Welcome back to Unmasking the Heart for Change, where we dive into real stories behind transformation, one heart to heart at a time. I'm your host, Tammy Winstead, and I'm so thankful that you tuned in to listen today. Today's conversation is close to my heart, not just because of the impact it's having in our community, but because I also have the honor of serving on this wonderful committee.
I've seen firsthand the heart, the strategy, and the commitment that drives the Mississippi County Community Foundation from helping donors protect and grow their charitable dollars to connecting resources with the most pressing local needs. Mississippi County Community Foundation is where generosity becomes action, and today I'm sitting down with someone who lives and breathes that mission.
Our executive director, Nikki Bell. She's here to share how the foundation is inspiring solutions, connecting people and making change that last right here at home. Nikki, welcome to the show. I'm so glad that you're here with us today. Before we dive into the incredible work that the Community Foundation is doing, could you tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, and what led you to be a part of this amazing group?
Tammy, thank you so much for having me on today. It's an honor that I don't feel worthy of, especially after hearing so many of your past episodes and stories of those incredible guests.
But here I sit, so a little about me. Um, I'm a Mississippi County girl, born and raised. I went to Shawnee Elementary and join Joiner and graduated from River Crest. I went on to get my associate's degree from a ANC, but back then it was called M MCCC, so I'm dating myself, we're not gonna talk about that.
And then on to a ASU for a Bachelor's in Business Admin. I married my high school sweetheart, Ross Bell in 2004. We've been together 28 years. That's crazy. And married for 21 of those. From there, I taught a few years before having my twin daughters. And then I chose to stay at home with them. And that's been one of the biggest blessings of my life. 'cause I absolutely adore those two. But now I've always gotta be doing something. So I actually got paid, for writing while I was pregnant and blogged about twins for several years. For What to Expect When You're Expecting. And then I also took over management of our family businesses, which I still do to this day. We have rental properties, mini storages, a few Airbnbs, and truck and trailer sales. Now, fast forward to 2014, I had a good friend of mine move and she left this position with a foundation, so I decided to apply. I didn't know a ton about it at the end, but to be honest, I just admire her and her heart for serving. So I knew that it would align with my own heart and boy does it other than a minor bump in the road. I've been here ever since.
Wow,Wow. That's great. I think it's always powerful to understand the story behind an organization's heartbeat. Because numbers and grants only tell part of the story. So for someone who has never heard about the Mississippi County Community Foundation, how would you describe what they do and why it matters?
Let me be honest, this is not always the easiest thing in the world to explain to someone because the realm of endowments isn't common knowledge. But in short, what we do is manage endowments in order to give grants to local nonprofits and scholarships to graduating seniors. And what that looks like is meeting with people with charitable hearts and dollars to give. Getting to know what they care about most and investing their funds so that their gifts last forever to support the causes most near and dear to them. You can think of me as a personal charitable concierge. I take what you have to give no matter how small the gift and put it to work for what you're passionate about and that matters because the world of nonprofits all too often run on shoestring budgets, so they always need the love and support that we give them. These are the local organizations that keep our county alive, like quite literally, whether that be feeding the hungry, sheltering the animals, educating our kids, housing the homeless, protecting the battered, preserving our history, like the list goes on and on
This group is a local affiliate of the Arkansas Community Foundation. So how does that connection help support the work you do here locally?
Being in a network, just one of 29 affiliates across the state is absolutely invaluable. In fact, our model is highly sought after by other community foundations across the nation because first and foremost, our central office is in Little Rock.
They do all the things that I'm not smart enough to do. They handle all the high level work, the billing, the investing, the tech related issues, literally everything behind the scenes that makes us work. But I, living here locally, have personal connections to our local nonprofits, our school systems, and our donors.
I see our needs and I'm available, uh, to be on the lookout for ways to meet them on a level that someone living hours away just could never do. And then being connected to the other affiliates across the state allow us to share ideas. What works and what doesn't to make connections with new people and organizations. And most importantly, to have a support system. There are Eds who have done this work much longer than I have, and to be able to lean into their expertise just means the world to me. And then in turn, I can encourage and support those who are newer to this space. We'll all be together for two days next week in Little Rock. And I look forward to our meeting so much as I always leave, like excited and encouraged, like just new ideas to bring home.
