BENTONVILLE, Ark. (Oct. 7, 2015) – The Walton Family Foundation selected 36 firms for its inaugural pool of designers for the Northwest Arkansas Design Excellence Program. The announcement concludes a two-month nationwide search for innovative designers that will contribute to the future of the urban landscape in Northwest Arkansas.

Walton Family Foundation Initiative Captures Interest of National and International Firms

Multi-million dollar grants will allow for a new culinary facility and programming, led by Dr. Glenn R. Mack, a national culinary education leader

Program Offers Designers Creative Venue to Shape Urban Landscape of one of Nation’s Fastest-Growing Areas

Bentonville, Northwest Arkansas Families to Benefit from World-Class Educational Option, Led by Dr. Clayton Marsh, Deputy Dean of the College at Princeton University

The Walton Family Foundation is pleased to share the results of the most comprehensive survey of WFF grantees to date. The National Council for Responsive Philanthropy sent a survey to a total pool of more than 1,167 grantees and received 557 completed responses – a response rate of 48%.

Last year, the Walton Family Foundation moved forward with even greater intensity, focus and commitment to expanding opportunity for more people. Over the past two decades, our annual grant making has increased more than sevenfold from $50 million to more than $375 million last year. In 2014, we collaborated with more than 1,900 partners on initiatives across the U.S. and the world. If you could travel with me to our grantee communities, you would see schools that are providing transformative educational opportunities and preparing students for success in college and careers. You would see a riverbed that once was barren, now showing visible increases in vegetation thanks to a historic “pulse flow.” And you would see a father teaching his son to ride a bike on a new greenway trail, linking families and nature.

Walton Family Foundation To Invest $1.2M to Expand Parent and Community Resources in New Orleans

The Walton Family Foundation has been made aware of a fraudulent email claiming to be from our Executive Director, Buddy Philpot. Similar versions of the email claim to be from "Peter W." or "Horace S." The email may look as if it is coming from a Foundation-related website or from an email address of info@waltonfamilyfoundation.com. The message indicates that the recipient has been chosen for a $5 million grant. The Foundation did not send this email. We are preparing legal action to stop this behavior.

The Walton Family Foundation is proud of our decades-long track record investing in real solutions to tough environmental challenges. Over the last five years alone, we’ve invested $351 million in efforts to support real, lasting ecological restoration in the Gulf of Mexico, to tackle the water policy challenges in the Colorado River Basin, to conserve some of the most ecologically rich seascapes around the globe and to push for sustainable fisheries management that benefits fishing communities and families. Our grantees include many of the nation’s leading environmental groups, as well as local organizations working on behalf of the communities that depend directly on healthy rivers, oceans and wildlife.