This Q&A with Janet Harris in celebration of our 20th anniversary originally appeared in the July 28, 2025, edition of Arkansas Business. Subscribers may read the digital edition online.
How has the company’s brand or identity evolved since its founding?
Winthrop Rockefeller made this place a haven for ideas in the 1960s, long before we used the word “facilitation.” Since then, we’ve embraced convening, hospitality, and play, giving guests a warm, thoughtful venue to spark exchange. In 2017, we formalized that spirit: staff stepped into facilitator roles, weaving Rockefeller’s values and proprietary tools into every gathering. We still happily open our doors to guests from external organizations, but our signature effort is The Rockefeller Ethic: the valuing of diverse voices, nurturing collaborative problem solving, and fostering respectful dialogue that fuels transformational change.
What are some of the major achievements for your company?
Healthy Active Arkansas and the Rural Health Summit series proved we could unite unlikely partners around a shared purpose. Each grew into a backbone organization separate from the Institute, showing collective impact and answering, “Who keeps this going?” We’re incredibly grateful for a $100 million gift from the Winthrop Rockefeller Charitable Trust, which we secured in 2018. Complex problems need steady care, and this endowment protects our mission into the future. In 2024, our incredible staff carried our facilitation expertise to global work at the Pocantico Center in Tarrytown, New York.
Benchmark Moments
2017: The Institute led two major facilitated meetings (Rural Health Summit & Dicamba Task Force).
2018: The Institute launched Beyond Civility, a conflict-management workshop built on the Rockefeller Ethic.
2018: A $100 million endowment was secured from the Winthrop Rockefeller Charitable Trust.
2020: The Institute was hired for its first external facilitation.
Tell us about your company’s growth.
In our first decade, growth showed in people served. We’ve guided thousands toward shared solutions through Institute programs, workshops, and facilitation. Once simply a scenic venue, we now deliver a sought-after process: The Rockefeller Ethic. Demand carries us across Arkansas and beyond, meeting partners where they are. Revenue follows impact, and we’ve grown revenue-generating services by $1.2 million in the last three years. We also proudly keep Winthrop Rockefeller’s unique story alive. His legacy is inseparable from Arkansas and American philanthropy, and we make sure every guest understands why that matters.
What are you excited about for the future of your company?
We’re excited to continue growing our services and impact in the state. Civic Arkansas, a collaborative initiative to improve Arkansas’s civic health, is a prime example. Our Master Facilities plan also energizes us. We all recognize the importance of our Petit Jean mountaintop campus, and having a comprehensive plan for protecting it into the future is important. We don’t mean just the physical buildings, but how they are used to serve our guests. Caring for this place and its history ensures every guest feels the legacy and leaves ready to lead.
Fast Facts
Year Founded: 2005
Founder: Winthrop Rockefeller Charitable Trust
Top Executive: Janet Harris, Executive Director/CEO
Employees: 77
Service Area: Arkansas
What kind of legacy do you hope your company will leave in the industry or community?
We want Winthrop’s spirit to outlast us. His gift was drawing people who disagreed into the same room, offering genuine hospitality, and urging them to solve big problems and create new opportunities together. Today, we carry that forward through the Rockefeller Ethic: invite every voice, insist on respectful but tough dialogue, and collaborate until something better emerges. If, decades from now, communities still gather because we showed them how, still listen across divides, and still believe establishing common ground is worth the work, that will be the legacy we hope to leave.
Has your company received any special awards or recognition?
- Winner or runner-up for Arkansas Business “Best Place for a Company Retreat” every year since 2009
- Civvy Award finalist in 2018
- Conway Area Chamber of Commerce “Nonprofit of the Year” in 2022
- Top 3 finalist for Women’s Foundation of Arkansas Olivia Farrell Gener Equity Award in 2023
- Arkansas Money & Politics “Most Admired Company” in 2024
About the Institute
The Winthrop Rockefeller Institute is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to continue Winthrop Rockefeller’s collaborative approach to transformational change. We do this work by employing the “Rockefeller Ethic,” which represents the belief that diversity of opinion, engaging in respectful dialogue, and practicing collaborative problem solving combine to create transformational change.
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