Search Through Grants for Criminal Justice in the U.S.

Crankstart Foundation Grant

Crankstart is a San Francisco-based family foundation devoted to bolstering the foundations of a just society - wider access to better education, jobs with prospects for advancement, housing security, social welfare and the protection of civil rights. Crankstart also supports the arts, basic science and efforts to mitigate climate change. About 60% of grants go to groups in the San Francisco Bay Area.

While the Bay Area is our home, on occasion we have made commitments elsewhere – particularly in Chicago and the United Kingdom. The bulk of our grants fall between $100k - $1m. Once we have developed confidence in an organization, we lean toward making multi-year commitments for general support.

Crankstart envisions a vibrant, thriving Bay Area, where our region’s prosperity is strengthened and shared more equitably by all who live here.

Programs

• Economic Mobility - Everyone should have choices and opportunities that lead to economic stability and security. Crankstart focuses on root causes of economic disenfranchisement, particularly in low-income communities hurt by generational poverty.
  • We support work that:
    • Provides the tools and training needed for careers and economic security.
    • Strengthens safety net programs that provide food and health services.
    • Increases access to public benefits programs serving low-income people.
    • Mitigates the insidious effects of fines and fees that erode wealth.
• Education: Our public education system should provide every child and adult, regardless of circumstances, an opportunity to shape their lives.
  • We support work that:
    • Expands post-secondary access to academic and vocational studies, to help students develop the tools and resilience needed to pursue upward mobility.
    • Develops more opportunities for early childhood education and out-of-school learning, particularly in historically marginalized communities.
    • Strengthens the teacher pipeline, to recruit and retain excellent educators in public schools.
• Democracy: We envision a robust democracy in which elections are held securely and with integrity, every person has the information they need to fully participate in civic life, and the underlying structure of our electoral system is fair.
  • We support work that:
    • Protects voting rights through mobilization and engagement.
    • Supports immigrants, ensuring they have the opportunities they need to thrive.
    • Works to change harmful and unfair criminal justice policies.
    • Develops robust interventions to mitigate recidivism and provide economic opportunity.
• Housing Security: Housing security means all people have a place to call home. They have choices that promote economic well-being, health and safety.
  • Crankstart supports work in San Francisco and Oakland that:
    • Reduces homelessness through preventive measures and targeted services.
    • Provides affordable housing choices that allow people to live near work and become involved in their communities. We emphasize housing opportunities for those who are most affected by displacement and high housing costs.
    • Uses policy, law, public resources and good governance to promote economically integrated communities.
• Environment: Communities disproportionately affected by climate change should be partners and the primary beneficiaries of mitigation efforts.
  • We support work that:
    • Accelerates the transition to clean energy.
    • Restores and protects ecosystems in ways that benefit local communities.
• Medical Science & Innovation: Basic science is a foundation for knowledge and discovery based on facts, hypotheses and replicable results. This painstaking endeavor enhances our understanding of the world around us, which may translate into breakthroughs that benefit humans and life on earth.
  • We support work that:
    • Gives researchers funding and time to test novel hypotheses.

Vision

To promote wellness and access to opportunities so that individuals and communities can thrive.

Grounded in our work in Connecticut and New York, we support visionary leaders and nonprofit organizations that serve historically marginalized populations, help individuals contribute to their communities, and champion advancements and experiences that make it possible for all people to live healthy and joyous lives.

Our Story

The Tow Foundation was established in 1988 by Leonard and Claire Tow as a way to give back to the communities that shaped them.

Leonard and Claire’s three children, Andrew, Emily and Frank, joined the board of directors soon after its inception, and our initial investments were largely guided by the personal passions of the boardroom. With a focus on New York, our earliest grants went to innovative projects in the fields of medical research and higher education.

As our organization evolved, so did our areas of support. Emily Tow was hired as the Foundation’s president and first full-time staff member in 1995. Motivated by the belief that every child deserves an opportunity to thrive, our grantmaking expanded to include nonprofits with a focus on youth justice. As the years went by, the transformative power of theater and performing arts led us to add culture as a core area of interest.

Today, our five primary impact areas are

• Arts and culture,
• Higher education,
• Civic engagement,
• Equity and justice
• Medicine and public health.

What We Fund - Justice Initiatives

We must address the harm caused by unfair systems and work to build new ones grounded in equity and justice. To realize a future in which all people are healthy, safe, and free to lead a fulfilling life, there must be a commitment to racial equity and justice.

We invest in work at the policy-change level to end mass incarceration, mass criminalization, and other harmful systems. We also fund direct service organizations working to support and empower individuals and families who have been impacted by these systems.

• Advocacy, organizing, and coalition-building, led by directly impacted leaders
• Initiatives that affirm the humanity and dignity of people who are incarcerated and remove barriers to their success
• Opportunities, care, and resources for individuals impacted by the criminal legal system
• Cross-disciplinary, intersectional approaches to achieving equity and justice

Who We Are

We are a national non-profit, 501(c)(3) compliant public charity whose purpose is to:

• raise funds and provide grants to non-profit organizations and programs which assist, educate, counsel and comfort children, teens, young adults and their families after a loved one’s death
• help educate bereavement, healthcare, social service, education, criminal justice, business and other professions, and especially, society to the needs of the bereaved
• help promote the conferences, seminars, events and other work of these organizations.

We are blessed in our society to have many national organizations serving the needs of the chronically ill or dying, yet the Foundation for Grieving Children is the first and only national organization which specifically provides grants to organizations which meet the needs of families after a loved one’s death through illness, accident, sudden death or violence.

Grant Seekers

The Foundation for Grieving Children, Inc. provides grants to 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations and programs which:

• Assist, counsel, educate and comfort children and families who have experienced the death of a loved one;
• Educate bereavement, healthcare, education, social service, business, criminal justice and other professionals and society to the needs of the bereaved.

Just Health Fund

The Just Health Fund is a Tides Foundation grantmaking initiative that delivers critical resources to community leaders on the front lines of protecting, providing, and ensuring health equity for marginalized groups.

Catalyze a Future of Health Equity and Opportunity

BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities still face discriminatory medical, financial, legal, and environmental barriers to health. Yet the health equity efforts they lead routinely lose out to national legacy organizations on funding. The erosion of healthcare access has only exacerbated existing inequities, posing a serious threat to the health of communities of color and LGBTQ+ people and putting countless lives at risk.

The Just Health Fund makes bold, well-informed grants toward community-led solutions. Just Health Fund grants advance many facets of health equity, from reproductive justice and LGBTQ+ rights to racial justice and mental health.