That's great. So our foundation prides itself on being described as local people, local decisions. What does that actually look like in practice?
I truly believe that this is our secret sauce because no one knows the needs of an area like someone who actually lives in the area.
Like so many other organizations have like eyes in the sky that think they know like what life looks like in a particular place. And then they make decisions for those places based on what's worked somewhere else. And while that may be helpful from time to time, I'm certain that that's more like being blindfolded and just throwing darts at the wall, praying for a bullseye. So instead, we start with a local board of directors. We currently have 12 volunteers from across the county who give their time to explore our needs and make decisions about how to direct the funds we've been entrusted with. I'm just here to guide the ship.
So what does a typical year look like in terms of grants and outreach as our newest board member, you're fixing to see this in action firsthand. As our yearly grant cycle actually closes today. So our giving tree grant cycle opens yearly from July 10th to August 15th. And in all the time in between, we maintain a relationship with our local nonprofits. We visit them. Sometimes they come to us. Uh, we may meet in their spaces just to get to know 'em better and learn more about what they do. Um, I share other funding opportunities that I'm aware of, and I'm just available to offer any support I can. And then from February 1st to April 1st, our scholarship portal is open to all local graduating high school seniors. And during that time, I'm connecting with our school counselors, the career coaches, just trying to make sure that we're getting applicants from all of our schools.
So I know in the last year alone, our foundation awarded $40,000 in grants right here in Mississippi County. And since 2000 that's grown over 1.4 million, which blows my mind, and is amazing.
Absolutely.
How does that kind of financial impact translate into real change for the people we serve?
Uh, those numbers still take me for a surprise sometimes, but what a blessing it is. With our grant sizes so relatively small, it's often just easy to overlook their impact. But I know from the relationships I've built with our local nonprofits that they all count on us to keep the doors open from putting food on the shelves to funding the afterschool learning programs and supporting spay and newer clinics. Just everything else we so gladly help out with. I know that our area would look vastly different without the love and support of the community foundation.
Yes. So can you share a story of a grant or a project that really reflects the impact that foundation strives for in our community?
It's honestly hard to pick just one. And I know we're working on fixed time, so I'll just keep it kind of short. Most recently I'm thrilled to have been able to gift every school district in the county with funding to purchase a classroom set of the walking classroom. It was a major gift to celebrate our 25th year in the county. It was. Roughly $25,000 that we were able to give back, just to support literacy. We know that the children and their educational success is what drives the future of our area, so it just makes sense to pour into them. And this particular program, the Walking Classroom, it not only focuses on literacy, but also on physical activity and character building. So what community wouldn't benefit from literate, physically fit citizens of Noble character? It just felt like a win all around.
One of the things that I personally love most about the Community Foundation mission is how it's not just about giving money. It's about connecting the right people and ideas to create local lasting change, which means that every bit of the charitable dollars that are given stay right here in our community, helping our people. So the Community Foundation talks about engaging people, connecting resources, and inspiring solutions. Can you share examples of each of those in action?
Action. Sure. So goal one, engaging people. I'd say the most obvious is our local board and the ripple effect you guys have probably without even knowing it. Like for example, we have board members who have been asked to serve on other boards and committees and because of the hat they wear in the background for the community foundation. We've been entrusted with new endowments, which leads to more money out the door to support local causes. Like a great example of this was when Big River Steel had a very large gift to make to the county, and two of our board members were on the distribution planning of that gift. Well, because of their witness of the foundation, their inside knowledge of how we operate, what we do, we had the privilege to open a brand new $30,000 endowment from them. That's a gift that will give yearly, forever. All just from engaging people for, just inviting them to learn about our work and asking them to join us.
