Selby and Richard McRae Foundation

Selby and Richard McRae Foundation

The Selby and Richard McRae Foundation was established in 1965 by Selby and Richard McRae, whose wealth originated from the McRae's department store chain, a fixture of Mississippi retailing later absorbed into the Belk and Dillard's networks. The foundation concentrates its giving in the Jackson metropolitan area, where the family's civic and commercial legacies are deeply intertwined. Richard D. McRae Jr. served as President of the Jackson Chamber of Commerce, and his father was the Mississippi Retail Merchants Association's first Retailer of the Year (public record). The foundation's grantmaking spans education, social services, religion, and cultural causes, with over $35 million allocated to more than 500 organizations cumulatively. Specific grant recipients are not centrally published, but tax filings show repeat support for Jackson-area universities, private K–12 schools, and faith-based social service providers. The foundation operates as a traditional private foundation — it does not run mission-related investment (MRI) or program-related investment (PRI) programs, and its endowment is managed separately through McRae Investments, the family's investment entity. The foundation is governed by a tight family board: Richard D. McRae Jr. as President, Vaughan W. McRae as Vice President, and Susan McRae Shanor in a dual Secretary/President capacity. David M. McRae, the Mississippi State Treasurer, serves as Managing General Partner of McRae Investments, creating an unusual firewall between philanthropic and political offices. The foundation also holds non-financial assets including the Heritage Building at 210 East Capitol Street — formerly the McRae's department store — and a private art collection (public record). The foundation's structural differentiator is its governance architecture: investment management is institutionally separated from grantmaking, held in a distinct family partnership, while multi-generational family members occupy overlapping roles across the foundation, the investment entity, and Mississippi public life. This blending of civic, commercial, and philanthropic roles reflects a Southern family-office tradition in which wealth preservation and community standing are administered as a single generational project.