Walton Family Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Walton Family Foundation supports K-12 education and environmental conservation across the United States. It also supports human services, basic needs, and community development in its home region of Northern Arkansas.
IP TAKE: The Walton Family Foundation maintains a strong interest in school reform and the charter school movement in the U.S. It partners with established organizations that are closely aligned with its funding initiatives. While past giving has leaned hard right, current giving leans towards the center, even purple, as new heirs diversify its giving. Note that the Walton Family Foundation shouldn’t be confused with its corporate sister, the Walmart Foundation.
Walton is a transparent funder that not only maintains a database of grants dating almost all the way back to its founding, but also publishes and shares the results of its research into the effectiveness of its funding and funded programs. It is also a relatively accessible and approachable funder, although it does not accept unsolicited proposals, so some networking will be necessary to get on Walton’s radar. However, the good news is previous grantees have reported the foundation as being very easy to work with, with helpful program officers and ongoing support for grantees.
PROFILE: The Walton Family Foundation was founded in 1987 by Sam Walton, one of the founders of the Walmart retail chain, and his wife, Helen. The Foundation is based in Bentonville, Arkansas and the Waltons’ descendants run its board of directors. The total contributions of Rob, Jim, Alice, and Christy Walton, and their family holding company to the Walton Family Foundation amount to $58.49 million. The foundation’s mission is to “create access to opportunity for people and communities.” It maintains three philanthropic initiatives: Education, Environment, and Home Region, which prioritizes Northwest Arkansas and the Arkansas-Mississippi Delta areas.
Grants for Education
The Walton Family Foundation supports Education reform with over $100 million yearly through a three-pronged strategy:
Achievement and Opportunity: Walton supports “community-demanded, community-designed and community-driven educational change across the country.” Grants support programs that “increase access to opportunity in underserved communities,” especially prioritizing support for Black educators.
Communities: Walton supports “campaigns, platforms and tools” to promote the development of education policy that “that allow promising, community-demanded educational models to thrive and be sustained.”
Innovation: Walton supports projects working on “innovation in education to help improve schools and student outcomes.” It aims to support the development and adoption of exceptional educational programs and interventions, including new school models with “new approaches to college prep and career and technical education.”
The Walton Family Foundation’s K-12 funding has strongly supported the charter school movement in the U.S., with many of its largest grants supporting education reform and networks including Education Reform Now, the Foundation for Excellence in Education, the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, the KIPP Fund, and the Charter School Growth Fund.
Grants for Higher Education
While higher education is not a specific initiative of the Walton Family Foundation, grants stemming from its K-12 education and home region programs have supported research and higher education programs. Walton’s K-12 education program has funded educational research and program evaluations conducted by researchers at Harvard, MIT, and the University of Michigan, among others. A sub-initiative of the home region program aims to “strengthen coordinated regional economic development.” To this end, the foundation has collaborated with four-year and community colleges on workforce development and entrepreneurship programs. The University of Arkansas’ Institute for Integrative and Innovative Research received $194.7 million to expand its cross-disciplinary research capability, build a facility to house the institute, support entrepreneurship education, and create a campus in Bentonville, Arkansas.
Grants for Marine and Freshwater Conservation
The Walton Family Foundation’s Environment funding is specifically aimed at “protecting our water for future generations.” Specifically, its funding priorities are The initiative’s strategy centers around programs that “drive innovation,” “use markets to advance sustainability,” “encourage smart policy,” and “engage and empower diverse allies.” Innovation grantmaking supports the development and adoption of innovative technologies for conservation in the areas of agriculture fisheries management. In the area of sustainability, the focuses on creating awareness and market demand for sustainably produced products. Sustainability grants also support efforts to “engage companies in improving their water stewardship.” The third area of giving, aims to engage and empower diverse allies across its environmental grantmaking, prioritizing “Communities of Color, who disproportionately experience the more severe impacts of climate change, particularly as it relates to water.” Walton’s environment giving has three main giving areas:
Oceans: grantmaking for the world’s oceans is primarily concerned with sustainable fishing practices. Grants work to “build the capacity of fishing communities to advocate for better practices and leverage opportunities.”
Colorado River: grantmaking for the Colorado River aims to “protect, restore, conserve and sustainably manage water systems” in order to “find a pathway through coming water shortages to create stable and sustainable water supplies.”
Mississippi River: grantmaking is aimed at improving the overall health of the Mississippi River, addressing issues of flooding, pollution, and habitat destruction caused by climate change, unsustainable farming practices, and deforestation.
Recent environmental grants have supported national, regional and local organizations involved in water conservation, including the Farmers Conservation Alliance, the Marine Stewardship Council, Partners for Western Conservation, and Friends of the Yampa, which works with communities located in the Colorado River Basin.
Other Grantmaking Opportunities
Through its Home Region grantmaking initiative, the Walton Family Foundation supports a broad range of organizations and initiatives in Northwest Arkansas and the Arkansas-Mississippi Delta. Goals for Northwest Arkansas funding include supporting economic development, cultural vibrancy, inclusivity, and capacity building. Grantees from this geographic area include the Northwest Arkansas Land Trust, the Symphony Orchestra of Northwest Arkansas, and the Community Venture Foundation. In the Arkansas Mississippi Delta area, Walton supports education, youth development, economic development, and capacity building for regional organizations, especially those with diverse leadership. Recent Delta grants have supported organizations including the University of Arkansas, the Little Scholars of Arkansas Foundation, Mississippi’s Lower Delta Partnership and the Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi.
Important Grant Details:
Walton Family Foundation grants range from $50,000 to over $1 million. A grants database is provided on the foundation’s website.
The Walton Family Foundation makes grants throughout the United States, but certain initiative have specific geographical restrictions. Home Region grantmaking targets Northwest Arkansas and the Arkansas-Mississippi Delta Region.
Grantmaking is by invitation only. Unsolicited proposals or requests for funding will not be reviewed.
General inquiries may be submitted to the foundation’s staff via its contact page.
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