Mississippi · Nonprofit
OPERATION SHOESTRING INC
OPERATION SHOESTRING INC (Mississippi) receives grants from 49 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,011,481 to it, the largest being WK Kellogg Foundation ($5,262,450). 27 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.0M
- Funders on record
- 49
- Grants received
- $12M
- Net assets
- $6.9M
What Operation Shoestring Inc does
Mission
To invest in the hearts and minds of our children and their families, to promote health and self-sufficiency, and faithfully extend the hand of hope and opportunity to empower the needy, uplift our target neighborhoods and the larger community, and brighten the future for us all.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Project rise afterschool and summer program:operation shoestring's project rise afterschool and summer program provided engaging educational, artistic, and social-emotional development activities for 185 pre-kindergarten through 5th grade students in the academic year, and for 176 pre-kindergarten through 7th grade students in the summer term. The vast majority of project rise's students are enrolled at walton and galloway elementary schools, with the others largely enrolled in other jackson public schools' lanier high school feeder pattern schools. Independent evaluations show that our work has a positive impact on the academic and behavioral development of students enrolled in our program. For instance, students enrolled in our program tend to outperform their peers in standardized tests (maap exams) and have higher school attendance than their school peers not enrolled in our program.
$911,213 spent64% of program spendingParent and family initiatives:operation shoestring's parent and family initiatives included workshops designed to help the 126 households in our 2024-2025 academic programming year and 137 households during our summer term develop tools and resources that can best help their families realize their own self-determined potential and achieve their goals. Our workshops primarily focused on stress management, financial education, health and wellness, and housing. These topics are determined by self-described needs of participating parents.
$132,644 spent9% of program spendingCommunity outreachoperation shoestring depends on partnerships with people and organizations throughout our community to provide resources and expertise in support of our services, including those focused on mental and physical health, nutrition, education, community engagement, and more. Our work this past year involved 350 volunteers and many partner organizations.
$382,434 spent27% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,426,291.
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 2018 to 2019, from $3.4M to $5.2M (+53%).
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: 2019 20% · 2021 6% · 2022 24% · 2023 10% · 2024 6% · 2025 21%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
95% of OPERATION SHOESTRING INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (81% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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.
Chief executive
Robert Langford
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 16 funders to 21 funders, grant income rose $697k → $980k.
8 of 49 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 22% 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 OPERATION SHOESTRING INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 49 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
OPERATION SHOESTRING INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 44% of grant income and the top three 67%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
33% 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 OPERATION SHOESTRING INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 27% · 2018 54% · 2019 54% · 2020 52% · 2021 55% · 2022 45% · 2023 56% — growing more concentrated.
“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
61% of OPERATION SHOESTRING INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% 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
OPERATION SHOESTRING INC draws 74% of its grant income from funders outside Mississippi, across 12 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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
OPERATION SHOESTRING INC holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 7,349 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 7,349 human services nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding OPERATION SHOESTRING INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $514k on record.
- Department of Education$514k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like OPERATION SHOESTRING INC
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
71% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
75%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for OPERATION SHOESTRING INC: 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 OPERATION SHOESTRING INC?
- OPERATION SHOESTRING INC (Mississippi) receives grants from 49 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,011,481 to it, the largest being WK Kellogg Foundation ($5,262,450). 27 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does OPERATION SHOESTRING INC have?
- IRS filings report 49 organizations giving $12,011,481 in grants to OPERATION SHOESTRING INC, 27 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of OPERATION SHOESTRING INC?
- WK Kellogg Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $5,262,450 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like OPERATION SHOESTRING INC 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.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 49 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