With funding from the Ford Foundation, the Mid South Commission to Build Philanthropy (MSCBP) was established in 2003 as a private philanthropic fund whose mission was to explore new ways to increase charitable giving in the Mid South. MSCBP consists of 32 philanthropic, nonprofit, and corporate leaders from the region. Among its benefactors are: the Bernard Van Leer Foundation; the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation; Entergy; the Ford Foundation; Pew Charitable Trusts; the Walton Family Foundation; the William Randolph Hearst Foundation; and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. MSCBP pools the donations of these different sources and, in turn, makes grants to various organizations that promote leftist visions of racial justice, economic justice, and social justice; in general, the grantees favor socialism as an economic model.

Among the recent recipients of MSCBP grants are: the African-American Faith Based Initiative; the Black Church Capacity Building Program; the Black Church Development; the Black Community Developers, Inc.; the Mid South Family Alliance; and the National Office on Philanthropy.