Helping People Because It Works.
For more than 55 years, Delta Foundation has turned local talent into lasting opportunity, from after-school STEAM classrooms and Freedom Schools summers to Restart, a new beginning for young adults.
Delta Foundation was founded in Greenville in 1969 by 14 civil rights and community leaders whose work grew out of the Delta Ministry. They held a simple conviction. Solutions to poverty in the Mississippi Delta should be built by the people who live here. From the start, the Foundation created businesses and programs managed by, and designed for, low-income families.
That work continues in Greenville, Leland, Belzoni, and across Washington County. We prepare middle schoolers for high school and careers, give younger scholars a summer of reading and leadership, and are building a new path for young adults touched by the justice system.
To promote community, economic, social, and human development for underserved residents in the Mississippi Delta, either directly or indirectly, through initiatives and partnerships.
819 Main Street · Greenville, MississippiMiddle schoolers, young scholars, and young adults each have a path. These programs are how Delta Foundation invests in the next generation.
A 21st Century Community Learning Centers after-school program in science, technology, engineering, agriculture and arts, and math for grades 6 to 8 at O'Bannon Middle, Leland School Park, Coleman Middle, and T.L. Weston Middle. Monday through Thursday, 3:15 to 5:30 p.m. in fall and spring, with a June summer session.
→A six-week summer of reading, leadership, and family engagement each June and July with the Children's Defense Fund, at sites in Belzoni, Greenville, and Leland.
→Coming soon: a twelve-week program for young adults ages 18 to 24 who have been affected by the justice system, directly or through an immediate family member, in cohorts of about ten, with weekly participant stipends. Now in development.
→Hands-on flight for Delta students: how unmanned aircraft work, how to fly them safely, and the careers that use them. Photos, video, and program details are on the way.
→“When 14 civil rights and community leaders founded Delta Foundation in 1969, we believed that the people of the Mississippi Delta deserved meaningful opportunities to improve their lives and strengthen their communities. More than five decades later, our commitment remains the same: to promote community, economic, social, and human development for underserved residents throughout the Mississippi Delta.”
Spencer Nash, President and CEO
Fourteen civil rights and community leaders, their work grown out of the Delta Ministry, found Delta Foundation to create homegrown businesses owned and run by Delta residents.
The Foundation launches and acquires manufacturers, including the Fine Vines jeans plant in downtown Greenville and Mid-South Stamping in Sardis, and helps start WBAD radio.
Director of Programs Mashondia S. Redmond-Wells begins leading the Foundation's youth and community programs.
Founding member Spencer M. Nash becomes President and CEO.
Full STEAM Ahead classrooms, Freedom Schools summers, the drone program, and the upcoming Restart program carry the mission forward.
Keep scrolling to walk the galleries
Freedom Village, just outside Greenville, began as a refuge for displaced farmworkers during the civil rights era, and Nelson Street was the heart of the city's Black business and blues district. In the Delta, the struggle for freedom and the fight for economic opportunity have always shared the same ground.
Mississippi Blues Trail marker · Freedom Village
A founding member, a program director with 25 years in community development, and a finance officer with two decades at the Foundation lead Delta Foundation today.
One of the founders of Delta Foundation in 1969, Spencer Nash has spent more than five decades building institutions for communities others overlooked, co-founding the McComb Community Center, Southwest Mississippi Legal Services, and a rural health agency in southwest Mississippi. A native of Summit and a Jackson State graduate, he has been a teacher, community organizer, health care administrator, and Justice Court judge, and served seven years on the State Personnel Board by appointment of Governor William Winter. He has led the Foundation, and its affiliate Electro National in Canton, since 2010.
Mashondia S. Redmond-Wells has led Delta Foundation's community and education programs since 2008, from Freedom Schools and Full STEAM Ahead to the upcoming Restart program. She holds a master's degree in criminal justice from Delta State University.
Theresa Brewer has served Delta Foundation since 2005. A former loan officer, she has been the organization's Finance Officer for the past ten years, stewarding the grants and resources that keep its programs running across the Delta.
How responsibility flows from the board to the people who run each program. Hover a leader to see what they oversee; open a program to see who handles each task.
Every gift, hour, and partnership helps a Delta family take the next step.
Our home is the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area, one of 62 National Heritage Areas in the United States, designated by Congress in 2009 and sustained in partnership with the National Park Service.
Fund after-school classrooms, Freedom Schools summers, and the launch of Restart. Give by phone at (662) 335-5291 or by check to 819 Main Street, Second Floor, Greenville, MS 38701, naming the program on the memo line. Donations are tax-deductible.
Make a donation →Call (662) 335-5291 to enroll a student in Full STEAM Ahead or Freedom Schools, or to ask about the upcoming Restart program. Ask for Mashondia S. Redmond-Wells, Director of Programs.
Ask about enrollment →We work alongside the Children's Defense Fund, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Greenville, Leland, and West Bolivar school districts, TLC Learning Academy, White Star and Mount Carmel Missionary Baptist Churches, and the Greenville and Leland police and fire departments.
Become a partner →Helping People, Because It Works!
