Top Charities in Arkansas (2026)

Arkansas Foodbank is the largest hunger-relief organization in the state, operating a 100,000-square-foot warehouse at 65th Street in Little Rock and distributing food to nearly 400 partner pantries, schools, shelters, and meal programs across 33 counties in central and southern Arkansas. They feed over 280,000 people per year. The warehouse was built with a $10.3 million grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, which has been one of the most consequential philanthropic investments in Arkansas's nonprofit infrastructure.

The numbers are stark. Arkansas Foodbank CEO Brian Burton has described Arkansas as having the resources to solve its hunger problem — the issue is distribution and program access. The food bank partners with Walmart and Sam's Club on annual campaigns (the 2025 Walmart campaign yielded over $188,000). In June 2025, Arvest Bank's 15th annual Million Meals campaign raised 302,472 meals for the summer months, when school meal programs pause. Programs include Kid's Café/Summer Feeding, School Pantries (weekend food for students), senior services (Arkansas has the highest senior food insecurity rate in the US), and college pantries. Volunteers sort and pack food at the Little Rock warehouse.

Northwest Arkansas Food Bank covers Benton and Washington Counties — the Bentonville, Rogers, Fayetteville, and Springdale metro that has grown dramatically around Walmart's corporate headquarters. This corner of the state is Arkansas's economic engine: Walmart, Tyson Foods, J.B. Hunt Transport Services, and dozens of vendor companies headquartered in the area have created one of the fastest-growing regional economies in the US. The wealth is real, but so is local food insecurity — Washington County has a 14% food insecurity rate, and rapid population growth has outpaced affordable housing and food access infrastructure.

After the fall 2025 SNAP disruption, Northwest Arkansas Food Bank and local pantries coordinated guides for affected residents. The area's 100+ Little Free Pantries (outdoor food cabinets in communities across Benton and Washington Counties) serve as a supplemental informal network that NWAFB supports. Volunteer shifts run at the Bethel Heights facility. The regional corporate community — Walmart, Tyson, and their supply chain companies — provides substantial financial and volunteer support.

Habitat for Humanity of Arkansas supports 30+ local affiliates across the state, from the Little Rock metro to smaller cities and rural Delta communities. Arkansas's housing challenges are acute in two different ways: the Delta region in eastern Arkansas has some of the oldest and most deteriorated housing stock in the country — generations of poverty have produced a landscape of homes that need repair as much as replacement. Northwest Arkansas, by contrast, has a housing affordability crisis driven by rapid population growth pushing prices beyond the reach of service workers.

Major affiliates include Habitat for Humanity of Central Arkansas (Little Rock), Habitat for Humanity of Benton County (Northwest Arkansas), and Habitat for Humanity of Fort Smith. ReStore locations accept furniture, appliances, and building materials. Build days run at local affiliates throughout the year, open to first-timers. Critical home repair programs — targeting elderly and disabled homeowners who can't afford basic maintenance — are particularly active in the Delta counties.

The Humane Society of Pulaski County is the primary animal welfare organization for the Little Rock metro area, handling adoptions, strays, cruelty cases, and owner surrenders from across central Arkansas. Arkansas's high poverty rate creates persistent challenges for pet owners: veterinary care is often unaffordable, spay/neuter rates are low in rural communities, and shelter intake runs high relative to the state's resources. HSPC runs a low-cost spay/neuter program, adoption services, and community outreach.

Arkansas also has significant animal welfare organizations in Northwest Arkansas — the Humane Society of Benton County and Fayetteville Animal Services — and the Northwest Arkansas Humane Society is one of the more active organizations in the state given the area's affluence and corporate volunteerism culture. HSPC volunteers walk dogs, socialize cats, assist with adoptions, and support community events. Foster families are consistently needed for neonatal kittens and animals awaiting adoption placement.

United Way of Arkansas coordinates a statewide network of local United Way chapters — United Way of Pulaski County (Little Rock), United Way of Northwest Arkansas (Bentonville), United Way of Fort Smith, and others. They operate 211 Arkansas, the statewide helpline connecting residents to food, housing, utility, and health resources year-round. Dialing 2-1-1 is the standard starting point for Arkansans seeking social services. The Northwest Arkansas chapter benefits from the Walmart corporate culture of giving — Walmart employees run some of the largest United Way campaigns of any single company in the country.

