Nonprofits in Mississippi Delta already face fiscal challenges – now, uncertainty over federal grants adds another layer of anxiety

The Trump administration’s Jan. 27, 2025, decision to announce a freeze on federal grants, which was rescinded two days later in response to an adverse court ruling, prompted anxiety and uncertainty in Mississippi’s nonprofit sector.

“I never realized how much the country depends on the federal government for funding,” said Romero “Burger” Gray, a Greenwood community activist who is exploring the creation of a new nonprofit to benefit underserved residents of the impoverished Mississippi Delta. “The more I learn about federal funding, the more I realize that there are not too many aspects of life that it doesn’t impact.”

Though operators of Mississippi nonprofits welcomed the court ruling against the planned funding freeze, and its rescission on Jan. 29, 2025, the Trump administration has indicated that it will revisit the issue, which makes it difficult for such organizations to breathe a sigh of relief.

Federal grants are essential for providing affordable housing, after-school tutoring and preventive healthcare in a region that encompasses some of the most underserved communities in the United States.

Concerns are particularly acute for nonprofits in the Mississippi Delta, including for established entities with experience in implementing and executing programs to help the underserved. For many of those nonprofits, uncertainty over federal funding adds to an array of already daunting hurdles and setbacks which, along with hard-won triumphs, line the path for anyone considering applying for needed grants.

Among those trying to help underserved Mississippi residents is Thomas Haynes, CEO and president of the nonprofit T&T Enterprises, a youth mentoring program.

On a recent cold January morning, Haynes drove nearly an hour from his Greenville home to the small Delta community of Cary to discuss forging a partnership with Cary Christian Center, a faith-based ministry more than half a century old that is engaged in reversing the region’s negative trend in infant mortality.

Haynes personifies the struggles faced by Mississippians intent on raising the standard of living in the Delta. He formed his organization nearly three decades ago, achieved nonprofit status in 2005 and is currently trying to find a facility to house a weeklong summer camp to mentor young boys.

“After living in Tennessee and witnessing the many needs of impoverished areas being addressed by local organizations, I felt it necessary for me to get involved in my community once I moved back to Greenville,” Haynes told The Mississippi Independent. “I saw educational deficiencies, unhealthy lifestyles and the need for community revitalization.”

The Mississippi Delta is globally conspicuous for its poverty and epitomizes what many of its Southern Baptist residents describe as a mission field. The region’s underserved residents struggle with the combined effects of more than a century of exploitative plantation economics, the loss of jobs due to the mechanization of agriculture and out-migration by some its most promising workers. Poverty and lack of access to services are facts of life.

Attempts to address area needs often require navigating the complexities of creating and operating a nonprofit organization, which can be a frustrating endeavor, Haynes said. Among the challenges he faced was not receiving the response and support of his community. Haynes said it was discouraging to have a personal vision for that community that few others initially bought into.

The ability to identify a verifiable need while having a heart for service drive the establishment of organizations like his, Haynes said. But funding plays the most critical role in the organization’s survival and its ability to provide needed services.

Sha’Ketta Davis, founder and executive director of MAGIC (Making a Great Impact in Community), also in Greenville, expressed a similar view.

“My biggest challenge as a nonprofit leader has been securing funding,” Davis said. “MAGIC has conducted many fundraising activities which generate funding, but not enough funds to hire staff to implement services. Volunteers can do only so much, especially when they have competing priorities. So, the goal is to secure consistent grant funds, donations and fundraising dollars simultaneously.”

Those funding complexities make the potential for a freeze of federal grants — including both those in process and many that already have been approved — particularly concerning.

“Our organization is really starting to take shape,” Davis said. “And I think it’s every organization’s long term goal to apply for and receive federal funding. Receiving federal funding signifies that your documentation, operations and approach to making improvements in the community are very well-organized. So, you really don’t want to have the efforts of moving toward this goal to be in vain.”

Davis and her board of directors have a stated mission of making women and children in the Mississippi Delta self-reliant by the year 2050 through employment skills development, mental health services and mentoring. The organization has demonstrated promise in its first few years of existence by collecting useful data through community focus groups that reflect the true conditions of its service recipients in the Delta and by hosting resource fairs and signature events such as the Greenville Girls Rock Awards Gala.

“My biggest point of pride has definitely been the Greenville Girls Rock,” Davis said. “This awards gala pays homage to women in the Mississippi Delta who are trailblazers in their respective industries but who are often overlooked. So many women carry daily loads that keep their families, schools, businesses, and community ventures running, but because they do not have specific degrees or titles, their contributions go unnoticed and unacknowledged. In response, GRR is a space created not only to identify those individuals, but also to celebrate them for a job well done.”

One potential pitfall for nonprofit leaders (particularly in startups) is a misconception that they must carry the weight of the organizations on their own, according to activists who spoke with The Mississippi Independent. The state of Mississippi and the Internal Revenue Service require nonprofit organizations to establish a board of directors and clear bylaws to guide leadership roles, fundraising, partnership development and services to the community. However, many organizations have boards of directors who are unaware of their specific roles for effectively assisting the organization, or of their legal responsibilities, which can contribute to setbacks.

“I’ve purchased equipment like bedding and mattresses out of my own finances and put them in storage and eventually end up either donating it or giving it away because it dry rotted,” Haynes said. “I’ve also spent too much time and effort looking for a building when I should have been just looking for a partner with that particular resource.”

Among the organizations that have formed to advise and assist nonprofits with technical expertise are the Mississippi Alliance of Nonprofits and Philanthropy, the Society of Nonprofits and private consultants located within the region and beyond. Such organizations and individuals have expertise in nonprofit operations and can teach executives, employees and board members how to access federal funds by developing organizational accounts in the federal database, tracking funding opportunities with software programs, keeping financial audits current, filing required IRS updates and satisfying funded grants’ reporting requirements.

That, of course, is contingent upon the continuing availability of federal funds.

During his visit to Cary Christian Center, Haynes sat through a devotion and took a tour of the nonprofit organization’s campus, where he booked a dormitory on the site for early July. As he was discussing a partnership with the center’s staff, it came to light that the organization has an after-school program, a thrift store, a program for young mothers, an active board of directors and a signature fundraiser called Delta Lights.

Cary Christian Center has withstood the test of time, including inevitable funding challenges along the way. The center was founded in the early 1970s by a young physician, Peter Boelens, who felt a need to address healthcare disparities in Sharkey County. Beginning with a small trailer on a plot of land that he did not own, Boelens grew the center into a multi-revenue nonprofit ministry that has served thousands of families for nearly 60 years.

“Much of what Dr. Boelens envisioned has come to pass,” said Cary Christian Center CEO Carl Watley. “The young children who came through our ministry are now adults and are starting to give back financially as well as with their time.”

Watley said he has news to share at his organization’s Feb. 13, 2025, annual board meeting and fundraiser which concerns funding that will not be subject to a potential federal freeze, though he did not want to reveal the details in advance of the meeting.

Meanwhile, as Mississippi nonprofits worried over the potential limbo for essential grants, some state officials supported the controversial federal pause. State auditor Shad White said it was “the right move” to freeze federal dollars, which he characterized as “going towards DEI and other racial social engineering policies.”

Patrick Ervin is an award-winning Mississippi Delta journalist with more than 25 years of experience covering human interest stories and government, sports and culture news. He is also the principal of Ervin Consulting LLC,, a nonprofit technical assistance company.

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Image: Cary Christian Center volunteer ministry manager Dewayne Davis (left) shows Thomas Haynes where the center’s after-school programs take place (courtesy Patrick Ervin)