Entergy Arkansas Inc.*

Entergy Arkansas Inc.’s philosophy on giving is simple: Invest in the communities it serves.

“This is home to us and will continue to be home to us,” said CEO and President Hugh McDonald. “When the communities that we serve are successful and grow, we are successful and grow.”

In the last year, the energy company spent $1.6 million on health and social services. It emphasizes education and literacy programs, making sure that kids get off on the right foot, McDonald said.

Project Deserve, which has been around for more than 20 years, collects money from customers, employees and shareholders to help handicapped and elderly Arkansans pay the electric bills. Since 1982, the project has distributed almost $4 million to 60,000 families.

The company also has helped low-income families pay for weatherizing their homes and given out fans to customers who don’t have air conditioning.

The environment also is becoming a top focus for the utility company.

It recently gave Winrock International $500,000, which paid for an 80-year lease on marginal farmland in Independence County to grow hardwood trees for their ability to remove carbon dioxide from the air.

Entergy also wants to spark economic development through its giving. In August, it gave the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences’ Arkansas BioVentures program $500,000.

Entergy made a $5 million multi-year contribution to the Foundation for the Mid-South, an organization that provides financing for business development projects in the impoverished Mississippi Delta region of Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

“I’m proud that we’re involved in the community as we are because it’s the right thing to do,” McDonald said.