Funding Priorities

We are committed to shifting power and resources to proximate leaders with subject matter expertise, lived experience, and grassroots connections to create localized solutions to generational healthcare challenges.

Advancing Health Equity

The health of marginalized people is in peril. Policies nationwide are increasingly criminalizing healthcare providers who serve them. The Just Health Fund works alongside legal experts to award bold, risk-aware, and responsive grants supporting culturally affirming care. Our current funding cycle focuses on reproductive justice. Our ultimate vision is to establish long-term support that breaks barriers to health equity by resourcing community leaders who work across health issues, including mental health, LGBTQ+ healthcare, and more.

Centering Community-Based Solutions

Grassroots leaders have both deep knowledge about the healthcare system and intimate experience with the harmful discrimination that has deeply affected marginalized people for generations. The Just Health Fund partners with these changemakers to ensure they have the resources to continue critical community-based work.  

Strengthening Grantmaking That Centers Proximate Leaders

Equipping more organizations to push for reproductive justice will help us make progress faster. The Just Health Fund strives to strengthen the work of reproductive justice and LGBTQ+ organizations that are actively grantmaking in this space.  

Mission & Values

Life Comes From It is a first of its kind grantmaking circle where decisions over funding are made by people heavily steeped in restorative justice, transformative justice and indigenous peacemaking. We seek to grow the movement for adopting restorative, transformative, and peacemaking practices throughout our society. We have come together around a shared vision of addressing harm through community solutions, without reliance on incarceration and punitive systems.

We aim to strengthen the foundation of restorative, transformative, and peacemaking practices led by people of color.

Our Mission

Life Comes From It is a grantmaking circle. We support grassroots movement-building work rooted in lived experience and relationships for restorative justice, transformative justice, and indigenous peacemaking.

Funding Values & Criteria

We aim to support projects, organizations and collaborations that embody these values:

• Commitment to working towards replacing criminalization and incarceration with alternative approaches to address violence and repair harm rooted in community solutions
• Prioritizing peacemaking development and indigenous initiatives led by Native people
• Rooting the work in the community’s own culture(s), language(s), place(s), faith(s), and belief system(s) so it reflects the people that engage in it
• Guided by the wisdom of people, families and communities of color
• Commitment to anti-oppression practices
• Supporting the creation of new thinking and language that is holistic, intersectional, interdependent, and liberatory
• Promoting and sustaining collective leadership, collaboration and partnership
• Living the values of the work internally and externally to build community and heal harm within and against communities
• Intergenerational inclusivity - people of all generations: youth, adults, elders are encouraged to apply​

The Four Fields

• Restorative Justice
• Transformative Justice
• Indigenous Peacemaking
• Land Based Projects 

What we Believe

• We believe that human relations can replace the work of institutions.
• ​We are invested in shifting power.
• ​We believe in doing no harm – not further victimizing people who have been victimized in the search for funding. We seek to keep an open door relationship with those who look for funding.
• ​We believe in interdependence and creating a culture where we do not pit one against another.
• ​We strive to build connections between restorative justice, transformative justice, indigenous peacemaking, and "justice, healing and soil."
• ​We hold an intersectional lens
• ​We emphasize the underlying spirit and values of the work rather than the categories we use to define our work. 
• ​Our vision is rooted in lived experience – as community activists, formerly incarcerated people, crime survivors, indigenous persons, and people of color— and has led us to 115 years of experience in restorative justice, transformative justice and indigenous peacebuilding.

Investing in nonprofits that are advancing a new, transformative system of justice with the core values of racial equity, economic well-being, and fundamental fairness for all.

Grants Overview

Public Welfare Foundation awards grants to nonprofits that honor the Foundation’s core values of racial equity, economic well-being, and fundamental fairness for all. The Foundation looks for strategic points where its funds can make a significant difference and improve lives through policy and system reform that results in transformative change.

Our Work

Public Welfare Foundation aims to catalyze a transformative approach to justice that is community-led, restorative, and racially just.

• Adult Criminal Justice
• Youth Justice
• Legacy Initiatives
• Jurisdictions

Working in Communities, With Communities

Public Welfare Foundation believes that the best ideas bubble up from communities so we work to engage deeply in and with the communities we fund.

We work with communities to drive transformation from multiple angles including policy advocacy, organizing, leadership development, and demonstration projects. Public Welfare Foundation is committed to funding innovative solutions and investing in the leadership of those most proximate to the issues facing this nation.

Focusing our efforts on criminal justice and youth justice reforms allows us to achieve greater impact in the overhaul of the systems that were created to marginalize and contain our nation’s most vulnerable populations.

Grants Process

The Public Welfare Foundation has a two-step application process that includes both a Letter of Inquiry (LOI) and a full proposal. We invite full proposals after reviewing letters of inquiry. We only consider full proposals we have invited that fit within the program guidelines and available resources.

Current focus areas include:

• Organizations and projects with a focus on structural and systemic changes in the U.S. criminal justice system.
  • The Foundation does not typically fund direct service work (ex. individual support services, case management).
  • However, the Foundation will consider initiatives that aim to further a demonstration project to make the case for non-carceral alternatives and transformative approaches to justice reform.
• Organizations, projects, or special initiatives with a focus on reducing harm and violence using community-centered interventions.
• Reframing the narrative and fostering greater transparency and urgency around the U.S. criminal justice system through storytelling, journalism and other targeted efforts.

Grant Types: How We Fund the Work

General Support Grants

• General support grants are for day-to-day operating costs or to further the work of your organization. These grants are not earmarked for a particular program or project.

Program or Project Support Grants

• Program or project support grants support a specific program or activity of the organization. These are restricted grants and must be used for that program or project.

Special Opportunities Grants

• The Special Opportunities Program supports projects reflecting the Foundation’s mission and underlying values. These are one-time only grants that are especially timely and compelling. At times, this kind of grant serves as a laboratory for new ideas.

Background

The Domestic Public Policy Program supports projects that will help the public and policy makers understand and address critical challenges facing the United States. To that end, the Foundation supports research on and evaluation of existing public policies and programs, as well as projects that inject new ideas into public debates. 

The Foundation believes that policy makers face a series of challenges that need to be met if the United States is going to continue to prosper and provide opportunity to all of its citizens. Even as public finances begin to recover in the wake of the financial crisis and recession, officials are confronting difficult choices that will have to be made in order to restore long-term fiscal balances while maintaining essential public services. These choices will include decisions regarding how best to raise revenues while also creating an environment conducive to economic growth. Policy makers are also looking for strategies that can deliver key public services, such as education and criminal justice, in an effective and efficient manner. There is also a need to develop strategies to improve the long-term growth rate of the U.S. economy and strengthen economic opportunity. Doing so will require a combination of more effective strategies to develop human capital and establishing an economic climate hospitable to entrepreneurship and growth.

