Jones Center Receives $23 Million

Ryan Hale, program officer at the Walton Family Foundation, speaks Friday during a news conference at the Jones Center in Springdale. The Jones Trust launched an endowment campaign with the announcement of $20 million in contributions from the Walton Family Foundation and the Care Foundation, a fund of the Endeavor Foundation. The campaign’s goal is to reach $30 million to sustain the overall goals of the Jones Trust and Center.
Ryan Hale, program officer at the Walton Family Foundation, speaks Friday during a news conference at the Jones Center in Springdale. The Jones Trust launched an endowment campaign with the announcement of $20 million in contributions from the Walton Family Foundation and the Care Foundation, a fund of the Endeavor Foundation. The campaign’s goal is to reach $30 million to sustain the overall goals of the Jones Trust and Center.

— The future of the Jones Center looked much brighter Friday after the Jones Trust received two multimillion-dollar contributions.

The Walton Family Foundation announced a pledge of $13 million to the organization, with the Care Foundation, a fund of the Endeavor Foundation, committing $10 million.

The money will be a huge help to the sustainability of the Jones Center, said Ed Clifford, chief executive officer of the Jones Trust and Jones Center.

“This is a million-dollar smile,” Clifford said to the group of more than 50 people who attended the announcement.

The Walton Family Foundation grant will be spread over three years with the $10 million going to the trust to increase its endowment, said Ryan Hale, program officer at the foundation. Another $3 million will go for major capital improvements and maintenance projects at the Jones Center, he said.

The Walton pledge includes a challenge for a matching contribution of another $20 million. The Endeavor Foundation money will count as half of that, with another $10 million to be raised over the next year and a half by the Jones Center, said Kelly Kemp McLintock, chief advancement officer.

“I’d like to raise that money in the next six months,” Clifford said. “At my age, you want things to be done right away.”

The Jones Trust endowment balance was $23 million before the donations, McLintock said.

Money earned on investments and interest of the $10 million committed from the Endeavor Foundation will go to support the center’s swimming pool, ice rink and gymnasium, said Anita Scism, president and chief executive officer of the foundation.

The Endeavor Foundation, formerly called the Northwest Arkansas Community Foundation, has contributed $500,000 per year for the last 12 years to the Jones Center, Scism said.

At A Glance

The Jones Center And Jones Trust

The Jones Center is a 220,000-square-foot family facility that has conference rooms, a swimming pool, an ice skating rink, a gymnasium, a computer center and classrooms. The Jones Trust operates the Jones Center in Springdale, nonprofit centers in Rogers and Springdale and the Jones Education Building in Springdale.

Source: The Jones Center

Jones Center officials have made several moves to bring in more revenue in recent years. On Oct. 1, membership fees were instituted for the first time. The membership fee was set at $200 a year per person and $300 a year for a family.

The center has sold 500 memberships, creating another source of revenue, McLintock said. Other sources include renting rooms to businesses, and leases for education space to the Springdale School District, NorthWest Arkansas Community College and Northwest Technical Institute.

“We are creating a new business model for the center,” McLintock said.

More than 2,000 people used the center Thursday night, Clifford said. The activities included a Marshallese preschool meeting, a high school swim meet, a Christmas dinner mainly for Hispanic children held by Camp War Eagle and a skating party for students from the Springdale Alternative Learning Center.“The center is serving as a bridge between cultures,” Clifford said.

“This is the best Christmas gift the center could have,” said Betsy Phillips, a Jones Trust board member. “It’s a gift for all the community.”

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