The Arkansas nonprofit sector is unusual in that Walmart's philanthropic arm — the Walmart Foundation — distributes hundreds of millions of dollars annually through United Way and other vehicles. While the Foundation operates nationally and globally, its concentration in Arkansas means the state's nonprofits have access to corporate giving on a scale not typical for a state of 3 million people. This creates a two-tiered landscape: well-funded organizations in Northwest Arkansas where Walmart vendors concentrate, and significantly under-resourced organizations in the Delta and rural south.

The Red Cross Arkansas Region responds to home fires (common in older rural housing stock), tornadoes, flooding, and severe weather statewide. Arkansas averages 38 tornadoes per year and sits in a tornado-active corridor — the state regularly experiences major tornado outbreaks, particularly in the spring. Flooding along the Arkansas River, Mississippi River, and their tributaries is a recurrent problem in the Delta counties. The region collects blood at donor centers statewide; UAMS, Baptist Health, and other Arkansas hospital systems depend on this supply.

Blood donation appointments are available within days at most Arkansas chapters. Disaster response volunteers complete several weeks of training. If you were displaced by a tornado, flood, or fire in Arkansas and need immediate help, call 1-800-RED-CROSS. CPR and first aid classes are available at chapter locations across the state.

Catholic Charities of Arkansas covers the entire state through the Diocese of Little Rock, running refugee resettlement, immigration legal services, food assistance, and emergency financial help. Arkansas has received refugees from various countries, and the Marshallese community — primarily concentrated in Northwest Arkansas around Springdale — is one of the largest Marshallese populations outside the Pacific Islands. Catholic Charities provides legal and social services to this and other immigrant communities statewide.

The immigration legal services program is particularly important in Arkansas given the state's large poultry processing industry workforce, which employs significant numbers of Hispanic and immigrant workers in communities including Springdale, Batesville, and Berryville. Work authorization cases, DACA renewals, and family petitions are among the most common matters. Volunteers assist with food pantry operations and administrative support. Services are available to people of all faiths.

The Salvation Army operates service centers across Arkansas — Little Rock, Fort Smith, Fayetteville, Jonesboro, Hot Springs, Texarkana, and other communities. Programs include emergency rent and utility assistance, food pantries, overnight shelter, after-school programs, and disaster canteens that deploy after tornadoes and floods. The Salvation Army's rural presence in Arkansas is significant — they operate in communities where other nonprofits have limited reach, and their emergency utility assistance is among the most-used programs given the high share of low-income households in the state.

The Red Kettle campaign runs November through Christmas. Thrift stores accept goods year-round. Emergency assistance is available at local corps statewide — call your nearest location before visiting to confirm current program availability.

The Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance is the coordinating organization for Arkansas's six Feeding America food banks — Arkansas Foodbank (Little Rock), Northwest Arkansas Food Bank (Bethel Heights), Food Bank of Northeast Arkansas (Jonesboro), River Valley Regional Food Bank (Fort Smith), Harvest Texarkana Regional Food Bank (Texarkana), and Food Bank of North Central Arkansas (Norfork). The Alliance was founded in 2004 with Donald W. Reynolds Foundation support to coordinate what had been a fragmented statewide hunger relief system.

The Alliance's 400+ member organizations include not just food banks but food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, and advocacy organizations across all 75 Arkansas counties. They advocate for federal nutrition programs (SNAP, WIC, school meals), coordinate statewide hunger data, and run hunger policy campaigns at the Arkansas state legislature. The Alliance was instrumental in pushing for Arkansas Act 123 of 2025, which established free breakfast for all K–12 students statewide — one of the most significant anti-hunger policy wins in recent state history. Donations to the Alliance fund statewide advocacy and coordination rather than direct food distribution.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Arkansas matches children facing adversity with adult volunteer mentors across the state. Arkansas's child poverty rate is persistently high — in rural Delta counties it exceeds 40% — and educational outcome gaps between those communities and more affluent parts of the state are severe. Mentoring research consistently shows: matched youth graduate at higher rates, have better school attendance, and are less likely to become involved in the juvenile justice system.

Community-based mentoring requires meeting 2–4 times per month for at least a year. School-based mentoring runs weekly. Northwest Arkansas has particularly active BBBS programming given the corporate volunteer culture around Walmart and its vendor ecosystem. For mentors in the Little Rock area, BBBS Central Arkansas manages community and school-based programs. Demand for mentors exceeds available volunteers across Arkansas chapters.