Eleven Little Rock nonprofit organizations will be splitting up almost $723,000 in grants from the Little Rock Residential Housing & Public Facilities Board.
If your favorite nonprofit isn’t one of the recipients, it’s probably because you aren’t on the Public Facilities Board.
The LRPFB’s general counsel, Jane Dickey, confirmed to Whispers that the board did not advertise or announce the availability of the public money, which came not from taxpayers but from reserve residuals from bond issues that dated back to 1979 and 1988.
When those bonds were all finally repaid, Dickey said, the board was left with “a significant … but still limited” amount of money that members wanted to use for public betterment.
The board adopted a funding policy in April, compiled a list of nonprofits in the city and then personally invited the nonprofits’ members to apply for one-time grants to be used for capital expenses.
The board divided up the money at a meeting earlier this month as follows:
- Arkansas Food Bank, $50,000;
- Arkansas Repertory Theatre, $50,000;
- Arkansas Rice Depot, $15,450;
- Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, $50,000;
- Central Arkansas Library System, $200,000;
- Gaines House, $50,000;
- Habitat for Humanity, $75,000;
- Harmony Health Clinic, $50,000;
- Our House, $125,000;
- The One, $22,500; and
- Watershed Family Resource Center, $35,000.
The LRPFB isn’t out of business. It still has two revenue bond issues outstanding, one for The Rep and one for CALS, with the final maturity dates in 2027, and Dickey said the board could issue more bonds in the future.
Susan Fleming chairs the LRPFB, and the other members are Sarah McBroom, Cora McHenry, Ralph Cotham and Mike Watts.
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