Mississippi · Nonprofit
DEEP SOUTH TODAY
DEEP SOUTH TODAY (Mississippi) receives grants from 59 organizations whose IRS filings report $21,837,851 to it, the largest being THE FORD FOUNDATION ($4,750,000). 29 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $9.5M
- Funders on record
- 59
- Grants received
- $22M
- Net assets
- $11M
What Deep South Today does
Mission
Deep South Today is a nonprofit network of local newsrooms comprising mississippi today and verite news. With its regional scale and scope, Deep South Today is providing critical journalism in underserved areas and ensuring its long-term growth and sustainability.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Mississippi today was awarded the 2023 pulitzer prize for local reporting. It is the state's flagship nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom, offering indepth investigative and enterprise reporting from all corners of the state. There is no cost to read its reporting, listen to its podcasts, or access its data sets. The journalism produced by mississippi today increases accountability among elected officials, government agencies and community leaders. Its reporting in the areas of community health, politics, education, criminal justice, workforce, and poverty has been especially impactful, providing insight and explanation of systemic issues and corruption that have long gone unreported.
$2,851,410 spent$66,120 earned by the program75% of program spendingVerite news produces in-depth journalism that serves the region in and around new orleans, while also educating, developing, and mentoring a new generation of journalists. Verite news at no cost provides its readers with the information they need to understand the economic, social and political issues in their communities and beyond. With an editorial focus on the civic and cultural communities in new orleans, verite news reports on the events and personalities shaping the life of the city.
$949,449 spent25% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,800,859.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2023 to 2024, from $7.7M to $11M (+49%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2021 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
96% of DEEP SOUTH TODAY’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Board chair
Andrew Lack
Executive chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 9 funders to 24 funders, grant income rose $1.0M → $4.0M.
12 of 59 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 23% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of DEEP SOUTH TODAY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 59 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
DEEP SOUTH TODAY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 22% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
35% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund DEEP SOUTH TODAY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 50% · 2018 32% · 2019 25% · 2020 27% · 2021 37% · 2022 34% · 2023 19% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
33% of DEEP SOUTH TODAY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 49% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
DEEP SOUTH TODAY draws 72% of its grant income from funders outside Mississippi, across 15 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $4.9M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
DEEP SOUTH TODAY runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 5,136 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,136 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like DEEP SOUTH TODAY
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Mississippi
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
67% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
92%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 39 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for DEEP SOUTH TODAY: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds DEEP SOUTH TODAY?
- DEEP SOUTH TODAY (Mississippi) receives grants from 59 organizations whose IRS filings report $21,837,851 to it, the largest being THE FORD FOUNDATION ($4,750,000). 29 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does DEEP SOUTH TODAY have?
- IRS filings report 59 organizations giving $21,837,851 in grants to DEEP SOUTH TODAY, 29 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of DEEP SOUTH TODAY?
- THE FORD FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $4,750,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like DEEP SOUTH TODAY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Mississippi. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Deep South Today →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 59 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing