Faulkner County nonprofits seek donations today

Sandra Leyva, director of The Locals in Conway, said she hopes the nonprofit organization raises at least $5,500 today in a 12-hour statewide fundraising project. People may go to ArkansasGives.org and donate to organizations that qualified to be part of the campaign. Bonus dollars will be given by the Arkansas Community Foundation. Leyva said The Locals will use the money to apply for another Arkansas GardenCorps service member and to fund pop-up farmers markets and more.
Sandra Leyva, director of The Locals in Conway, said she hopes the nonprofit organization raises at least $5,500 today in a 12-hour statewide fundraising project. People may go to ArkansasGives.org and donate to organizations that qualified to be part of the campaign. Bonus dollars will be given by the Arkansas Community Foundation. Leyva said The Locals will use the money to apply for another Arkansas GardenCorps service member and to fund pop-up farmers markets and more.

Lynita Langley-Ware, director of the Faulkner County Museum, is one of several nonprofit-organization leaders who hope that people will participate in a statewide online-giving event from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. today.

“It’s incredibly important,” she said. “We, the museum, operate on a voluntary millage, and it just barely keeps us open.”

People are asked to go to www.ArkansasGives.org to make a donation to one or more of their favorite nonprofit organizations.

Gloria Cheshier of Conway, executive director of the Arkansas Community Foundation-Faulkner County, said the state foundation has $250,000 in bonus funds to give out to nonprofit organizations.

“Arkansas Gives is a big deal for us,” Cheshier said. “We are hoping to raise awareness and $1 million for nonprofits across the state by offering $250,000 in bonus dollars.” The amount each nonprofit gets is based on a percentage of the total of all donations received, she said.

“Community foundations across the country have held these online-giving days for a few years now with great success,” Cheshier said. “This is the first one for Arkansas, and we are excited at the possibilities.

“We have 350 organizations registered to participate, including 19 or so … with Faulkner County as their primary location/address,” Cheshier said.

One of those is the Faulkner County Museum in Conway, which mailed postcards encouraging people to donate online.

Langley-Ware said the voluntary millage doesn’t cover everything that the museum needs, which right now are computers.

“There’s no room for extras. [A voluntary millage] pays my salary, and it pays for utilities, and it pays for archive materials, and that’s it,” she said. “I desperately need some new computers. Mine is 6 years old, and it’s falling apart. In this day and age, that’s a dinosaur. Our computers are so old, our operating systems are not even supported anymore.”

Langley-Ware said she did a ballpark inventory, “and we have somewhere upward of a million artifacts. I’ve got to be able to catalogue them and archive them. Our needs have outstripped our computers.”

She said that because the museum operates on a voluntary millage — 1 mill on personal-property taxes — the amount the museum gets varies.

“We might get $50,000 one year; we might get $35,000 one year. We never know what we’re going to get, and that has to run us,” Langley-Ware said.

The museum’s officials also apply for grants, but this 12-hour online-giving event is an opportunity to make a difference, she said.

The Locals, which closed its physical location in downtown Conway, is planning a mobile farmers market this summer and more. Executive Director Sandra Leyva said donations through Arkansas Gives would help The Locals continue to host an Arkansas GardenCorps service member at the Urban Farm Project — a garden at the Faulkner County Library in Conway.

She said the goal is to raise at least $5,500 to apply for an Arkansas GardenCorps member, and the deadline is April 13.

“We are raising funds to support the local food movement in Conway,” she said. “We do that in different ways, including the Urban Farm Project. The garden teaches how to grow food sustainably, as well as provides produce that is donated to food pantries,” she said. Crystal Bowne is the Arkansas GardenCorps member working with The Locals now, but it’s a one-year term, Leyva said, and Bowne will leave at the end of August.

“Having a full-time dedicated person really helps us expand what we do and have more activities and programs,” Leyva said.

The Conway Regional Women’s Council is participating, too. According to a mass email, donations will help the Women’s Council “in the battle against childhood obesity through early-childhood and family education and community-outreach programs.”

Other organizations that are part of the fundraiser include Arkansas Preschool Plus, Bethlehem House, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Arkansas, the Blackbird Academy of Arts, the Children’s Advocacy Alliance, City of Hope Outreach, Community Connections, Conway Cradle Care, the Conway Interfaith Clinic, the Glenhaven Youth Ranch, Independent Living Services, Literacy Action of Central Arkansas, The Salvation Army, the United Way of Central Arkansas and the Women’s Shelter of Central Arkansas.

Cheshier said the nonprofit organizations that can benefit are members of the Arkansas Nonprofit Alliance and had to be registered by Feb. 14, “so those who are participating are already set in stone.”

Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.

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