Olds Foundation

The Olds Foundation is a hyper-local, family-governed private trust whose giving philosophy flows directly from its founding story. Three sisters — Cleda, Hazel, and Eutha — whose grandfather W.C. Hays founded the Bank of Amity in 1905, established the foundation after selling their banking stake (now Chambers Bank) and leveraging family timber holdings. Their mission was explicit: to benefit the Amity, Arkansas community that shaped their lives. That intention has not drifted. Every documented grantee in the foundation's history operates within Pike County, Clark County, or the immediate Amity area.

The foundation's giving philosophy rests on three pillars stated directly on its website: scholarships for graduating seniors at Centerpoint and Kirby High Schools, conservation, and area improvement grants for Amity and the surrounding region. Within "area improvement," the foundation has funded AED defibrillators, library books, gymnasium renovations, FFA barn construction, police vehicles, and holiday charity programs — reflecting a pragmatic, community-needs approach rather than a rigid thematic focus.

Greg Aud (Gregery B. Aud), Co-Chairman and General Manager, is the operational center of the foundation, working approximately 20 hours per week at a compensation of $99K–$103K annually. He is the first and most important relationship to cultivate. The application portal at oldsfoundation.com requires a code issued only after direct contact with Greg — by phone (870-403-7823) or email (greg_aud@hotmail.com) — making this effectively an invitation-driven process rather than an open one.

The application sequence culminates in a trustee interview, which is the real evaluation moment. Seven trustees — including family members Michael E. Aud and Carrie Aud alongside community representatives Kent Thomas, Garry B. Johns, Harry C. Erwin III, and Blake Whitley — make grant decisions collectively. Trustees want to understand who you are and why your project matters to Amity before approving funds.

First-time applicants should approach with patience. Most funded relationships are long-standing: Caddo Career Consortium, Centerpoint School District, and Kirby Public School have each received 4–7 grants over the documented history. The path to a first grant almost always runs through genuine community presence and a personal introduction to Greg Aud, not a cold submission through the web portal.

The Olds Foundation distributes funds in two parallel streams: direct scholarships to individuals and institutional grants to local organizations. Understanding this distinction matters because financial reporting separates them differently across years.

Grants paid to institutions ranged from $274,344 (FY2019) to $374,690 (FY2022). Total giving — which includes individual scholarships — ranged from $535,212 (FY2019) to $774,229 (FY2021). The gap between these two figures reflects the scholarship program's variable annual scale. The most recent available data (grantmakers.io, tax year 2024) reports 17 grants totaling $549,000, a median of $2,500, and a maximum single grant of $160,526. Historical typical grant size data shows a median of $3,000, an average of $34,515, and a range spanning $18 to $189,136.

Across all documented grantees in the database snapshot, grant concentration is striking:

• Caddo Career Consortium: $652,160 (4 grants) — FFA barn, bathroom/kitchen facilities. This single recipient represents approximately 48% of all documented institutional grant dollars, driven by large capital construction awards.
• Individual scholarships (undergraduate): $440,050 (4 annual disbursements) — distributed to Centerpoint and Kirby High School graduates.
• Centerpoint School District: $79,500 (4 grants) — backpack programs.
• Centerpoint Youth Sports Assoc: $61,817 (1 grant) — HVAC, refrigeration, and court refurbishment.
• Kirby Public School: $59,855 (7 grants) — AEDs, library books, music instruments, backpack program, parent-teacher organization.
• City of Amity: $21,000 (8 grants) — holiday charity programs, volunteer fire department support.

The long tail of $500 grants to Arkansas Children's Hospital, Centerpoint FFA, Kirby Volunteer Fire Department, and Clark County Historical Association reflects a community-goodwill tradition alongside major capital outlays. By estimated program area: education and scholarships account for approximately 65% of documented funds; youth and civic infrastructure 20%; municipal and emergency services 10%; and conservation and health 5%. All grants are geographically restricted to Arkansas, virtually all within Pike or Clark counties.

