The Arkansas Community Foundation is a true partner to professional advisor Jeff Shaneyfelt. “After I make the initial introduction, the Foundation takes charge and walks the client through how the fund will be set up,” Shaneyfelt said.  “I don’t have to come up with the game plan, but they keep me involved throughout the process,” he said. “Some of the funds I help set up for clients through the Foundation are quite routine, but other transactions involve unique funding sources that allow my clients to keep their tax advantages in place,” Shaneyfelt said.  The fact that clients can choose the specific charities or fund categories in which they have a personal interest also attracted him to ARCF.

“I’ve been thoroughly convinced of the integrity and professionalism of the Foundation by the way they take the process from beginning to end.”

Robert H. Holmes thinks of the Arkansas Community Foundation as a facilitator for putting together information to enhance client understanding.  “The ARCF staff has the ability to defuse the legalese and put information into language that is understandable and useful to clients,” he said. As a professional advisor, the attorney with Regions Morgan Keegan Trust appreciates the web tools and national information which help him keep up-to-date on planned giving.  The web site in particular alerts him almost daily to messages that are helpful.  He finds good suggestions, appreciates the easy access to forms and uses the calculator available to compute values of present versus future interest. Holmes believes his clients also have confidence in ARCF.  Recently, a client designated ARCF as one of two charitable recipients for memorial gifts when a spouse passed away.

 “That is a strong indication that these clients had been pleased with the service they received in their dealings with ARCF,” he said. In Russellville his clients have been especially encouraged that their gifts to the ARCF Affiliate – the Pope County Community Foundation – generate matching money through the PARTNERS Program when funds are set up through this local organization.

“I do believe ARCF’s funds are well managed,” Holmes said.  “From personal experience, I know the Board’s Finance Committee does a good job in monitoring the pooled fund investments of ARCF and the performance of their investment managers, and taking action when changes are needed.  To my knowledge, the Foundation, as a whole, has met or exceeded its benchmark target goals on its investments throughout its history.”

A professional advisor who has years of experience in managing client assets, Joe Woosley appreciates the benefits the Arkansas Community Foundation brings to his practice and to his clients.  “It provides a way to safeguard assets through independent and controlled, proper investment practices,” Woosley says.  A principal in the Hot Springs CPA firm of Jordan, Woosley, Crone & Keaton, Ltd., Woosley helps his clients set up different types of funds, depending on their needs.  Some clients want to help determine what charities receive the benefits of their funds, while others desire input from the local ARCF Affiliate--the Hot Springs Area Community Foundation--on the most pressing charitable needs.

“Most every client has a church group or a nonprofit that they want to assist,” says Woosley.  “When they transfer the legal responsibility for a portion of their assets to the Arkansas Community Foundation, they are confident their money does what they really want it to do.”

Woosley commends the ARCF staff for their understanding of the rules, streamlining the paperwork, and saving him time.  “We want to be efficient in the way we help people make their charitable gifts,” Woosley says. “We feel a community responsibility to help the charities as well as our clients, and I feel really good when we can do both through the Arkansas Community Foundation.”