Alice L. Walton Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Alice Walton Foundation supports arts and culture, education, community development and health with a strong focus on the state of Arkansas.
IP TAKE: Alice Walton’s “transformative experiences in the arts” shape her philanthropy, which focuses on “wellness and how art, nature and the spaces around us shape and improve our lives.” The Alice L. Walton Foundation prioritizes its home state of Arkansas, where Walton founded the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine. Unfortunately, this funder does not accept unsolicited proposals. A connection to Ms. Walton or one of the foundation’s grantees might be the only way to gain this funder’s attention.
PROFILE: Established in 2017, the Alice L. Walton Foundation is a private philanthropic organization based in Bentonville, Arkansas. Alice Walton is an heir to the Walmart retail fortune. She is widely known as a leading arts philanthropist and collector and has received many awards and recognitions for her work, including the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art Medal and the Getty Medal for contributions to the Arts and Humanities. She has also served on boards and advisory councils of many arts organizations, including the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum and the National Gallery of Art. She also founded the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine, both located in Bentonville, Arkansas.
The Alice L. Walton Foundation “strives to deliver meaningful and lasting change to individuals and communities most in need.” Its stated commitments are “increasing access to the arts, improving education, enhancing health and advancing economic opportunity for all.” Corresponding to these commitments, the foundation runs giving programs for Arts and Culture, Education, Community and Health & Wellness. Grantmaking is national in scope, although the foundation’s home state of Arkansas is the site of some major investments.
Grants for Arts and Culture
The Alice L. Walton Foundation’s Arts and Culture giving focuses on providing greater opportunities for access to arts and culture and enabling “systems change through support for more diverse art, artists, institutions and leaders.”
Walton is the founder of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, which receives ongoing support, including funding for an “internship program dedicated to recruiting diverse, top-tier talent.”
Other major grantees reflect Walton’s board positions; Grants have supported a digitization project at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art and the development of a new American Women’s History Museum at the Smithsonian, where Alice Walton maintains board involvement.
The foundation has also supported an initiative of the American Alliance of Museums to increase the diversity of museum boards of directors and the expansion of arts programs at the University of Central Arkansas.
Apart from these major commitments, the Walton Foundation has made many grants to small- and medium-sized arts organizations across the country. Recipients include the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, the Vincent Price Museum of Art in California, the National Cowgirl Museum Hall of Fame and the Symphony Orchestra of Northwest Arkansas.
Grants for K-12 and Higher Education
Walton’s Education grantmaking focuses on increasing broad access to high quality educational opportunities.
In the K-12 arena, the foundation names teacher quality, arts education and “equitable access to excellent facilities for public charter schools” as areas of focus.
K-12 grants appear to prioritize Arkansas, with grants going to the Soar After School Program in Springdale, the Bentonville High School Choir Boosters and Boys and Girls Clubs of America.
The foundation also gave $50 million to the Equitable Facilities Fund, which makes low-cost loans for growth and expansion to “high-performing public charter schools.”
In higher education, the foundation also prioritizes access and arts programming.
In Arkansas, grantees include the University of Arkansas, North Arkansas College, the University of the Ozarks and Northwest Arkansas Community College.
The foundation has also supported historically Black colleges in Atlanta, including Spelman College, Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University.
Grants for Housing and Community Development, Food Systems, and Women
The Alice L. Walton Foundation does not outline specific goals for its Community grantmaking program but has demonstrated interest in equitable food systems, housing and support for vulnerable women, girls and LGBTQ people.
Grantmaking emphasizes the foundation’s home state of Arkansas, where it has supported the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank, the Arkansas Community Foundation, the Bentonville Library, the United Way of Northwest Arkansas and the Northwest Arkansas Women’s Shelter.
Outside of Arkansas, the foundation has made grants to the Presbyterian Night Shelter of Tarrant County, Texas and Hope Women’s Shelter in Mineral Wells, Texas.
Grants for Public Health
The Walton Foundation’s Health & Wellbeing grants aim to expand “access to coordinated and specialty health services, particularly for underserved communities.” The foundation also articulates an interest in supporting “the development and integration of holistic health concepts and services into existing care.”
In 2021, Walton bankrolled the establishment of the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine, which will open to medical students in the fall of 2025, pending accreditation. Located in Bentonville, Arkansas, the school plans to offer a “four-year MD program that will enhance traditional medical education with the arts, humanities, and whole health principles.” Another major gift went to Arkansas’s Northwest Technical Institute, which received $2.5 million for a new allied health education building.
Other heath grantees include the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, the New York Presbyterian Hospital System, the Mercy Health Foundation of Arkansas and the Washington Regional Medical Foundation in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Important Grant Details:
The Alice L. Walton Foundation’s grants mainly range from $5,000 to $5 million, with some major projects in Arkansas receiving even larger sums.
More than half of this funder’s grantees operate in the state of Arkansas, where the foundation is based. However, grantmaking is not limited to this state.
Many of the foundation’s grantees receive ongoing and/or multi-year support.
Arts and culture have been this foundation’s largest giving areas over the years, but with the establishment of the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine, giving for medicine has increased significantly.
This foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals for funding.
Submit general inquiries to the foundation via email at alicelwaltonfoundation@wppg.org.
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