Criminal Justice

In 2019, Public Welfare Foundation announced a plan to move the vast majority of its grantmaking resources to Black and POC-led nonprofits. Its leadership unpacks the process and shares its results to date.

The leading funder of the humanities committed $125 million to lift up the artistic voices of those directly impacted by American legal system. It’s a big influx of cash for this field, and one that Mellon hopes will have broad impacts.

New backing from the Michigan Justice Fund shines a light on the unmet needs of people reentering society after incarceration — and how attention to this area could help funders address a whole range of social ills.

The New Commonwealth Fund is on a mission to tackle systemic racism and the racial funding gap. Its latest grants include a data-driven effort to show how criminal justice policy in the Bay State adversely affects youth of color.

The Just Trust’s new Safer Communities Accelerator is getting behind groups “working within the system and outside of it.” The trust’s overall approach involves funding direct services as well as broader justice reform advocacy.

Dr. Lourdes J. Rodríguez recently took the helm at the David Rockefeller Fund, which is undergoing a “generational evolution.” We spoke about how she’s approaching the job, changes at the fund, and great science fiction.

Sandy Hook Promise recently held a high-profile benefit in remembrance of the elementary school shooting 10 years ago. The event underscored the group’s success, both in attracting major donors and getting results.

Nonprofits are responding in the moment to a flurry of fast-moving challenges. In this guest opinion, director of programs at the Langeloth Foundation shares three ways they’ve adapted to meet grantees’ needs.

Upon their release, formerly incarcerated women face steep barriers. Founded by a restorative justice leader who served time herself, Operation Restoration channels philanthropic resources to provide assistance.

The Just Trust, a criminal justice spinoff of CZI, is adding four more states to its strategy for reform. Here are the details on why the grantmaker is funding where it is, and how it plans to get to all 50 states.

The Communities Transforming Policing Fund (CTPF) supports groups fighting police violence and adverse effects of the carceral system. In this guest post, Director Jeree Thomas discusses how its strategy has evolved.

A new partnership run by the MacArthur Foundation and the Urban Institute aims to disrupt the connection between housing instability and time in jail — starting in four communities across the country.

As gun violence in the U.S. grows worse, health funders are adopting a range of strategies to address it as a public health crisis. Can they make a difference?

The Fund for a Safer Future is working to end the epidemic of gun violence in the U.S., and has grown significantly since it started a decade ago. FSF’s David Brotherton says there’s reason for hope outside of Congress.

REFORM Alliance and its all-star board have notched a number of big wins on the ground. We catch up with donors Michael Novogratz and Laura Arnold about why they back the justice reform organization.

Another school shooting has once again devastated the nation, this time claiming the lives of 21 people. Gun violence should be a preventable problem, but philanthropy has struggled to make a dent. Why, and what can be done?

In this article that originally ran in 2021, in the wake of two mass shootings, IP’s Philip Rojc looked at key funders of gun violence prevention. We are republishing in response to yesterday’s devastating school shooting.

The Humboldt Area Foundation is tackling an issue that has been largely overlooked by philanthropy — the disappearance and murder of Indigenous people — and has advice for funders who want to do more.

Ready to Rise is channeling government and private funds toward local groups providing support to youth. Organizers hope it can be a model for communities seeking better ways to reduce crime and curb incarceration.

Violence is a massive problem in the United States, and though philanthropy supporting efforts to prevent it has long been scant, funding in this area is growing and evolving. Here’s what you need to know.

Taking advantage of the exponential growth of genealogical databases, donors are zeroing in on decades-old cold cases and funding DNA analysis in the hopes of resolving them. It’s an appealing prospect, but it comes with caveats.

Funders have been shifting to a preventive approach to ending violence, looking at root causes and supporting community solutions. Here are a few of the funder collaboratives to know in the violence prevention space.

Though the Southeast and Midwest have some of the nation’s highest incarceration rates, justice reform philanthropy lags. Guest authors Allana Jackson and Alexandra Williams make the case for more attention.

At long last, our two-time winner for Philanthropist of the Year has dropped another Medium post—this time with the names of grantees included. Here are some key takeaways.

Since its 2016 launch, the Rosenberg Foundation’s Leading Edge fellowship program has backed some of California’s most promising social justice leaders. Here’s what some fellows in the 2022-2024 cohort are working on.

The Just Trust spun off from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative last year with $350 million in funding. Now that its inaugural grants have gone out, we checked in with CEO Ana Zamora about its goals and outlook.

Ellen Alberding leads the Chicago-based Joyce Foundation. We caught up with Alberding to discuss her career, why she’s optimistic about philanthropy, and the ubiquitous phenomenon of cats drifting into Zoom calls.

Despite a swiftly rising global female prison population, funding remains scarce for work with and for incarcerated women and girls. Guest authors Isabella Cordua and Sabrina Mahtani unpack the problem.

IP’s State of American Philanthropy project recently published an in-depth report on giving for violence prevention, an underfunded field. The report’s author shares some of the key points from her research.

Giving to organizations working on criminal justice reform has soared in recent years, expanding the work of existing organizations and seeding the creation of new groups. But fundraisers are wondering how long this trend will last.