old Church in Demarest, New Jersey.
Grants for Public Health and Human Services
Windgate supports the well-being of people in its home state of Arkansas with grants to improve health and community.
- A main interest in increasing access to quality health care. Grantees include the Arkansas Children’s Foundation, the Mercy Health Foundation in Fort Smith and the Baptist Health Foundation in Little Rock.
- The foundation also supports nursing education programs in Arkansas as means of improving the state’s health care infrastructure. Grantees include the University of Arkansas, Philander Smith University and the Arkansas Colleges of Health Education.
- Windgate also funds services for vulnerable people in the state, focusing on food and housing insecurity. This funding appears to prioritize the Little Rock area. Recipients include Comprehensive Juvenile Services, the Arkansas Food Bank, Our House and Women and Children First: The Center Against Family Violence in Little Rock.
Grants for K-12 and Higher Education
In addition to its grants for arts education and nursing education, the trust awards grants for teacher preparation programs with the long-term goal of improving education in Arkansas.
- Grants have supported Teach for America of the Greater Mississippi Delta and Arkansas and Arkansas Tech University.
Important Grant Details
Windgate awarded close to $77 million in grants in a recent year. With only a few exceptions, grant range from $2,000 to about $8 million. The trust’s median grant size is about $50,000.
- Windgate provides information on its past grantmaking on its Grant Recipients page.
- This funder makes over 100 grants a year to organizations of every size.
- While about half of its grants stay in Arkansas, this is a prominent funder of contemporary craft on the national scene.
- Windgate does not accept unsolicited grant proposals or requests for funding.
- Direct questions to foundation staff via email at contact@windgatefoundation.org or by phone at (501) 868-6330.
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