And then goal two, connecting resources. While we happily grant out every single dollar available to us, there are always without fail needs that continue to go unmet. It hurts my heart more than I can say, but because of the connections we have across the state and even the nation, there are many times that there are other funds or maybe even educational opportunities available outside our walls that we can direct nonprofits to. So in other words, when we can't directly help, I will try my best to find someone who can. I can be a bridge to connect one organization to another. And then goal three, the inspiring solutions. This probably my favorite part of the whole thing, because I love to be behind the scenes playing matchmaker, if you will. I can't give away too much just yet, but I recently met with a nonprofit who is undergoing some major changes and are just looking for a solution to help them in a big problem. And I got to say, you know what? Hold on. Hold on. I know somebody and I was able to make a quick phone call, set up a meeting, and hopefully this will be a dream solution for both of them, just, you know, an answer to prayer. So stay tuned.
Yay. So how do you work with donors to help them match their passion with those community needs like that?
Oh, this is another favorite of mine. Okay. Um, maybe it's just all my favorite. I probably have the best job in the world, but for our donors, most of the time people come, already with special interests, pet projects, you know, just things that they feel really passionate about and wanna support. My job is to help 'em figure out the best way to do that. And sometimes that may look like opening a new endowment or a scholarship fund, maybe to memorialize something that they really care about or someone they loved. But that could also look like contributing to a fund that we already have in place that supports what they deeply care about. And then at other times still it may not involve a monetary donation at all, but rather giving of their time or other resources to support work that they're passionate about.
The Community Foundation works with professional advisors, nonprofits, and community leaders. So how do those partnerships shape the outcome you're able to achieve?
Well, we all know that as a general rule, we're just stronger together. And I've talked quite a bit about the work with nonprofits, but, for our professional advisors and community leaders, they're generally the key to like long-term planning and lasting impact. Like our professional advisors. That are keen to work with us. They can help direct their clients plan, end of life giving to ensure that their charitable dollars continue to support the things they care about long after they've gone. And then community leaders can invite us to the table and keep us abreast of issues that affect the county as a whole, and therefore we can then make the best decisions of how to direct the funds that we have to make the biggest impact possible.
So the local grant cycle ends on August the 15th. Can you explain how that local grant cycle works and who can apply? Of
Of course. During that window, July 10th through August 15th, local nonprofits, so any 5 0 1 C3 public charity, school, hospital, or government agency serving the county can apply for funding. Our grants typically range from $500 to $2,500. We are open to supporting any need in the county, but we do have some matching dollars from the state to put a special focus on early literacy and food security. There's also some additional funds, available to support animal welfare and childhood physical activity. I've been told that we've had one of the simplest grant applications there is. It's only about 12 to 15 questions and they're relatively basic, just simple things. Explain like your needs and your budget and, you know, just really, really simple basic questions. But, those applications will be filtered through our central office to ensure completion, and then they assign them to us. The local affiliate to review. Members of our grants committee will go in and score every application using a rubric designed by central office team. And then we will meet and discuss in depth each and every application and choose, what we will fund and how much they'll be awarded. It's by far the longest, most difficult and gut wrenching meeting of the year, as we'd all love to fully fund each and every request. But limited funds just won't allow that. So hard decisions have to be made.
Right. So I know Aspire arkansas.org is used a lot in our work. How does data like that help guide decision making for our community grants?
Aspire, Arkansas is an invaluable tool that shares statistics about education, health, families, community, demographics, and equity. We can look at these numbers and trends to see the biggest needs in our area and how we compare across the state and the nation. Like obviously the biggest needs will get the most attention and support. I actually highly recommend everyone to go visit aspire arkansas.org and just play around and explore these numbers. I just find them fascinating and so eye-opening like. Side note, but did you know that Arkansas ranks number two in charitable giving in the nation number two out of 51? Yes. That just blows my mind, you know? And if it doesn't make you love our state and proud to call it home, I don't know what will.
Yes. yes. Sometimes the biggest impact comes from understanding and responding to the unique needs of the people right here at home. And I think that's what makes our community foundation so unique. Actually, something that really stands out to me as someone on this committee. Is that every dollar given stays right here. Can you talk about the importance of that and how it impacts donor trust?
