· Private foundation
Phil Hardin Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k10 grants · $48k
- $10k–50k32 grants · $721k
- $50k–250k34 grants · $3.0M
- $250k+2 grants · $750k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| MS CHILDRENS MUSEUM | $450,000 |
| MS ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT CENTER | $300,000 |
| MERIDIAN COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION | $200,000 |
| MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION | $200,000 |
| LAUDERDALE COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT | $200,000 |
| MISSISSIPPI CHILDRENS MUSEUM | $150,000 |
| LAUDERDALE COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT | $140,000 |
| NATIONAL CENTER OF EDUCATION AND THE ECONOMY | $125,000 |
| JACKSON PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT | $125,000 |
| MERIDIAN ART ASSOCIATION | $100,000 |
| MILSAPS COLLEGE | $100,000 |
| THE MISSISSIPPI READING CLINIC | $100,000 |
| COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF NORTHWEST MS | $100,000 |
| UNITED WAY OF EAST MS | $80,000 |
| BASE CAMP CODING ACADEMY | $75,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY17–25, $2.0M) land where the poverty rate runs at 23%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 98% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Where the work is directed
The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.
About 17% of Phil Hardin Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 96% of the giving stays in MS; by stated purpose, 80%.
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
100 repeat relationships: 48 still active in FY2025, 52 since wound down; 18 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
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 FY2025, 88% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $525k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- MCMeridian Community College Foundation9× · 2017–2025 · $1.9M · revenue +73%
- MSMississippi State University Foundation Inc8× · 2017–2025 · $1.6M · revenue +153%
- FPFREEDOM PROJECT NETWORK6× · 2020–2025 · $685k · revenue ×29 · 76% of their budget
Funded once
DELTA HEALTH ALLIANCE INCone grant, 2019 · $150k · revenue -22%- BUBELLHAVEN UNIVERSITYone grant, 2019 · $125k
- MAMS ASSOCIATION OF GRANTMAKERSone grant, 2019 · $102k
How this is measured
Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
Closest unfunded matches
The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
To publish deep public-interest reporting into causes of and solutions to the social, political, and systemic challenges facing all mississipians and their communities.
MCIR is an independent nonprofit news organization, tasked with educating and informing the people of Mississippi with in-depth, fact-based, nonpartisan information. MCIR focuses on institutionalized injustice and generational poverty.
To advance the educational interests of mississippi, promote professional excellence among educators, and to advance educators interests and welfare.
To promote mississippi arts and entertainment.
Jmg's mission is to keep young people in school through graduation and provide work-based learning experiences that will lead to career advancement opportunities or to enroll in a postsecondary institution that leads to a rewarding career.
The mississippi charter schools association drives the development and growth of high-quality public charter schools through school support, advocacy, and outreach.
To produce lifelong learners, critical thinkers, effective communicators, and productive members of the global community
To advance the ideals of limited government, free markets, and strong families by providing government officials, the media, and the public with information and perspective to help them understand and defend liberty.
Our mission is to enhance education for local students through a rigorous, internationally inspired curriculum enriched with technology, cultural exploration, and active community engagement.
Operate a charter school in montgomery, al providing innovative programs designed to spark curiosity, maximize learning potential, and continuously improve student achievement by empowering students with 21st century skills.
To build a sense of statewide business community. as the state chamber of commerce, the organization serves as a meaningful voice on issues and initiatives focusing on the state's future in education, workforce, business climate and image.
Support the research activities of the university of mississippi medical center
How this is measured
82 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.
Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.
How this is measured
Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 82 of the 167 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.
Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding
A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds MISSISSIPPI CHILDREN'S MUSEUM ↗
- Who funds Meridian Community College Foundation ↗
- Who funds Mississippi State University Foundation Inc ↗
- Who funds Millsaps College ↗
- Who funds FREEDOM PROJECT NETWORK ↗
- Who funds CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION OF MISSISSIPPI ↗
- Who funds MERIDIAN SYMPHONY ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds East Mississippi Business Development Foundation ↗
- Who funds Belhaven University ↗
- Who funds SPRING INITIATIVE INC ↗
- Who funds New Destiny Daycare and Learning Academy ↗
- Who funds Meridian Art Association ↗
- Who funds The National Center on Education and the Economy ↗
- Who funds COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR MISSISSIPPI ↗
- Who funds FOUNDATION FOR MISSISSIPPI HISTORY ↗
- Who funds EAST CENTRAL MS HEALTH NETWORK INC ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds OPERATION SHOESTRING INC ↗
- Who funds Mississippi College ↗
- Who funds THE MISSISSIPPI READING CLINIC ↗
- Who funds PROGRAM OF RESEARCH & EVALUATION FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS ↗
- Who funds COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF NORTHWEST MISSISSIPPI ↗
Co-funders
Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: Community Foundation for Mississippi · Mississippi Humanities Council Inc · Mississippi Power Foundation Inc · Ergon Foundation Inc · Selby and Richard McRae Foundation · Walker Foundation · Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi · The Riley Foundation · Woodward Hines Education Foundation · C Spire Foundation · Kathryn & Julian Wiener Fund · WK Kellogg Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Phil Hardin Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Phil Hardin Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Phil Hardin Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Phil Hardin Foundation through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.
Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.
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