Some of the Walton Family Foundation’s most visible efforts are right in its hometown of Bentonville, Ark. Formerly a “dry” town, voters there responded to a campaign funded by Steuart Walton and relaxed its liquor laws. Once a sleepy Southern hamlet, the town now has chic restaurants lining its central square, which is also home to the Walmart Museum.
Mr. Walton, grandson of Walmart’s founder, Sam Walton, loved to roam the nearby woods as a kid. An avid mountain biker, he helped push for the Walton-funded bike trails that crisscross the region. Visitors can now ride one of those trails from the square through the woods and wind up at the Waltons’ jewel: the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
The foundation funneled more than $1.2 billion into construction of the museum, which opened in 2011. Art treasures there include Warhols, Rockwells, and, most recently, architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s Bachman-Wilson House, which was transported from New Jersey and reconstructed on the museum grounds.
The museum, which was championed by Alice Walton, Steuart Walton’s aunt, has attracted thousands of people to the small Arkansas town who otherwise might never have set foot in the Ozarks.
But the Waltons have found it more difficult to gain ground on other regional projects, particularly in the Mississippi Delta, an area suffering from massive population declines and crippling poverty.
The foundation spent a decade on projects designed to generate comprehensive economic improvement in the Delta region of Arkansas and Mississippi. The projects covered downtown development, leadership training, construction of Civil War memorials, and festivals celebrating the area’s cultural heritage. But after spending $52 million, the foundation decided that taking a broad approach was a flop.
After a series of meetings with community residents, the grant maker decided to focus on more basic needs, like public safety and education, rather than trying to juggle so many diverse projects.
“In the eyes of the folks who came to visit us, our approach was putting the cart before the horse,” Mr. Walton said.
The Walton Family Foundation’s grants in its own region now go to after-school programs for teenagers, including those provided by Boys & Girls Clubs, promoting charter schools in the area, select cultural tourism projects, and assisting law enforcement.