The five asset-matched peers provided in the data bundle are private foundations with similar endowment sizes (~$18.5M) but located in Pennsylvania, New York, Tennessee, Florida, and California — states with no programmatic or geographic overlap with the Olds Foundation's Arkansas-focused mission. Annual giving and application details for these peers were not publicly available in the sources consulted.

Among foundations at this asset tier, the Olds Foundation is unusual in three respects: its explicit single-community geographic restriction (Amity, AR and the immediately surrounding counties); its combination of individual scholarships and institutional grants within one endowment structure; and its code-gated, interview-required application model. Its officer compensation ($103K for the general manager overseeing an $18.5M endowment) is consistent with a professionally managed family trust. For Arkansas-specific context, the Arkansas Community Foundation manages approximately $400M statewide and accepts open applications across all 75 counties — a fundamentally different model at far greater scale. The Olds Foundation is better understood as a community endowment for a specific small town than as a conventional competitive grantmaker.

Web searches conducted in June 2026 returned no press releases, grant announcements, or news articles about the Olds Foundation from 2025 or 2026. The foundation does not appear to issue public communications about its grantmaking — consistent with its hyper-local and relationship-driven model — and has no active presence on major philanthropic news platforms.

The most recent available financial data (grantmakers.io, tax year 2024) shows 17 grants totaling $549,000, with the largest grants going to Caddo Career Consortium ($160,526 for FFA facilities) and individual undergraduate scholarships ($131,500). This is broadly consistent with FY2019–2022 patterns of concentrating major dollars in capital improvements and scholarships while distributing small community grants ($500–$1,500) to fire departments, civic organizations, and local nonprofits.

Leadership has been stable across multiple consecutive years. Greg Aud has served as Trustee and Manager since at least FY2018, with annual compensation of $90K–$103K, and continues as Co-Chairman and General Manager per the current website. His parents, Millard and Theda Aud, stewarded the foundation for over 25 years before transitioning leadership to Greg — a generational handoff already completed. Michael E. Aud and Carrie Aud represent continued family governance alongside community trustees Kent Thomas, Garry B. Johns, Harry C. Erwin III, and Blake Whitley.

The foundation's website was updated to include a code-gated application portal, reflecting incremental administrative modernization. No program pivots, new initiative announcements, or leadership changes were identified.

Every interaction with the Olds Foundation flows through one person: Greg Aud, Co-Chairman and General Manager. His direct contact information — greg_aud@hotmail.com and 870-403-7823 — is the mandatory starting point. The application portal at oldsfoundation.com requires a code that Greg issues after initial contact, making an introductory phone call or email the prerequisite for the entire process.

Confirm geographic eligibility before reaching out. The foundation funds Amity, Arkansas and the immediately surrounding area, with scholarship programs restricted to graduating seniors from Centerpoint High School and Kirby High School in Pike and Clark counties. This is the foundation's founding mandate, not a soft preference. Organizations outside this geography should not apply.

Frame your request within one of three pillars. The mission covers scholarships, conservation, and area improvement grants. "Area improvement" is the broadest and most flexible category, having historically funded AEDs, library books, gymnasium HVAC systems, FFA construction, holiday charity programs, and police vehicles. Conservation is the least-documented program area in the grantee record and likely receives smaller allocations relative to the other two pillars.

Prepare for the interview. Application instructions explicitly require applicants to "complete for interview." Seven trustees evaluate your organization in person. Bring a one-page project description, a line-item budget showing total project cost and other funding sources, and specific evidence of community need — student enrollment figures, response time data, or similar local statistics.

Match your ask to precedent. Most institutional grants land in the $500–$25,000 range. Capital projects with demonstrated community impact have received $61K–$160K+ (gymnasium renovation for Centerpoint Youth Sports, FFA facility construction for Caddo Career Consortium). First-time applicants without an established relationship should start with a modest, clearly scoped request.

Ask about the board's review calendar during initial outreach. No public grant deadline exists for non-scholarship requests. Given trustee compensation patterns, the board likely meets quarterly or semi-annually. Greg Aud can confirm the next scheduled meeting and required lead time.

Build presence before applying. Kirby Public School has received 7 grants; City of Amity has received 8. Long-term community visibility matters more to this foundation than a polished cold submission.