OVERVIEW: The Foundation for the Mid South advances racial, social and economic equity through investments in education, health and wellness, and economic development in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
IP TAKE: The Foundation for the Mid South is worth watching for nonprofits deeply rooted in Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana, particularly organizations addressing education, economic mobility, health disparities and racial or economic inequities. But this is currently a relationship-first prospect rather than a straightforward application opportunity.
FMS says the foundation is pausing new grant requests during a “Strategic Sprint,” while continuing to support existing grantees and projects. Its normal process is also relatively proactive: program staff identify concepts, approach potential partners and may invite grant inquiries, proposals or responses to RFPs.
That does not mean FMS never uses open competitions. The foundation accepted applications for its 2026 Delta Story Project, for example, and has periodically launched targeted grant initiatives. Recent grantmaking also shows particular interest in workforce development, civic and economic equity, racial healing, justice reform and community capacity. Mississippi receives the lion’s share of documented recent funding. Grantseekers should focus on building relationships through FMS-supported coalitions, initiatives, community networks and existing grantees while monitoring for the resumption of general applications and new targeted calls.
PROFILE: The Foundation for the Mid South (FMS) is a community foundation based in Jackson, Mississippi. Its current mission is to invest in people and strategies that advance “racial, social and economic equity” across those three states. Its strategic plan emphasizes equity, collaboration, innovation, accountability and community-driven solutions.
FMS has historically organized its website around Educational Opportunities, Healthy Opportunities and Economic Opportunities. Its 2025-2030 strategic plan uses somewhat different terminology, identifying Education, Health and Wellness, and Economic Development as its three principal funding areas. Grantseekers should regard the strategic plan as the clearest statement of the foundation’s emerging funding direction.
Grants for Education
FMS’s Education strategy seeks to improve high school graduation rates, college readiness and enrollment, and access to early childhood education, particularly for underserved, rural and low-income students. Specific strategies named in the strategic plan include dropout prevention, mentoring, after-school and summer enrichment, college preparation, financial aid guidance, bridge programs for first-generation students, early childhood centers and professional development for early childhood educators.
- A major current education initiative is the Mississippi Delta GEAR UP Partnership, which FMS manages in partnership with Delta State University, Casey Family Programs and the Woodward Hines Education Foundation. The initiative works with rural Mississippi Delta school districts around college readiness, tutoring, educator development, career preparation and community engagement. This is a programmatic partnership rather than a general open grant opportunity.
- The foundation’s older Education materials emphasized academic success, college preparation and outcomes for males of color. Those remain broadly consistent with FMS’s mission, but the 2025–2030 plan substantially expands the stated strategy, particularly around early childhood education and first-generation college access.
Grants for Health and Wellness
The foundation’s Health and Wellness strategy currently encompasses healthy food and physical activity, mental health access, and maternal and infant health. FMS plans to support approaches including community gardens and farmers markets, school nutrition and physical activity programs, telehealth, mental health workforce development, school-based mental health services, doula and midwifery programs, prenatal care and maternal-health advocacy.
- FMS’s older Healthy Opportunities materials concentrated on obesity prevention, mental health awareness and access to healthcare. These areas remain relevant, but the strategic plan adds significantly more specificity, particularly around maternal and infant health and rural healthcare access.
- Grantseekers working at the intersection of health and socioeconomic conditions may be especially well positioned. FMS explicitly frames health as connected to educational and economic outcomes rather than as a stand-alone issue.
Grants for Economic Development
Economic Development receives the largest proposed share of FMS’s programmatic allocation under the current strategic plan: 45%, compared with 30% for Education and 25% for Health and Wellness. The foundation divides this work into Community Development and Wealth Building.
- Under Community Development, FMS identifies affordable housing, home repair and weatherization, workforce development, vocational training, entrepreneurship, small-business incubation, apprenticeships, internships and community resilience as areas of interest. Its environmental-resilience strategies include green infrastructure in flood-prone areas, community-based climate adaptation planning and renewable energy initiatives in rural communities.
- Under Wealth Building, FMS plans to support emergency savings, financial literacy, matched savings, fintech tools, social entrepreneurship, nonprofit capacity, microlending, technical assistance and Individual Development Accounts. The strategic plan specifically calls for resource-development assistance and tools for small nonprofits as well as support for entrepreneurs and community-based businesses.
- A recent example is the Moving Mississippians Forward Through Employment Initiative. In September 2025, FMS announced $550,000 in grants to 11 Mississippi organizations addressing barriers to employment including transportation, childcare and training and building pathways into fields such as healthcare, technology, construction and agriculture. Grantees also received peer-learning and capacity-building support. FMS described the initiative as its first new grantmaking round in three years.
