· Private foundation
Hickson Family Foundation
Its FY2020 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Read this first · the figures below need context
99% of Hickson Family Foundation’s FY2020 grant dollars went to The Bessemer Giving Fund, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2020 names 1 organization directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2018, the last year Hickson Family Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 5 organizations, $23k. It is dated, not current.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2020.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2018
- Under $10k8 grants · $11k
- $10k–50k1 grant · $12k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| NORTHMINSTER BAPTIST CHURCH | $12,000 |
| Mississippi Symphony Orchestra | $3,000 |
| ST DOMINICS | $2,500 |
| The Mississippi Museum of Art | $1,200 |
| The Salvation Army | $1,000 |
| The Bascom Center for the Visual Arts | $1,000 |
| HCCDC INC | $1,000 |
| The Greater Eastover Neighborhood Foundation | $1,000 |
| CARING & SHARING | $500 |
Do your dollars go where the need is?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.
Your human-services grants (FY17–19, $3k) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
Where the work is directed
The same grants, placed two ways — where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose earmarks the money.
About 87% of Hickson Family Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked, by their stated purpose, for a different county than the recipient’s own address — money that lands at a nonprofit in one place but is meant to do its work in another.
Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the foundation’s own 990 grant descriptions.
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
9 repeat relationships — 8 still active in FY2018, 1 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2018 (too recent to call). Read against FY2018, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2020, 0% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $4k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as “new.” Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.
Backed again, and grew
- MSMISSISSIPPI SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ASSOCIATION2× · 2017–2018 · $6k · revenue +55%
- MMMISSISSIPPI MUSEUM OF ART INC2× · 2017–2018 · $2k · revenue +17%
- GEGREATER EASTOVER NEIGHBORHOOD FOUNDATION INC2× · 2017–2018 · $2k · revenue +126%
Funded once
- SPSAMARITAN'S PURSEgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $3k · revenue +134%
- ACAmerican Cancer Societyone grant, 2017 · $1k
- SCSTEWPOT COMMUNITY SERVICES INCgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $1k · revenue +95%
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
The foundation exists to cultivate and administer current and deferred gifts for the benefit of ms united methodist related institutions, agencies, local churches, and other ministries for charitable purposes and support and to educate…
It is the mission of good samaritan hospice to affirm life in the midst of illness and grief. we accomplish this objective by providing quality patient care, family support, community education and counseling services through an…
To be north carolina's state orchestra, an orchestra achieving the highest level of artistic quality and performance standards, and embracing its dual legacies of statewide service and music education.
To build relationships with alumni and friends in order to secure private funds and other resources for the benefit of the university of southern mississippi (usm). the foundation receives, invests and distributes private gifts in support…
Empowered by the belief that all people have basic rights to dignity and compassion, our mission at mercy housing and human development is to recognize the need for sustainable, affordable housing for low-wealth families of south…
Seeking to put god's love into action, habitat for humanity mississippi capital area brings people together to build homes, communities and hope.
Providing for educational scholarships and grants to individuals with the goal of assisting them to continually seek knowledge. additionally, to provide grants to individuals who have experienced a catastrophic event or an emergency…
Support the advocacy of community hospitals.
As the sisters of mercy before us, we bring to life the healing ministry of jesus through our compassionate care and exceptional service.
Publicly solicit and receive philanthropic support to assist st. mary's healthcare to develop and expand services to the community, in support of its mission - rooted in the loving, healing ministry of jesus, and inspired by the legacy of…
To receive and hold the endowment of the north carolina symphony society, inc. (the "society"), solicit additions to the endowment, safeguard assets, and expend funds for the exclusive use and benefit of the society.
To fund the program and services of hospice of the nothwest to ensure dignified and compassionate care is available to anyone coping with a life-limiting diagnosis.one size doesn't always fit all, especially when it comes to quality of…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Bessemer Giving Fund and the most unlike its peers is Caring and Sharing. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
9 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 9 of the 20 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them
A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds THE BESSEMER GIVING FUND ↗
- Who funds MISSISSIPPI SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds SAMARITAN'S PURSE ↗
- Who funds CARING AND SHARING ↗
- Who funds MISSISSIPPI MUSEUM OF ART INC ↗
- Who funds GREATER EASTOVER NEIGHBORHOOD FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds STEWPOT COMMUNITY SERVICES INC ↗
- Who funds JACKSON ACADEMY INC ↗
- Who funds Highlands Cashiers Health Foundation Inc ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: Van Devender Family Foundation William Van Devender Trustee · Community Foundation for Mississippi · Jimmy A Payne Family Foundation · Kathryn & Julian Wiener Fund · Ergon Foundation Inc · The Ayco Charitable Foundation · Raymond James Charitable Endowment Fund · American Endowment Foundation · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization Hickson Family Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending — grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12–24 months.