To meet these broad objectives, the Foundation has developed a number of grant making portfolios.

• A group of grants is focused on the challenges of identifying mechanisms that can inform thinking on fiscal practices at the national, state, and municipal levels.
• In terms of human capital development, the Foundation has been supporting work to identify how schools can become more productive by, for example, increasing the quality of the teacher workforce or adopting more effective curricula.
• Because success in the contemporary economy requires individuals to acquire education and training beyond high school, the Foundation is building a portfolio of projects on post-secondary education.
• Finally, the Foundation is supporting work on the criminal justice system that will examine whether costs can be lowered while still protecting public safety.

Mission

The mission of the Smith Richardson Foundation is to contribute to important public debates and to address serious public policy challenges facing the United States. The Foundation seeks to help ensure the vitality of our social, economic, and governmental institutions. It also seeks to assist with the development of effective policies to compete internationally and to advance U.S. interests and values abroad.

The Foundation advances its mission through its two principal grant making programs: the International Security and Foreign Policy Program and the Domestic Public Policy Program. The Foundation believes that conflict and change in the international environment continually create needs in the U.S. policy community for analysis and guidance on critical foreign and defense policy issues. In the domestic arena, the Foundation believes that policy makers are seeking innovative and pragmatic solutions to the long-term challenges affecting the well being of all Americans.

Background

The Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts (FORE) was founded in 2018 as a private 501(c)(3) national, grant-making foundation focused on addressing the United States’ opioid and overdose crisis. FORE is committed to funding a wide range of projects contributing solutions to the crisis at national, state, and community levels. FORE’s mission is to convene and support partners advancing patient-centered, innovative, evidence-based solutions impacting people experiencing opioid use disorder (OUD), their families, and their communities.

Funding Opportunity

This RFP will focus on continuing to support CBO capacity to address OUD and overdose through organizational strengthening, program development, and community partnerships. FORE will provide support for requests that lead to greater capacity for and expected sustainability of initiatives that reduce the burden of OUD and overdose in local communities. Funding is for specific activities or projects designed to strengthen an organization’s operations, leadership, technology, programmatic, and/or administrative capacity. Applicants will advocate for what they need to be successful and the results they aim to achieve. Requests may include one or more of the following, or may propose other activities:

• Enhance Operational Effectiveness to improve productivity and organizational functioning in areas such as administration, finance, human resources, and technology to plan for longer-term sustainability and diversified funding.
• Strengthen Communication efforts to raise awareness about an organization’s mission and attract attention and resources to the organization.
• Strengthen and Evaluate Programming to enhance access and delivery of OUD services to more individuals and families in their communities.
• Foster Collaborations with a broader range of allies – education, workforce, criminal justice and specialty courts, primary and behavioral healthcare – to strengthen community engagement that results in stronger and expanded services.

Competitive applications will demonstrate how the funding will result in long-lasting improvements in increasing access to OUD and overdose prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and/or recovery services in their communities. Applicants must explain the link between the proposed use of the grant funds and their ability to attain specific outcomes addressing OUD and/or overdose. Through this funding, it is expected CBOs will enhance their ability to lead and deliver services addressing the opioid and drug overdose crisis, particularly in communities with high-risk populations. FORE envisions a national cohort of CBO grantees and expects that project leads will participate in periodic meetings and opportunities to share knowledge with fellow grantees in the cohort.

Applicants may apply for a grant of up to $75,000 per year for up to two years. Award amounts and project duration must align with the scope of work and the capabilities of the applying organization.

Background 

The H. C. Gemmer Family Christian Foundation was created in 1956 by the philanthropy and vision of Hiram C. and Edith Gemmer, and their son, H. Robert Gemmer. The founders’ convictions and charitable interests focuses on peace, justice, sobriety, and racial harmony. They were also strong supporters of ecumenical and inter-organizations. By the generosity and estate planning of H. Robert Gemmer, the value of the Foundation’s assets grew fourfold following his death in 1992. The Foundation board meets semi-annually, normally the weekend after Memorial Day and the weekend before Thanksgiving.

Primary Areas of Funding

Peace with Justice

• Alternative to Violence, militarism and War
• Conflict Resolution
• Reconciliation and Healing
• Peace Education
• Criminal Justice

Human Rights

• Anti-Discrimination and Protection
• Immigrants’ rights
• Diversity and Intergroup Relations
• Social Justice
• Economic Justice

The Impact Fund awards recoverable grants to legal services nonprofits, private attorneys, and small law firms who seek to confront economic, environmental, racial, and social injustice. Since our founding in 1992, the Impact Fund has made more than 800 recoverable grants totaling more than $10 million for impact litigation. We award grants four times per year, most within the range of US$10,000 to US$50,000.

Social Justice

The Impact Fund provides grants and legal support to assist in human and civil rights cases. We have helped to change dozens of laws and win cases to improve the rights of thousands. The cases we are funding allege that:

• In Texas and North Carolina, incarcerated people with mental health disabilities are forced to remain in jail despite being found not guilty and unable to proceed with a criminal trial.
• In Orange County, California there are currently 13 gang injunctions under effect, which disproportionately affect young men of color.
• In Chicago, Illinois, the city’s homeless shelter program is inaccessible to people with disabilities.
• In Springfield, Oregon, the city and its police department used excessive force against Black Lives Matter protesters.
• In West Virginia, the state fails to protect children in foster care from abuse and neglect. 
• In Montana, voter suppression laws disadvantage young adults and give priority to gun owners.
• In Gary, Indiana, a gun manufacturer negligently marketed and distributed its guns, leading to an epidemic of gun violence in the city. 
• In Vancouver, British Columbia, the police perpetuate systemic discrimination against Indigenous people through bureaucratic measures.

Environmental Justice

The Impact Fund provides grants to support local litigation for environmental justice. These grants are for cases aiming to help people or communities who are affected by environmental harm or who lack access to basic environmental needs, such as clean water, clean air, adequate waste treatment, and green spaces. The cases we are funding allege that:

• In Centreville, Illinois, the city’s failure to maintain its sewer system has caused raw sewage to flood peoples’ homes, endangering the property and health of a predominantly Black community.
• In Fresno County, California, the California Department of Transportation approved a highway expansion project that would increase air pollution and traffic in one of the state’s most environmentally burdened communities.
• In downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the proposed expansion of a highway would divide the region's Black, Asian, and Latine neighborhoods and cause pollution and ill health.
• In North Dakota, the five-month closure of a highway in response to the Dakota Access Pipeline protests disproportionately affected the livelihoods and health of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe members.
• In Ontario, Canada, mercury contamination of the English-Wabigoon river system causes catastrophic environmental and health impacts for the Grassy Narrows First Nation.
• In Sacramento, California, the county government and Sacramento Area Sewer District violated the Clean Water Act by discharging raw sewage into nearby rivers.
• In the Eastern Coachella Valley in California, 1,900 residents of the Oasis Mobile Home Park suffer from arsenic-laced drinking water, wastewater contamination, and overcharging for utilities.

