The Walton Foundation’s strategic plan for the next five-year grant cycle places emphasis on encouraging and supporting grassroots efforts in environmental and educational efforts. | Stock Photo at Getty Images
The Walton Foundation’s strategic plan for the next five-year grant cycle places emphasis on encouraging and supporting grassroots efforts in environmental and educational efforts. | Stock Photo at Getty Images
The Walton Family Foundation is taking a new approach to its next five-year grantmaking cycle with a new strategic plan.
The new plan will focus on the foundation’s mission to address a long term approach to handling social and environmental problems with expanded access and opportunity, according to a foundation press release.
With an added emphasis on innovative and inclusive solutions from individuals working toward creating change in their communities, the new strategic plan will maintain the foundation’s long-standing dedication to protecting rivers and oceans, improving education from kindergarten through high school, and making investments in northwest Arkansas and the Arkansas-Mississippi Delta, according to the release.
"Today's challenges are more complex and interconnected than ever, and solutions require setting ambitious goals, bringing people with different ideas and backgrounds together, and developing innovative approaches," Annie Proietti, Walton Family Foundation board chair, said in the release. "As we work toward lasting change for tomorrow, we are committed to unlocking opportunity today and breaking down barriers that stand in the way."
The environmental program under the new plan will look to push adoption of innovative water resource and fisheries management practices, support the use of market demand for sustainably produced products related to agriculture and fisheries, act as a amplifier for the voices of those most affected by water policies, and work to engage with and empower a broader range of stakeholders, according to the release.
The education piece of the strategic plan will focus on increased achievement through community-driven educational change, the building of diverse coalitions to advance community-driven models, and support entrepreneurs working on new educational solutions, according to the release.
Closer to home, the new plan will look at ways to support the local economy in northwest Arkansas in ways that help small businesses and startups to thrive, support expanded access and cooperation across a broad range of groups and provide support to local leaders from a diverse set of groups to ensure their voices are heard, according to the release.
"To create meaningful and positive change in the communities we serve, we must first listen to and learn from those closest to the complex challenges,” Caryl M. Stern, Walton Family Foundation executive director, said in the release. “That insight will empower breakthrough ideas that are the building blocks for the big system change we hope to achieve."
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