Public Welfare Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Public Welfare Foundation funds criminal justice reform efforts in the United States, especially surrounding the juvenile justice system.
IP TAKE: This is a long-standing and well-established, accessible funder that accepts Letters of Inquiry (LOI) on a rolling basis in a wide range of criminal justice areas. Its progressive funding attracts progressive grantees, so plan accordingly. It is also an approachable foundation, so don’t hesitate to contact them with general questions.
PROFILE: The Public Welfare Foundation was established in 1947 by Texas newspaper tycoon Charles Edward Marsh in order to “make gifts for education, charitable or benevolent uses in accordance with a plan which shall meet the changing need for such gifts with flexibility.” Today, it seeks to “catalyze a transformative approach to justice in the United States that is community-led, restorative, and racially just.” The foundation’s grants are geographically limited to the South (Georgia, Louisiana, Washington, D.C., and Jackson, Mississippi), West (Colorado and Oklahoma), and Midwest (Michigan and Milwaukee, Wisconsin). Its two main funding areas are Criminal Justice and Youth Justice.
In addition to the two funding areas outlines below, the foundation also has begun exploring support for programs focused on dismantling the incarceration of women and “women-aligned people.” It also currently looks to support groups centered on reducing harm and violence using community-centered interventions, as well as those working in leadership development among formerly incarcerated and justice-impacted people. It is unclear whether these tentative initiatives will transition into established focus areas.
Grants for Criminal Justice Reform
The Public Welfare Foundation’s Criminal Justice program seeks innovative solutions that “meet local priorities, foster collective action, and support new leaders.” One of its main goals is Sentencing Reform, which works to advance “sentencing reforms that decrease state incarceration and reduce racial disparities.” It also supports Community Reinvestment strategies that promote “the redirection and prioritization of state and local resources toward targeted investments that support system-involved individuals in their communities.” Previous grantees here include Safe & Just Michigan and American Friends Services Committee.
Youth Justice grants support programs and groups that work to “advance a fair and effective community-based vision of youth justice, with a focus on ending the criminalization and incarceration of youth of color.” Specifically, the foundation’s youth justice grantmaking is three-pronged and seeks to Close Youth Prisons and end the “warehousing” of young people in the criminal justice system, focusing instead on community-based alternatives. It also supports efforts to address Racial Disparities and eliminate structural racism in the juvenile justice system. These grants prioritize front-end reforms. Finally, the youth justice program works to Raise the Age of incarcerated individuals and “end the practice of trying, sentencing, and incarcerating youth in the adult criminal justice system.” Past grantees include Safe and Just Michigan, Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, and Youth Justice Milwaukee.
Important Grant Details:
Grants generally range from $5,000 to $500,000, but they may go up to $2 million. The Public Welfare Foundation does not provide detailed information about its previous grants on its website, but grantseekers may follow the foundation’s blog for more information on its recent grantmaking.
The Public Welfare Foundation accepts Letters of Inquiry (LOI) year-round. Its grantmaking is limited by geographic restrictions, or what it calls “Jurisdictions of Focus.” States included in these jurisdictions include Colorado, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, and Oklahoma, as well as the cities of Washington, D.C., Jackson, Mississippi, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
PEOPLE:
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