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Bess Wilkins Memorial Scholarship Fund at a glance

· Private foundation

Bess Wilkins Memorial Scholarship Fund

Its FY2022 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$1.5M
Granted FY2022
9
Grants FY2022
1
States reached
$1.5M
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead

Read this first · the figures below need context

99% of Bess Wilkins Memorial Scholarship Fund’s FY2022 grant dollars went to Arkansas Community Foundation Inc, not to grantees.

Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2022 names 2 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it.

Organizations named directly on the return

1
’17
3
’18
4
’19
4
’20
3
’21
2
’22

Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.

01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2022.

Philanthropy$1.5MEducation$245k
02FY2022 · 9 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2022

  • Under $10k8 grants · $16k
  • $250k+1 grant · $1.5M
$2,200
Median grant
1
States reached
$0
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
ARKANSAS COMMUNITY FOUNDATION$1,489,940
SOUTHERN ARKANSAS UNIVERSITY$6,088
UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS$3,025
UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS$2,454
SOUTHERN ARKANSAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE$2,200
ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY$1,063
OUACHITA BAPTIST UNIVERSITY$688
ARKANSAS TECH UNIVERSITY$375
SAU TECH UNIVERSITY$63
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–22) land where the poverty rate runs at 18%, against an area that typically sits at 16%. 99% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 16%UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS: $4k → 15%ARKANSAS TECH UNIVERSITY: $4k → 15%ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY: $3k → 17%UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS: $5k → 17%ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY THREE: $2k → 17%FORDYCE SCHOLARSHIP ASSOCIATION: $55k → 20%HENDERSON STATE UNIVERSITY: $963 → 20%UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS AT MONTICELLO: $2k → 21%UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS AT PINE BLUFF: $3k → 22%SOUTHERN ARKANSAS UNIVERSITY: $16k → 22%UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA: $950 → 17%HINDS COMMUNITY COLLEGE: $4k → 23%UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS: $4k → 15%ARKANSAS TECH UNIVERSITY: $2k → 15%ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY: $3k → 17%UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS: $4k → 17%COLLEGE OF THE OUACHITAS: $888 → 17%HENDERSON STATE UNIVERSITY: $513 → 20%UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS AT PINE BLUFF: $813 → 22%SOUTHERN ARKANSAS UNIVERSITY: $14k → 22%UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA: $950 → 17%HINDS COMMUNITY COLLEGE: $2k → 23%UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS: $2k → 15%ARKANSAS TECH UNIVERSITY: $2k → 15%ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY: $1k → 17%UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS: $3k → 17%HENDERSON STATE UNIVERSITY: $388 → 20%SOUTHERN ARKANSAS UNIVERSITY: $13k → 22%UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS: $2k → 15%ARKANSAS TECH UNIVERSITY: $513 → 15%ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY: $1k → 17%UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS: $3k → 17%OUACHITA BAPTIST UNIVERSITY: $4k → 20%SOUTHERN ARKANSAS UNIVERSITY: $7k → 22%UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS: $2k → 15%ARKANSAS TECH UNIVERSITY: $375 → 15%ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY: $1k → 17%UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS MEDICAL SCHOOL: $863 → 17%OUACHITA BAPTIST UNIVERSITY: $3k → 20%SOUTHERN ARKANSAS UNIVERSITY: $6k → 22%ARKANSAS COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $1.5M → 17%OUACHITA BAPTIST UNIVERSITY: $3k → 20%BAPTIST HEALTH COLLEGE: $3k → 17%OUACHITA BAPTIST UNIVERSITY: $2k → 20%OUACHITA BAPTIST UNIVERSITY: $688 → 20%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

74%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$181k · 13 repeat orgs$64k to everyone else

13 repeat relationships: 7 still active in FY2022, 6 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2022 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

13
5

Total granted

$181k
$62k

Still filing today

8%
0%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2022, 86% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $2k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22
RenewedFirst-time
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

  • SA
    SOUTHERN ARKANSAS UNIVERSITY
    5× · 2018–2022 · $55k
  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS AT MONTICELLO
    3× · 2018–2020 · $32k
  • ST
    SAU TECH UNIVERSITY
    5× · 2018–2022 · $21k

Funded once

  • FS
    FORDYCE SCHOLARSHIP ASSOCIATION
    one grant, 2017 · $55k
  • BH
    BAPTIST HEALTH COLLEGE
    one grant, 2020 · $3k
  • AS
    ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY THREE
    one grant, 2020 · $2k
How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field
04the grantee network

2 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 2 of the 20 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
2/2
Grantees still filing
2/2
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

ARKANSAS COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC: $1,489,940 · PhilanthropyARKANSAS COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INCFORDYCE SCHOLARSHIP ASSOCIATION: $55,341 · OtherFORDYCE SCHOLAR…SOUTHERN ARKANSAS UNIVERSITY: $55,051 · OtherSOUTHERN ARKANS…UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS AT MONTICELLO: $31,826 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF A…SAU TECH UNIVERSITY: $21,440 · OtherSAU TECH UNIVER…UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS: $15,188 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF A…UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS: $14,237 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF C…ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY: $8,801 · OtherARKANSAS TECH UNIVERSITY: $8,576 · Other+10 more: $23,055 · Other+10 moreOUACHITA BAPTIST UNIVERSITY: $11,701 · Education
Philanthropy$1,489,940Other$233,515Education$11,701

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetARKANSAS COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC: $1,489,940 over 1y, 1.2% of budgetOUACHITA BAPTIST UNIVERSITY: $11,701 over 5y, 0.0% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

  • Who funds ARKANSAS COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC ↗
  • Who funds OUACHITA BAPTIST UNIVERSITY ↗

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

James H McKenzie Char…Windgate Charitable F…National Collegiate A…Arkansas Community Fo…
James H McKenzie Charitable FoundationAR13.6× affinity4 shared granteesties to 3 of 3Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: James H McKenzie Charitable Foundation · Windgate Charitable Foundation Inc · National Collegiate Athletic Association · Arkansas Community Foundation Inc

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Bess Wilkins Memorial Scholarship Fund funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Bess Wilkins Memorial Scholarship Fund. Bigger dots raise more.

2025
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%3%5%8%10%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–10%
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 20 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

    Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2022, released 2022. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Bess Wilkins Memorial Scholarship’s filings →

    More from the funding graph

    The unnamed billions
    grants reported with no recipient in the public record
    The regranting layer
    51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
    The DAF merry-go-round
    $9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
    The endowment market
    who holds foundation money, and what just moved
    The camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home