Economic Justice

The Impact Fund provides financial and other forms of support to cases fighting for economic justice. From workers' rights to consumer protection for vulnerable populations, impact litigation is a powerful tool to hold corporationss and the government accountable. The cases we are funding allege that:

• In Brooklyn, New York, a prominent mortgage lender engaged in predatory practices, leaving homeowners of color at risk of losing their homes. 
• In Washington, live-in caregivers are unconstitutionally excluded from the state’s wage-and-hour protections.
• In Ravalli County, Montana, the county has created a “modern-day debtors’ prison” by incarcerating people unable to afford pre-trial fees. 
• In San Diego, California, vehicle ordinances target unhoused vehicle owners even when no adequate housing alternative exists.
• In New York, a federal immigration detention facility is violating minimum wage and forced labor laws by forcing detainees to work for just a dollar a day. 
• In Minneapolis, Minnesota, the city and county destroy the property of unhoused individuals and conduct forced evictions from public spaces. 
• In Miami, Florida, insurance companies discriminate against a nonprofit community development corporation renting to tenants with Section 8 rental subsidies.

About the Youth Foundation

The Finish Line Youth Foundation (FLYF) supports life's biggest possibilities as the philanthropic arm of Finish Line. FLYF is a national partner of Special Olympics and dedicated corporate citizen to the Far Eastside of Indianapolis. FLYF also provides financial support for diversity and inclusion initiatives, opportunities for those with special needs and resources for disadvantaged youth.

Louder Than Words Grant

Our Louder Than Words grants serve as part of Finish Line's Louder Than Words platform and our goal to support diverse and underserved communities. These grants will be awarded to nonprofit organizations that make a difference in our corporate Indianapolis neighborhood as well as communities across the country.

Projects that Qualify for Funding

Cycle 1 Focus: Far East Side of Indianapolis

Cycle 2 Focus: Health & Wellness

• Programming or activities for participation in programs that place an importance on personal development, an active and healthy lifestyle or mental health
  • Scholarships that provide full or partial funding to participate in programs provided by organization

Cycle 3 Focus: Workforce Development

• Programming or activities for participation in programs that place an importance on higher education, vocational training, and/or career development
  • Scholarships that provide full or partial funding to participate in programs provided by organization

Cycle 4 Focus: Safe Communities

• Programming or activities for participation in programs that emphasize public safety, building trust between communities and police, and/or reforming the criminal justice system
• Improvements and/or renovations to existing buildings, grounds, and property or for new facilities and/or grounds
• Emergency needs that would somehow be keeping the organization from providing current services such as natural disasters or other unforeseen circumstances that require special funding to help

Available Funding

• Organizations can request up to $10,000.

Our Social Justice Fund (SJF)

The Institute’s primary grantmaking program funds grassroots activist projects in the US and around the world, prioritizing those with small budgets and little access to mainstream funding . A rotating council of current and past board members, with volunteers from our SJF grantee community, screens applications. They bring a wide range of organizing experience and diverse political perspectives to the process.

Our Social Justice Fund makes grants for grassroots activist projects in the US, giving priority to those with small budgets and little access to more mainstream funding sources. We are especially interested in funding efforts to:

• end the violence of borders and the criminalization of immigrants, shut down CBP and ICE
• abolish prisons and dismantle and redefine systems of policing and criminal justice
• confront institutionalized violence against racial, ethnic, gender-based, and LGBTQ communities
• put an end to economic exploitation, class stratification, systemic poverty
• stop the war machine, end state sponsored terrorism, expose the dangers of nuclear power

The Social Justice Fund's priority is to support:

• direct grassroots activism and organizing
• groups with diverse, representative and democratic leadership structures
• groups that need additional support to carry out a project or build capacity

Background

Issues around inequality and the criminal legal system pose fundamental societal questions about bias, fairness, and equity. Racism and racial biases are embedded in the criminal legal system and lead to disproportionate harm to communities of color, particularly the Black community.

The Urban Institute and the Microsoft Justice Reform Initiative are collaborating on the Catalyst Grant Program to help nonprofits address these inequities by using data and technology to advance racial equity and reform at the front end of the adult criminal legal system.

Purpose of Solicitation

To support local activities related to advancing racial equity and reform in the front end of the adult criminal legal system through data and technology.

Projects must focus on reform and racial equity in the front end of the criminal legal system (i.e., prevention, policing, and prosecution). Projects must also incorporate data and technology and be locally focused.

Award and Benefits

Selected applicants will receive $40,000 in grant funds; assistance on data, policy, and community engagement from the Urban Institute; access to Microsoft technology and related support; and peer learning opportunities.

Leadership Circle Grant Program

CJI’s Leadership Circle is requesting proposals from formerly incarcerated people and directly impacted people-led grassroots organizations working to transform and reimagine the current U.S. criminal legal system, building to create new alternative community-based solutions and organizing to stop the criminalization of marginalized identities and communities.

We fund alternatives outside of the current legal and cultural systems of oppression, prioritizing those that empower communities to lead their own alternatives. In supporting the crucial work of building infrastructure that replaces the current system, which is rooted in racism and inequity, CJI also prioritizes groups enhancing the safety of communities that are victims of state-sponsored violence (both overt and insidious), those affected by the criminalization of protests and those working toward community healing. We will support the crucial work of building infrastructure that replaces the current system.

CJI believes that formerly incarcerated movement leaders and their organizations, working at the grassroots and drawing from experience, must be at the forefront of determining the solutions that will move us forward. The movement must also push back against the emergence of tools of repression, however disguised. The time is now for innovative approaches to building a vibrant movement that engages the imaginations of directly impacted communities creating the solutions and alternatives to disrupt, dismantle and establish new systems for justice.

This year, CJI will support movement-building* organizing that is based in Creating the World –WE Demand NOW! We want to support the efforts that:

• build alternatives to create safe and healthy communities that don't rely on arrest and incarceration
• invest in approaches that seek to end mass criminalization and incarceration
• create policies to reform and dismantle current repressive criminal legal systems
• lift up the leadership and experience of those affected by the criminal legal system, regardless of the type of detention (e.g. jail, prison, ICE detention, etc)
• re-establish rights and access to those formerly incarcerated and newly criminalized; e.g. intersections of reproductive health & justice, protesting & resisting oppression and repression
• promote transformative and restorative justice that heals, builds across movements and collaborations to effectively address the current criminal legal system.

