Southern Bancorp Inc.*

Southern Bancorp Inc. of Arkadelphia has established a 23-year record of serving up a heady blend of profitable performance and difference-making charity. With total assets of more than $1 billion, the bank holding company is a growth-minded lender in search of new communities in the Mississippi Delta to serve and help revitalize.

Earnings from banking provide a sustainable source of money for Southern Bancorp’s place-based incentive programs to transform impoverished areas.

“The basis of all we do is banking,” said Phil Baldwin, CEO of Southern Bancorp. “It gives us longevity, a local presence and financial staying power. Our model provides funding for our charitable work.”

Southern Bancorp converts about half its annual profits into grants and donations administered through charitable affiliates that include Southern Financial Partners in Helena, Southern Good Faith Fund in Pine Bluff and Southern Community Development Corp. in Arkadelphia.

The good works include helping drive out predatory payday lenders from Arkansas and extend to enhancing educational opportunities.

Staffers donated 4,000 hours in 2009 to help low-income residents prepare and file income tax returns as part of the Internal Revenue Service’s VITA program — Volunteer Income Tax Preparation. “Our goal for 2010 is 2,000 returns,” Baldwin said.

Billed as America’s largest rural development bank among its 50 peers, the venture broadened its presence in south Arkansas and expanded into northeast Arkansas through bank buys during 2009.

The company is positioning itself to become the first rural development bank to launch a public stock offering to create what could be a first: a publicly traded philanthropic bank.

Toward that end, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek, Mich., recently invested $5 million and deposited an additional $6 million in Southern Bancorp. Its branch network numbers 28 locations in Arkansas and Mississippi.