Walton family donations top UA’s gift list for 2019

FAYETTEVILLE — A list of top gifts to the University of Arkansas in 2019 includes a familiar name among the donors: Walton.

The top two gifts as disclosed by UA are from foundations associated with family members of Walmart founder Sam Walton, with a third Walton gift also among the largest.

As announced in November, the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation is giving $23.7 million over five years to support research and efforts by UA to bring any breakthroughs to the marketplace.

UA provided donor agreements for top gifts in response to a request made under the state’s public disclosure law. Records released include other large Walton gifts previously unannounced.

Based on documents released by the university, the second-largest gift is a $2.3 million grant to be paid over four years from the Walton Family Foundation. Previously unannounced, the grant aims to support training for school principals in lowincome schools.

The agreement for the grant refers to the “IMPACT Arkansas Principal Fellowship Program,” stating potential fellows will be recruited from both “traditional and public charter” schools with student populations of 70% or more receiving free or reduced-price lunch.

The records released by the university show six gifts at $1 million or more considered to have been made within the 12-month period ending June 30. Another six gifts were in amounts ranging from $250,000 to $850,000.

However, the university didn’t include detailed information about gifts made to the nonprofit Razorback Foundation, which supports UA athletics, even though some gifts would have been at or more than $250,000.

“The Razorback Foundation let us know it received six gifts for the benefit of Razorback Athletics in FY19, with amounts within that range. However, the university does not maintain copies of those gift agreements,” Rebecca Morrison, a UA spokeswoman, said.

The university in December announced a $6 million gift from the family of the founder of Tyson Foods to support an indoor track renovation project, and a $5 million pledge from the Willard & Pat Walker Charitable Foundation to help build a new baseball performance center.

The Razorback Foundation has repeatedly declined requests for other records made under the state’s Freedom of Information Act, stating it isn’t required to comply with the law.

Another previously unannounced gift to UA is a testamentary gift estimated at $1 million to support historic preservation at the UA’s Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design.

The university released a redacted gift agreement that didn’t identify the donor.

Morrison, in an email, said redactions took place “in the event the donor has requested anonymity, based on the competitive advantage exemption” to the state’s Freedom of Information Act.

Another previously unannounced gift, from Steven W. Clark, supports the university’s director of social innovation position and related hiring. The gift, in the amount of $850,000, builds on previous giving by Clark to support a multidisciplinary program aimed at helping business students and faculty members tackle various social and environmental problems.

Another gift from the Walton Family Foundation supports the dean of the UA College of Education and Health Professions. The grant agreement, dated April 12, states the foundation will provide $258,000 over three years “to support the new dean’s start-up package and potential initiatives.”

The agreement also stated the foundation approved reallocating “the estimated $440,000 spending account balance” for an already existing dean’s endowment, the Henry G. Hotz Endowed Dean’s Chair, which was established in 2015.

The university on April 17 announced the hiring of Brian Primack as dean of the college. Primack previously worked at the University of Pittsburgh, where he was dean of that university’s Honors College.

Another gift of $250,000 from Sherri Fryar and her husband, Brad Fryar, establishes the Taryn Claassen Memorial Endowed Scholarship in Theatre and Music. It’s named for the daughter of Sherri Fryar. Claassen was a UA student who died after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer.