Five-year, $6.2 million plan will build a statewide pathway connecting students, educators and entrepreneurs from fifth grade through business launch
BENTONVILLE, Ark. — ACC Capital Foundation has announced a new five-year strategic plan designed to expand its role in Arkansas’s entrepreneurship ecosystem, moving from an event-driven initiative under the umbrella of ACC Capital to a programmatically driven nonprofit with year-round activities reaching students, educators and entrepreneurs across the state.
The $6.2 million plan represents an investment of about $1.24 million annually over five years, with most funding directed toward programming as the Foundation expands its statewide reach and increases its presence in communities throughout Arkansas.
For more than two decades, the Foundation’s work has centered on two flagship student entrepreneurship programs, the Arkansas Governor’s Cup Collegiate Business Plan Competition and the Youth Entrepreneurship Showcase, commonly known as the YES Competition.
The Governor’s Cup, launched in 2001, has supported more than 3,000 student teams and awarded more than $3 million in prize money since its inception. While approximately 18% of Governor’s Cup finalists have gone on to launch companies, business formation has never been the primary purpose of the competition. Its purpose has always been education to give students an opportunity to apply what they are learning, develop entrepreneurial skills, test ideas, and gain experience presenting those ideas to business leaders.
The Foundation’s transition toward broader, year-round programming began with the addition of the EDGE Summit in 2023, which brings together faculty, educators and entrepreneurship leaders to strengthen their ability to teach, mentor and support the next generation of entrepreneurs. The Summit reflects a growing emphasis on building not only student programs, but also the institutional and educator capacity necessary for entrepreneurship programs to thrive.
That expansion continued in 2024, when the Foundation opened the graduate division of the Governor’s Cup to universities in surrounding states. The move marked an early step toward growing the Foundation’s footprint beyond Arkansas while continuing to strengthen the programs and partnerships it has built at home.
The new initiatives outlined in the five-year plan are intended to build on that approach. ACC Capital Foundation’s immediate priority is creating a stronger, more connected
entrepreneurship pathway across Arkansas, but the Foundation also sees the programs being developed today as models that could eventually be replicated in other states.
“Our goal is to build a Foundation whose programming spans the full learning cycle, from a fifth grader being introduced to entrepreneurship, to a high school or college student developing an idea, to an entrepreneur accessing the resources and capital needed to turn that idea into a company,” said Sam Walls III, CEO of ACC Capital. “That also means investing in the educators and institutions supporting those individuals along the way. Entrepreneurship can be an extraordinary tool for economic development, particularly when people have both the knowledge and the resources to build businesses in the communities they call home.”
Walls added that the Foundation’s long-term growth will remain rooted in Arkansas.
“We are an Arkansas organization, and our first responsibility is to get this right in our own backyard,” Walls said. “Our opportunity over the next five years is to build programs that work in communities across this state, learn from that experience, and then determine how those models can be adapted and replicated elsewhere.”
As part of the strategic plan, the Foundation will develop two new competitions intended to fill gaps in Arkansas’s current entrepreneurship pipeline.
The first will be a high school entrepreneurship competition developed in partnership with Economics Arkansas, which currently operates the YES Competition for younger students. Planned for launch during the 2027–2028 school year, the new program will bridge the gap between YES and the collegiate Governor’s Cup, creating a more continuous entrepreneurship experience from elementary school through college.
The Foundation is currently seeking businesses, community partners, and sponsors interested in helping shape and support the new competition, including a title sponsor and organizations interested in funding student prize awards.
“Our work with teachers and students across Arkansas has made the opportunity to expand entrepreneurship experiences at the high school level increasingly clear,” said Kathleen Lawson, Executive Director of Economics Arkansas. “This is something educators and students have been asking for. Young people are being introduced to entrepreneurship earlier and through a variety of valuable programs, and we see an opportunity to provide additional ways for students to continue developing and applying those skills during high school. A statewide competition gives students another opportunity to put their ideas into action at a critical point in their education, and we are excited to build that opportunity alongside the ACC Capital Foundation.”
The Foundation is also developing a second, yet-to-be-named statewide competition that will not be tied to enrollment in a school, college or university.
Designed for Arkansans with ideas that can create meaningful impact in their communities, the competition will place a stronger emphasis on actual business formation and access to startup capital. While education and founder development will remain central to the experience, the goal will be to help promising entrepreneurs move beyond the idea stage and launch real companies.
The Foundation is currently hiring a Director of Community Innovation, who will lead the design and development of the new competition, build partnerships across Arkansas, and help connect entrepreneurs to resources and capital.
The position marks the second significant expansion of the Foundation team within the past year, following the addition of a Director of Student Pathways. Together with the Foundation’s Executive Director, the three-person team will lead the implementation of the new strategic plan.
Over the next five years, ACC Capital Foundation intends to build on more than two decades of entrepreneurship education while expanding what happens before, between and after its signature competitions. By focusing first on building and testing that system across Arkansas, the Foundation hopes to create programs that can eventually serve as models for other communities and states looking to strengthen their own entrepreneurship pipelines.
For more information, contact Tiffany Henry, Executive Director, ACC Capital Foundation, at thenry@acccapital.com.
About ACC Capital Foundation
ACC Capital Foundation is the nonprofit affiliate of ACC Capital focused on entrepreneurship education, talent development and expanding access to opportunities for aspiring entrepreneurs. Its programs include the Governor’s Cup Collegiate Business Plan Competition, the Youth Entrepreneurship Showcase (YES Competition), the EDGE Summit and emerging initiatives designed to create a connected entrepreneurship pathway for students, educators and founders across Arkansas.
ACC Capital Foundation is the charitable arm of ACC Capital, Inc., a community development financial institution headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. ACC Capital Foundation is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or associated with the Atlantic Coast Conference or any of its member institutions. “ACC” as used herein refers exclusively to ACC Capital, Inc.
About ACC Capital
ACC Capital is a private, nonprofit special project finance company formed in 1957 by Winthrop Rockefeller and other business leaders in Arkansas who saw the need to transform the state from an agricultural-dominated economy to a more diverse commercial economy. Through its affiliates and subsidiaries, ACC Capital partners with commercial banks, small businesses, and others from the private and public sectors to create and preserve employment opportunities and stimulate economic development in Arkansas and its bordering states. Since its creation, ACC Capital and its partners have deployed more than $2.34 billion to small businesses and economic development projects. ACC Capital is certified by the U.S. Department of the Treasury as a Community Development Financial Institution and by the Arkansas State Bank Department as an Economic Development Enterprise. These certifications affirm ACC Capital’s commitment to serving all communities, including unserved and underserved areas.
About Economics Arkansas
Economics Arkansas is a statewide organization dedicated to equipping PreK–12 educators with training and resources that integrate economics and personal finance into the classroom. Through educator professional development, student programs, and partnerships across Arkansas, Economics Arkansas helps young people develop the knowledge and skills necessary to make informed economic and financial decisions.