CJI defines movement building as:

An ongoing collaboration, both within and across communities, intended to eradicate core systems of injustice. Collaborations may include those among grassroots or community organizations and/or between grassroots/community organizations and people or groups working with transparency and integrity inside the institutions they seek to transform; eg (Community Review Boards, Arrest Divergence Programs, etc. 

Allard Prize for International Integrity

Launched in 2012, the Allard Prize for International Integrity is one of the world's largest prizes dedicated to the fight against corruption and the protection of human rights (CAD $100,000).

The Allard Prize is awarded biennially to an individual, movement, or organization that has demonstrated exceptional courage and leadership in combating corruption or protecting human rights, especially through promoting transparency, accountability, and the Rule of Law. Nominations are ongoing and open to the public.

Criteria

We recognize that all range of participants in global society can make important contributions to addressing these critical issues, so we welcome nominations from all types of individuals, movements and organizations. Nominees could include prominent world leaders, grass roots activists, social movements, charitable groups dedicated to specific social issues or other corporate bodies, whether for-profit or not. The breadth of this focus reinforces our belief that we all have responsibilities to promote transparency and the Rule of Law.

• Courage - We understand courage as requiring action in the face of significant personal constraints. These constraints may be to the safety of the nominee and their family, but they may also entail other types of personal cost. They might include, for example, potential implications for future career prospects, financial wellbeing, exclusion from social groups or other consequences that are undesirable to the nominee. The essence of courage for the purposes of this award is that the nominee has acted to combat corruption and promote transparency, regardless of potential costs personally.
• Leadership - A nominee’s activities must inspire others. Leadership of new social movements is one obvious example of this inspiration, but there are many others. For instance, leadership could also include the development of new technologies for monitoring kickbacks to government officials, even though there might only be a loose connection between the developers of the tools and the end users. Along the same lines, scholars also show leadership where their actions stimulate change, irrespective of whether or not they implement their ideas themselves. Inspiration is the touchstone.
• Anti-Corruption - We understand corruption to mean the abuse of power. Corruption can occur within government, but it also takes place within private institutions, companies, and non-governmental organizations. At the political level, corruption often involves abuse of public power, office, or resources by elected or appointed government officials for personal or related party gain, sometimes in connection with favouritism in the awarding of jobs or contracts. Outside government, it involves extortion, bribery and other attempts to circumvent the law. A nominee’s work must seek to resist or overcome corrupt practices for the benefit of society and promotion of long-term stability, which sometimes may even involve challenging the law itself if it serves corrupt purposes. The nominee’s actions can relate to a single important act of corruption or practices that lead to the systematic or incremental corruption of a political regime.
• Transparency - Transparency implies public disclosure. On one level, transparency involves regular and accurate publication of important governmental practices and information that allow for informed public debate. This disclosure goes to the heart of democratic principles by allowing local voters to make informed decisions at the ballot box. On another level, the term also involves revealing hidden practices that are harmful to the wider social interest, even if they occur privately. While nominees must promote transparency, they should also be sensitive to the potentially negative and damaging consequences of revealing certain types of information.
• Accountability - We believe that those responsible for diverting public wealth or undermining the Rule of Law should answer to the public for their actions. At a minimum, this implies that those who are responsible for acts of corruption should be identified. Beyond identification alone, other forms of legal accountability might also be appropriate, ranging from financial reparations to criminal charges in egregious circumstances. While we have no preconceived idea about the form accountability must take, the nominee should work to further justice by calling those responsible for acts of corruption to account for their wrongs.
• Rule of Law - A society governed by the Rule of Law operates under a system of fair and just legal standards, not arbitrary government. Thus, the Rule of Law denotes an orderly and ethical legal system, where at a minimum legislature, executive and judiciary are independent, where law enforcement is impartial and where all individuals are equal before the law. Likewise, the term requires that no entity is beyond the law, including governments, corporations and other powerful members of society. The successful nominee’s work will promote the establishment and maintenance of these principles, within local communities, individual countries or globally.

Sky Ranch Foundation

Formed in 1961 and building on more than 60 years of tradition, Sky Ranch Foundation ℠ is a tax-exempt charitable organization committed to giving at-risk youth a second chance by identifying and offering grants to efficient and effective programs focused on improving the quality of help available to these youth.

Funding Interests

Preference will be given to organizations that:

• Serve troubled youth between the ages of 11-18, with a priority for programs that focus on youth between the ages of 11-15
• Focus on preventing youth involvement in the criminal justice system, or provide long-term rehabilitation in a residential or alternative setting.
• Provide comprehensive support services to youth that may include education, job training, enrichment activities, counseling and case management.

Proposals that fall outside of the Foundation’s guidelines will be considered at the discretion of the Directors.

Geographic Focus

The Foundation funds programs and organizations that work with at-risk youth within the United States, its possessions, and territories, or operated within Native American tribal lands. Requests for programs outside those geographies will not be considered.

Type of Support

General operating, capital and capacity-building.

Award

The typical grant size will be between $5,000 and $40,000. Grants outside of this range will be considered at the discretion of the Directors.

Focus Areas

Through our Catalyze Fund, Pillars invests in a vibrant network of Muslim leaders who are developing thoughtful, multidisciplinary approaches to complex challenges of inequity and injustice and, in doing so, catalyze just public policy and social change. For this RFP, we are searching for Muslim-centered, justice-focused organizations whose missions and programs fall within one of the following three focus areas: 

Reimagining Public Safety

Everyone deserves to feel safe in their homes, schools, places of worship, workplaces, and beyond. Too often, our communities experience racial and religious profiling and targeted policing in these spaces, jeopardizing our safety in our own communities. As a society, we must divest from harmful practices and invest in services and programs that promote individual and collective well-being. At Pillars, we support Muslim leaders and organizations who are working to end the unjust criminalization of our communities and who are promoting community-driven solutions that protect us all. Grantee partners reimagining public safety are organizing around mass surveillance, racial and religious profiling, immigrant detention and deportation, promoting prisoners' rights, and money bond/bail. 

Promoting Mental Health and Wellness

Access to adequate health care—including mental health care—is a basic human right. Yet barriers to access prevent Muslims from receiving the mental health support they need, even as the demand for it grows. We need to build an infrastructure that reimagines what healing and holistic care can look like for our communities. At Pillars, we support the promotion of healthy communities and spiritually and culturally relevant mental health resources designed with Muslims in mind. Grantee partners promoting mental health and wellness are organizing around mental health awareness and education; public events and campaigns; coalition building; mental health research; spiritual abuse; and suicide prevention. 

