I.P. Hunt Foundation, Inc. (IPHF), is a nonprofit publicly supported charity founded over 30 years ago in Jackson Hinds County, Mississippi with headquarters now located in Las Vegas Nevada.

IPHF was created and established by the Hunt Family in honor of Mr. I.P. Hunt, a devoted Mississippi educator, to research and develop community development and education programs and projects that serve the needs of the underprivileged and disadvantaged individuals.

Today, IPHF is developing several essential programs and projects (click to view activities chart) to fulfill its community improvement mission. These programs consist of financial literacy and benefits education programs for independent small businesses and low-income "poor" working families, affordable senior and worker housing as well as a Gulf Coast Redevelopment and Seawall Coastal Conservancy Project,.

Today, there are approximately 25 million small businesses in America. According to the Small Business Administration, businesses with fewer than 500 employees accounted for 99.7 percent of all US businesses, 50.1 percent of all private sector employees, and 51 percent of the GDP was produced by these firms. Small businesses may not be large in size but these owners and their businesses play a powerful economic role in the local community.

There are an estimated 44-45 million Americans with no health or medical coverage, approximately, 18-20 million of these Americans are uninsured workers with families who, despite their hard work, are living at or below the poverty level and face financial terror should they be physically disable and unable to work.

Many have to make sacrifices on a daily basis just to meet their basic needs and live continuously under the terror of becoming sick or medically disabled. This directly affects the overall health and wellness of the entire community.

Our contribution to the solution of this problem begins with community-based financial literacy education and health benefits plans and programs that meet and serve the basic economic needs of independent small employers and their workers.

To that end, we established the American Employees Association ("AEA"), a nonprofit Voluntary Employees' Beneficiary Association (VEBA) and employee services group specifically to sponsor health and welfare as well as information and education plans and programs for underserved small employers and low-income employees.

Our innovative community-based approach is intended as a financial safety net system that serves the interest of independent small businesses and in turn, the health and well being of the general community.

AEA offers an employment job bank as well as financial education and information services for small employers and low-income working families. These services, plans and materials are intended to inform, educate as well as protect disadvantaged small employers and their employees from economic disaster.

AEA health benefit plans and programs are designed to help guarantee basic crucial payment assistance for small business owners and their workers during periods of sickness or medical disability. Especially, independent small employers with little or no health or medical coverage who suffer dramatically under employment disability situations.

The Community Development National Trust ("CDNT") is our affordable housing and real estate development initiatives created to meet the emergency and long-term housing needs of underserved low-to-moderate income workers and their families, seniors citizens and elderly persons.

The mission of this project is to develop cost-efficient housing facilities that meet the financial and humanitarian needs of workers and productive members of our society. 

In today's real estate markets, despite their hard-work and effort many workers can not afford to purchase or have access to ownership of a decent and respectable home. Many honest working families struggle patiently and quietly in substandard neighborhood housing and rental environments that are often less than satisfactory to raise a family because that cannot afford to buy a home in a better area. 

The goal of CDNT is expressly to develop affordable housing programs and developments that specifically address emergency and affordable housing needs of seniors and working families.

These situations are particularly dramatic in disaster impacted areas such as the Mississippi Gulf Coast and high employment tourism-driven communities such as Las Vegas, Nevada.

Community redevelopment and design discussions are currently under way with architectural and engineering consultant groups to develop affordable housing and a seawall ecological barrier system to protect life and property in disaster proned areas in Gulf Coast communities. For more information visit please our Press Page

The Community Industry Arts ("CIA") education and training program is an employment skills development and industrial art education initiative currently in development that is intended to provide "hands-on" education through training workshops in the industrial, manufacturing and service arts.

This program is designed to serve the youth of low-income working families who are seeking preparation to enter the work and job markets. 

By way of classroom projects conducted by industry professionals, manufacturing work-study programs as well as on-the-job training. This community based applied industrial education system prepares students with basic practical work skills, knowledge and experience to enter the employment market reasonably ready to assume the responsibilities of employment. 

The intent of this program is to familiarize and train students to perform successfully and effectively in the work environment with a minimal amount of training. This training and education reduces time, cost of employer training and increases employee productivity and efficiency that benefits local small businesses, manufacturers and employers.