This fact is everything to me. I love how transparent we are as an organization. When someone makes a gift to the Mississippi County Community Foundation, those dollars are used for grants and students right here in Mississippi County. Our board members are extremely diligent in ensuring that grants made with our funds are indeed being used here for our citizens, and then as a whole, like a statewide organization. Less than 1%, actually only 0.33% of our total assets are used for operating expenses. That is literally unheard of. The national average for nonprofit operating expenses range somewhere between five and 20%, and we're less than one. We aren't here to make money. We are here to grant money. Mm-hmm.
So with 47 charitable funds and over 1.4 million in grants since 2000, the foundation's local footprint is extremely significant. How do you decide which projects or needs to prioritize?
So like we mentioned earlier, the tool Aspire, Arkansas just gives us tons of statistics. But even more importantly than that, we rely on the relationships and the knowledge built from actually getting to know our community, our nonprofits, and who they serve. It's one of the most beautiful things about this organization because no one knows our home like we do. From a statewide standpoint, there are issues that affect the people of Arkansas across the board, of course. And those issues are what we see the matching grant dollars for. Currently there are, early childhood literacy, childhood physical activity, and food security.
So what are some local challenges you've seen that the Community Foundation is working to address?
There's many local challenges as anyone familiar with. Our area knows, but something that we've talked about as a board as of lately that we'd really like to address. Is ensuring that students from all of our schools have the knowledge and access to our scholarships. Yes. We've repeatedly, have a bulk of applications from certain schools, and then there's like this blinding absence of applications from other schools, and that just doesn't set well with us. So we've been brainstorming ways to combat this inequity, and I look forward to seeing this issue rectified.
And when does that scholarship window open?
That is february 1st through April 1st. Perfect.
So can you share how community members can get involved beyond financial donations?
Well, there are many ways to be involved that don't require a dime, but the biggest need I see across the board is the need for volunteers with our local nonprofits. There's so much work to be done and usually only a few hands to do it. So if anyone wants to help and just doesn't know where to start, let's talk. Let's find out what you care about, what you have time for, and get you plugged into a local service that undoubtedly needs your help.
Yes. It's one of the goals with this podcast that I'm working on, sitting down with some of these nonprofits and saying, how do people sign up? Because when my kids left and I was looking for something to do, that's exactly, I started making phone calls to everybody. I'm like, what do you need? What do you need?
And Well, and now you know, the graduating seniors are starting class of 20, 27, 75 hours. That's a lot of hours. So hopefully some of these needs will be met.
Yes. So the community foundation also recognizes its grantees in creative ways like decals. How important is that in celebrating and visibility?
Well, getting our name out there and brand recognition has been a big goal for the foundation as a whole for just the past several years. Because if you don't know about an organization and what they do. You won't give to or support them, and that just won't do. Like we want everyone to know who we are and what we do, and we wanna earn the trust and support because let's be honest, everyone doesn't have the means to start an endowment. But anyone can give to an existing one like our giving tree. So many people have a heart for so many different causes, but limited funds to give, and that leaves them feeling helpless in a sense. But that's the beauty of our giving tree, that gift, no matter how small. Goes into a big pot that's invested and protected and will continually grow and to give eternally. So your small gift and my small gift combined with everyone else's small gifts, they come together to make a big, beautiful, long lasting gifts that just keeps giving back to our community.
Yes, so I know this coming grant year is a big one for the Arkansas Community Foundation as they celebrate 50 years and more than half a billion dollars in grants, as well as partnering with thousands of non-profits. That is mind boggling and just astounding. It's exciting to think about what's next, especially when we have such deep community roots. So what's one big goal you have for the community foundation in this coming year?