Building Civic Power

A true democracy demands transparency and fully informed, engaged citizens. However, entrenched inequality in the United States has kept many communities out of critical decision-making processes that have real-life consequences. We need to create more opportunities for full participation at all levels of civic life and to build the power necessary to reshape systems for the greater good. At Pillars, we support Muslim leaders who are organizing communities, creating timely and relevant civic media, training potential candidates, mobilizing voters, ad demographic and issue area research, and ultimately transforming our democracy to one that serves us all.

If you have any questions or concerns, check out our FAQ page. 

Sidney R. Baer, Jr. Foundation

The Sidney R. Baer, Jr. Foundation is a catalyst for positive change in the lives of those living with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. It is our mission to award grants to organizations and institutions doing work that will have a tangible impact on the field of mental health. Our vision is a better world, where those afflicted with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder might no longer feel the isolation so often associated with the disease.

Every grant the foundation awards starts with a single question: “Would this have benefited Sidney?” Our namesake was a member of the well-known family who founded the Stix Baer and Fuller department store chain. A brilliant businessman who was only limited by his illness, Sidney accumulated a great deal of wealth in his lifetime, but no amount of money was enough to soothe the overwhelming struggles associated with his schizophrenia.

In honor of Sidney R. Baer, Jr., the foundation has identified five grant segments where we believe our funds will make the biggest difference for those suffering from serious mental illness. Education, criminal justice, reintegration, clinical research, and social support are all aspects of Sidney’s day-to-day life where greater access to understanding and resources would have improved his quality of life

Criminal Justice Grants

According to a study cited by the Council of State Governments Justice Center, an estimated 2 million individuals suffering from serious mental illness are jailed each year. Despite the fact that most of these individuals are arrested for nonviolent crimes like trespassing, disturbing the peace, or drug use; research shows that mentally ill inmates tend to be incarcerated for longer, return to prison more frequently, and cost more to incarcerate than those without mental illness. Sidney R. Baer, Jr. himself is a part of this statistic.

From pre-arrest treatment options to training for law enforcement officials and discounted specialized legal services, it is the goal of The Sidney R. Baer, Jr. Foundation to provide grants to the organizations and individuals who are striving to make a difference in this area of the mental health field.

Sidney R. Baer, Jr. Foundation

The Sidney R. Baer, Jr. Foundation is a catalyst for positive change in the lives of those living with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. It is our mission to award grants to organizations and institutions doing work that will have a tangible impact on the field of mental health. Our vision is a better world, where those afflicted with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder might no longer feel the isolation so often associated with the disease.

Every grant the foundation awards starts with a single question: “Would this have benefited Sidney?” Our namesake was a member of the well-known family who founded the Stix Baer and Fuller department store chain. A brilliant businessman who was only limited by his illness, Sidney accumulated a great deal of wealth in his lifetime, but no amount of money was enough to soothe the overwhelming struggles associated with his schizophrenia.

In honor of Sidney R. Baer, Jr., the foundation has identified five grant segments where we believe our funds will make the biggest difference for those suffering from serious mental illness. Education, criminal justice, reintegration, clinical research, and social support are all aspects of Sidney’s day-to-day life where greater access to understanding and resources would have improved his quality of life

Education Grants

The Sidney R. Baer, Jr. Foundation provides grants that afford individuals living with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder the same opportunity at an education that Sidney received. We are also passionate about fostering additional financial and academic resources that, if in existence at the time, would have greatly benefited Sidney during his time in school. From direct scholarships to the sponsorship of academic programs for those resuming their education after experiencing mental health issues, The Sidney R. Baer Jr. Foundation views education as a priceless resource for the mentally ill.

Sidney R. Baer, Jr. Foundation

The Sidney R. Baer, Jr. Foundation is a catalyst for positive change in the lives of those living with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. It is our mission to award grants to organizations and institutions doing work that will have a tangible impact on the field of mental health. Our vision is a better world, where those afflicted with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder might no longer feel the isolation so often associated with the disease.

Every grant the foundation awards starts with a single question: “Would this have benefited Sidney?” Our namesake was a member of the well-known family who founded the Stix Baer and Fuller department store chain. A brilliant businessman who was only limited by his illness, Sidney accumulated a great deal of wealth in his lifetime, but no amount of money was enough to soothe the overwhelming struggles associated with his schizophrenia.

In honor of Sidney R. Baer, Jr., the foundation has identified five grant segments where we believe our funds will make the biggest difference for those suffering from serious mental illness. Education, criminal justice, reintegration, clinical research, and social support are all aspects of Sidney’s day-to-day life where greater access to understanding and resources would have improved his quality of life

Reintegration Grants

Living with mental illness is a lifelong journey. The key to making the most of that journey is focusing on a person’s abilities rather than just their symptoms. Thanks to outstanding curing, aiding, and treatment programs, individuals living with severe mental illness can experience increased fulfillment, stability, and a sense of purpose both personally and professionally.

Sidney R. Baer, Jr. was an avid supporter of the clubhouse model of treatment for schizophrenia. It was his belief, and is the belief of The Sidney R. Baer, Jr. Foundation, that encouraging individuals to be active participants in their own recovery and the recovery of others builds confidence, friendship, and life skills.

We manifest our support of reintegration programs in many ways. From scholarships for deserving individuals to get the reintegration support they need to fully funding the construction and management of New York based Fountain House, we aim to ensure that living with mental illness is an obtainable goal.

Sidney R. Baer, Jr. Foundation

The Sidney R. Baer, Jr. Foundation is a catalyst for positive change in the lives of those living with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. It is our mission to award grants to organizations and institutions doing work that will have a tangible impact on the field of mental health. Our vision is a better world, where those afflicted with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder might no longer feel the isolation so often associated with the disease.

Every grant the foundation awards starts with a single question: “Would this have benefited Sidney?” Our namesake was a member of the well-known family who founded the Stix Baer and Fuller department store chain. A brilliant businessman who was only limited by his illness, Sidney accumulated a great deal of wealth in his lifetime, but no amount of money was enough to soothe the overwhelming struggles associated with his schizophrenia.

In honor of Sidney R. Baer, Jr., the foundation has identified five grant segments where we believe our funds will make the biggest difference for those suffering from serious mental illness. Education, criminal justice, reintegration, clinical research, and social support are all aspects of Sidney’s day-to-day life where greater access to understanding and resources would have improved his quality of life

Social Support Grants

Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder do not need to be stigmatized. Through social support and education The Sidney R. Baer, Jr. Foundation softens the blow of loneliness and shame typically felt by those living with mental illness. Simple awareness is the first step towards a more compassionate environment for the mentally ill. The Sidney R. Baer, Jr. Foundation also supports advocacy and other channels for eradicating the many misconceptions about schizophrenia.