- Recent cohort members included 180 Career Center, The Bean Path, Delta Compass, Dream Innovations, Deep South Today, Holmes County Consolidated School District, Humphreys County School District, Jackson Municipal Airport Authority, Metro Booming Training Academy, Reuben V. Anderson Center for Justice and Sipp Culture. FMS has not announced a new open application round for this initiative.
Mississippi Justice Fund
The Mississippi Justice Fund is an important FMS-aligned pathway for criminal justice reform and community-safety work in Mississippi. The fund supports community organizations seeking to reduce reliance on incarceration and advance community safety through power building, community organizing, public education and advocacy.
- The Fund prioritizes Mississippi-based adult and youth justice-reform groups led by Black people, people of color, formerly incarcerated people and others directly affected by the justice system. Both 501(c)(3) organizations and fiscally sponsored initiatives have been eligible, with additional emphasis on geographically underserved communities and organizations historically underfunded by national philanthropy.
FMS has worked on the fund alongside philanthropy and advocacy partners including the Southern Poverty Law Center, Public Welfare Foundation, The Just Trust, FWD.us, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Annie E. Casey Foundation and Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation. No current open MJF application round was identified at the time of this update.
Mississippi Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation Alliance
FMS also leads the Mississippi Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation Alliance, or Mississippi TRHT, which advances racial healing through narrative change, storytelling, relationship building and economic transformation. The initiative was launched with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
FMS launched a new TRHT cohort in January 2026. Current institutional partners have included Jackson State University, Millsaps College, Mission Mississippi, Neshoba Youth Coalition, Tougaloo College and The Alluvial Collective. FMS’s broader TRHT work includes leadership development, convening, community dialogue, research and small-scale funding opportunities.
Delta Story Project
The Delta Story Project, part of Mississippi TRHT and supported by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, is a narrative-change initiative for Mississippi storytellers and cultural practitioners. Its inaugural 2026 competition solicited applications from journalists, filmmakers, photographers, podcasters, visual artists and other cultural professionals with ties to the Mississippi Delta or Jackson. Awards were initially advertised at $2,500 to $7,500.
FMS later selected seven Cultural Ambassadors and announced a total of $49,200 in awards. Their projects are intended to advance truth-telling, racial healing and narrative change through public-facing cultural work. The 2026 application period has closed, so this should be treated as evidence that FMS sometimes runs open calls, not as a currently available grant opportunity.
Other Grantmaking Opportunities
FMS is developing a regional Giving Circles initiative that enables groups of donors to pool money, time and expertise and collectively decide how resources will support local organizations. FMS acts as host and administrator, managing funds and donations, providing tools and guidance, and connecting circles with broader networks.
- This initiative is best understood as community philanthropy infrastructure rather than a traditional FMS grant program. FMS currently offers pathways for people interested in joining or starting giving circles, but it does not publish a general nonprofit application process for receiving giving-circle funds.
- FMS’s strategic plan also contemplates an Innovation Fund and increased flexible funding for emerging opportunities in later phases of the 2025–2030 plan. These should not yet be presented as current grant programs. The Innovation Fund is scheduled in the plan for the March 2027–February 2028 phase.
Important Grant Details:
The foundation’s latest available 2024 Form 990 reports approximately $22.4 million in assets and $21.5 million in net assets. IRS Schedule I data shows 14 grants in 2024 totaling $408,000.
- FMS is currently pausing new grant requests while conducting what it calls a Strategic Sprint. The foundation says it continues to support current grantees and ongoing projects and intends to resume grant applications with updated processes after the planning period.
- Even outside the current pause, the foundation’s grantmaking process appears relatively proactive and relationship-driven. Program staff develop concepts aligned with strategic priorities and then identify and contact potential applicants. Pre-proposal engagement may involve direct solicitation, conversations with organizations, an invited grant inquiry or an RFP.
- FMS nevertheless encourages organizations to share an idea with the foundation. Its grants page says program officers may contact an organization if the idea fits one of the foundation’s initiatives. Grantseekers should view this as a relationship-building or prospect-identification mechanism, not an open grant application during the current pause.
- Organizations can also join FMS’s network and mailing list to receive foundation news, resources and information about future grant opportunities.
- The strongest prospective grantees are likely to have deep ties to communities in Arkansas, Louisiana or Mississippi and demonstrate clear alignment with FMS’s education, health or economic-development goals. Recent work suggests particular receptivity to rural and underserved communities, community-based organizations, organizations led by or serving Black communities and other historically marginalized populations, workforce-development providers, advocacy and organizing groups, school systems, racial-healing initiatives and organizations addressing structural barriers to economic mobility.
- Direct general questions to the staff at 601-355-8167 or via online form.
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