Well, I'm not a great secret keeper, so it is killing my soul not to be able to talk about our 50th anniversary, but. Just huge things are happening. I think you're gonna hear hallelujah shouted all across the state. So, but with that said, as far as like a local goal, something that, we've talked about since the beginning of this fiscal year was to host a countywide National Community Foundation Week. This is an annual event across the country and one that we've never participated in locally since my time with the foundation. I'm not certain what it'll look like exactly, but we have a brilliant group with amazing ideas, so I look forward to seeing with what we come up with to present to the public in November.
I think our group is very unique too. Lots of different perspectives and that's That's really cool.
Diversity's a goal.
Yes. So are there any upcoming initiatives or programs that you're especially excited about? Oh,
Oh, something I'm super excited about is our local board joining, the state and something that we're calling a literacy cohort. And it's gonna be a fabulous learning journey spread over about 18 months to take a deep dive into early literacy in our county. This is gonna require the whole community coming together to fully understand. Where we stand compared to the rest of the state and the nation in terms of early literacy, which we're referring to third grade and under. We want a better understanding of where we are, how we got here, and what steps we can take to move forward and increase literacy in our youngest learners because we know that if we can make strides early on, it creates this cool snowball effect where the better they perform at younger ages, the better they continue to perform in higher grades and beyond.
Yes. How do you hope the foundation will continue to inspire people in Mississippi County to invest in their own community?
Though I'm not sure what all the literacy cohort will entail as we haven't quite got the ball rolling just yet. I know from other affiliates who have begun the process that it really takes a village to make this kind of movement a success. So I pray for local participation and buy into the fullest. Like I think that we'll have lots of support because everyone knows that when our kids succeed, our schools succeed. And when our schools succeed, our towns succeed. And when our town succeed, the county succeeds. And when the county succeeds, we all succeed.
Yes. Yes. So as we end, there's one question I love to ask each of the inspiring change makers who share their heart with us. Can you share a moment when a small act of kindness, either something you gave or received, left a lasting impact on you?
I love this question. This was so much fun to think about. And I'm not sure that anything I've ever given has left an impact on anyone except maybe a headache of what in the world do I do with this? So I'll give something or I'll share something that someone gave to me that I'll just cherish forever. Back in high school, our principal, Mr. Rogers Ford seemed to always have a few $2 bills in his pocket. How often do you see, you know, $2 bills? But he had hand those things out, at times or. Moments that he found significant, like you really had to impress him to earn one of these bills. And I can proudly say that I currently have three from him that I treasure and I will keep them forever. I can't even tell you what I did to earn them, but I received them at three different seasons in life, like once as his student. And then once as his employee, but by that time when I was teaching, he was the superintendent. And then once as his colleague, because he served on the board and I kind of feel like that one may have been like my first like public presentation or something, but whatever it was, I will just never forget how loved and seen that he made me feel. And of course, I'll never see a $2 bill without thinking of him. cool.
That's so cool.
To our listeners, as you think about the conversations that we've had today, I wanna challenge you to look around your own community. What's one need you see and how could you be a part of the solution? Remember, change doesn't have to be grand to be meaningful.
And as we all know here on Unmasking the Heart for Change, we believe that every guest who shares their truth with us leaves a lasting imprint, not just on this platform, but on every soul who listens. So as a small token of our gratitude, we want to give you a little gift. From our heart, and I have made you a journal with your name on
I love it.
as well as one of our key chains that when you touch, it'll go straight to our website.
Stop. Thank you. Oh my gosh. Paper is my favorite. I love it. Thank you,
Nikki, thank you so much for being here and for sharing your heart with us today. Your dedication to building a stronger Mississippi County is truly inspiring and I'm grateful for the difference you're making in our community. You can connect with the Mississippi County Community Foundation by visiting their page at Ms County CF or the Arkansas Community Foundation website at arcf.org. All links will be in the show notes.
Do you or someone you know have an inspiring story about the good happening in our community? I wanna hear it. Your voice matters and your story could spark change for someone else. Apply to be a guest by visiting our Facebook page or using the link in the show notes. Be sure to subscribe, share, and leave a review so more people can find us. And remember, change begins within and it starts one heart to heart at a time. See you guys next time. Bye.