About Us

As a leading pharmaceutical company in the United States, we focus our innovation on some of the most devastating diseases and the most complex medical challenges of our time, across six therapeutic areas:

• Cardiovascular & Metabolism
• Immunology
• Infectious Diseases & Vaccines
• Neuroscience
• Oncology
• Pulmonary Hypertension

Therapeutic Giving

Janssen is interested in funding programs and initiatives that improve patient access to treatment and services, advance health equity and strengthen frontline health workforces within the therapeutic areas noted.

Across therapeutic areas, we support disease awareness efforts, patient empowerment and advocacy, and linkages to care. Our preference is in support of programs focused on health system improvement with measurable outcomes over fundraising activities.

Neuroscience

Disease Areas

• Alzheimer’s Disease
• Major Depressive Disorder
• Schizophrenia
• Schizoaffective Disorder

Areas of Interest

• Recovery-focused programs, including initiatives on quality of life, coping, housing, social isolation, employment, and wellness
• Early intervention programs
• Programs supporting access, continuity of care, and relapse prevention
• Programs addressing healthcare disparities and the stigma associated with mental illness
• Crisis intervention programs
• Education and programs addressing mental health and the criminal justice system
• Initiatives may be for patients, caregivers/families, peers, policy makers, community leaders, or the broader community

Since 1986, The Trust for the Meditation Process has encouraged the practice of inner, silent awareness, whether it's called meditation, mindfulness or contemplative prayer. Our financial grants to non-profit organizations renew contemplative Christianity, promote health and wholeness, and bring silence and stillness to a hectic world.  

Contemplative Christianity Grants

Many people think of meditation as an exclusively Eastern religious practice. But Western religion, too, has a long tradition of silent, non-discursive prayer, often called contemplation, which is rooted in a rich mystical literature. Contemporary thinkers are unearthing this tradition. Their fresh encounter with the Gospels and mystics emphasizes that God is a living presence in us – to be known in silence and love and manifested in our acts of compassion.

• Grants made in the Contemplative Christianity Program have these objectives:  
• Introduce or expand the teaching and practice of Christian contemplative practices, such as Christian Meditation or Centering Prayer.
• Focus on silent, non discursive meditation rather than another aspect or method of prayer or spiritual formation.
• Connect with a Christian audience or have a Christian context.
• Identify and support emerging scholars and leaders in Contemplative Christianity and Christian mysticism.
• Raise the profile of Contemplative Christianity, with language and programs that speak to all Christian denominations and that reconnect people to Christian contemplative traditions.
• Reach underserved populations, such as children, teens, and young adults, people of color, people who are LGBTQ, people with low incomes and people facing addictions, illness, trauma or loss.
• Encourage dialogue among contemplative traditions in all religions.

Mindfulness Grants

Thirty years ago, Jon Kabat-Zinn and his colleagues at the University of Massachusetts medical school adapted classic forms of meditation found in most religions for a modern, secular audience. A simple practice of paying silent attention to the present moment formed the core of their efforts to help people improve physical and emotional health. 

Since then, a large and rigorous body of research has shown that a regular practice of mindfulness meditation can change us in many significant ways: improving immune function, reducing stress, reducing pain and symptoms of chronic disease, improving sleep, improving attention, fostering self- care and compassion, and the list continues to grow. Today, an ever widening interest in the benefits of mindfulness practice has led to its introduction in many fields and professions.  

Grants made in the Mindfulness Program have both of these objectives:

Introduce or expand mindfulness meditation through educational or human service nonprofits or government entities, such as K-12 public schools, colleges and universities, correctional facilities, rehabilitation programs, healthcare, counseling and case management services.

Reach underserved populations, such as children, teens, and young adults, BIPOC and LGBTQ communities, people in the criminal justice system, people with low incomes, and people facing addictions, illness, trauma or loss.

Mindfulness Program grants are highly competitive and we generally receive more applications than we can award. 

Grant Guidelines

Our focus is short-term projects where a small grant can make a credible impact and result in clearly identifiable outcomes. We make 20 to 40 grants annually. Initial awards are typically small – $3,000 to $5,000.

The type of projects we fund includes:

• Meditation courses, workshops, lectures or retreats.
• Trainings, sabbaticals, retreats and other development for meditation teachers.
• Meditation curriculum development.
• Books, supplies and equipment for meditation programs.
• Efforts to expand and build the capacity of meditation programs and address barriers to practice. 
• Meditation research, especially the development of simple, effective, accessible evaluation tools.
• Publications that effectively spread critical perspectives on meditation and meet an important gap in the current literature.
• East/West meditation dialogue.

Circle for Justice Innovations

Mission

CJI’s mission is to end mass criminalization and incarceration by building and strengthening the infrastructure of the grassroots criminal justice movement to fundamentally transform the U.S. criminal legal system. We fund where the movement is developing, shifting, and growing. We believe this movement should be led by those most impacted by the injustices of the current system, working in alliances across race, class, faith, gender, gender identity, sexuality, immigration status, and age.

Until She’s Free

Launched by CJI in 2020, the Until She’s Free is a necessary, strategic, and timely response to this growing crisis. Until She’s Free is an innovative, participatory grantmaking circle comprised of community organizers, many of whom have experienced incarceration, working alongside donors and donor activists. We share power and a passion for supporting a meaningful, transformative, and systemic change in the criminal legal system, as well as a commitment to interrogating the elements of a Just Sisterhood.

Until She’s Free is a grantmaking initiative strictly supporting women-led organizations addressing state-sanctioned violence against women and girls, including trans women and trans girls, and gender-nonconforming people, and their criminalization and subsequent incarceration, while also elevating their leadership in bringing about foundational change.

UNTIL SHE’S FREE FUND

The Until She’s Free Circle, a fund of Circle for Justice Innovations, is seeking applications from women, girls, trans and gender expansive people-led organizations tackling the Systems faced by incarcerated, detained, criminalized or formerly incarcerated women, girls, trans and gender expansive people.  We are committed to flanking organizations that are addressing current realities of incarcerated and criminalized women, girls, trans and gender expansive people and the innovative solutions needed to build power and create transformative systems change.

If this is your work and mission, we encourage you to apply including but not limited to formerly incarcerated women, girls, trans people, undocumented activists; focused on forward thinking approaches to transform the criminal legal system and sustain our communities.

BACKGROUND

The Circle for Justice Innovations (CJI) resources organizations seeking to end mass incarceration and criminalization. Celebrating 25 years of grantmaking, CJI was founded to combat prison expansion, mass incarceration, and racial disparities affecting marginalized communities and seed organizations whose work is led by formerly incarcerated and directly impacted leadership

The Until She’s Free Circle (USF) is a participatory grant-making circle of community organizers, many with lived incarceration experience, alongside donors and donor-activists. The Until She’s Free Fund shares consensus decision making power and commitment to a Just Sisterhood process in philanthropy. The Circle seeks to end the racialized carceral state, creating new frameworks for safety, and accountability models. This Circle was launched to provide vital support for addressing the criminal legal system's impact on women, girls, trans and gender-expansive people, while uplifting their leadership in this critical work.

This year’s USF funding priorities include:

• Carcel Conditions and Systems Control focused work organizations committed to improving conditions for those incarcerated, advocating for basic human dignity, as well as addressing harmful alternatives to incarceration (e.g., e- incarceration) and the economic related profits from Systems surveillance.
• Black and Latine Trans-led organizations advocating for ending incarceration and criminalization of trans and gender expansive people. Including but not limited to conditions and access while incarcerated and/or detained, participation in survival economy strategies, and gender-based affirming justice solutions.
• Immigration & Detention organizing around immigrant detention, family separation, and ICE deportations; political education and Know Your Rights trainings for community safety.
• Gender Affirming Care & Reproductive Justice, Health and Access for justice and systems involved women, girls, trans, and gender expansive people, including those in jails, prisons, detention centers and other forms of state supervision.
• Indigenous Practice Based and Cultural Organizing work using indigenous practices to disrupt incarceration and criminalization. Including narrative shifts, cultural organizing, and storytelling.
• Restorative, Healing and Transformative Justice work - innovative solutions to combat incarcerations and criminalization in communities, behind the wall and as an interruption and intervention to incarceration.

Background

The Foundation for Improvement of Justice, Inc. is a private, not-for-profit organization that was founded for the purpose of improving local, state and federal systems of justice. Our mission is to recognize innovative and effective works and/or programs whose efforts have made positive influential differences in the United States criminal and civil judicial arenas.

Our intent is to encourage further improvement in the various systems of justice in the United States through both recognition and reward.

Awards Program

The Foundation accepts nominations of individuals and/or organizations who have contributed unique improvements to the civil or criminal justice systems within the United States. 

Annual award winners are chosen based solely on the blind nomination. The number of winners selected each year is based on a percentage of the nominations received. The award package includes: a Paul H. Chapman Medal, a check for $15,000, a framed certificate, and an expenses paid trip to the awards banquet in Atlanta, Georgia.

Please note that these are awards for successful accomplishments inclusive of innovative programs which have proven effective and can serve as models for others. Recipients are not required to render any further services as a condition of receiving an award. 

The Foundation considers accomplishments in the following categories:

• Legal Reform
• Crime Prevention
• Child Protection
• Speeding the Process
• Crime Victims’ Rights
• Alternative Sentencing
• Lowering the Cost
• Improvements to Civil Litigation Process
• Other Significant Efforts

Please see FAQs for additional guidelines.

About Us

As a leading pharmaceutical company in the United States, we focus our innovation on some of the most devastating diseases and the most complex medical challenges of our time, across six therapeutic areas:

• Cardiovascular & Metabolism
• Immunology
• Infectious Diseases & Vaccines
• Neuroscience
• Oncology
• Pulmonary Hypertension

Therapeutic Giving

Janssen is interested in funding programs and initiatives that improve patient access to treatment and services, advance health equity and strengthen frontline health workforces within the therapeutic areas noted.

Across therapeutic areas, we support disease awareness efforts, patient empowerment and advocacy, and linkages to care. Our preference is in support of programs focused on health system improvement with measurable outcomes over fundraising activities.

Neuroscience

Disease Areas

• Alzheimer’s Disease
• Major Depressive Disorder
• Schizophrenia
• Schizoaffective Disorder

Areas of Interest

• Recovery-focused programs, including initiatives on quality of life, coping, housing, social isolation, employment, and wellness
• Early intervention programs
• Programs supporting access, continuity of care, and relapse prevention
• Programs addressing healthcare disparities and the stigma associated with mental illness
• Crisis intervention programs
• Education and programs addressing mental health and the criminal justice system
• Initiatives may be for patients, caregivers/families, peers, policy makers, community leaders, or the broader community

About the Innovation Prize

The J.M.K. Innovation Prize seeks out innovators who are spearheading transformative early-stage projects in the fields of the environment, heritage conservation, and social justice.

The J.M.K. Innovation Prize is open to non-profit and mission-driven for-profit organizations that are tackling America’s most pressing challenges through social innovation. In 2019, we will award up to ten Prizes, each including a cash award of $150,000 over three years, plus $25,000 for project expenses, for a total award of $175,000. Awardees also receive guidance through the Fund and its resource network, providing tools and training for ascendant change agents.

For more than three generations, The J.M. Kaplan Fund has provided catalytic funding for projects in their early stages of development. Whether a pilot project, a new organization, or a nascent initiative, work supported by the Fund has involved a certain measured risk that ultimately led to large-scale, transformative results. We launched the J.M.K. Innovation Prize in 2015 to leverage this legacy of catalytic grant-making in the field of social innovation. Currently on a biennial schedule, the Prize has to date funded twenty wildly creative solutions to social and environmental challenges, ranging from high-tech efforts to restore imperiled coral reefs, to the nation’s first farm labor trust. Each awardee takes a visionary approach to a societal need, working within one or more of the Fund’s three program areas:

• The Environment: Protecting natural resources and reducing the impacts of climate change.
• Heritage Conservation: Conserving the places that communities care about most.
• Social Justice: Supporting just alternatives and reforms to the criminal justice and immigration systems.

Tailored for Early-Stage Social Entrepreneurs

We know there is a scarcity of funding for untested ideas being piloted in the social innovation field. The Prize is designed to fill this gap in innovation philanthropy, supporting ideas that other funders may deem too risky or too small. We also know that early-stage innovators need the freedom to seize opportunities when and where they arise. The Prize’s unrestricted funding offers this flexibility, letting awardees deploy resources where they are most needed, whether investing in core projects, hiring staff, or just keeping the lights on.

We know each organization must follow its own path to achieving a change-making vision. With its three-year period, the Prize gives awardees room to evolve at their own pace, with an infrastructure of support tailored to their specific needs as early-stage innovators.

An Innovation Community

Beyond the cash award, the Innovation Prize provides tools to help turn ideas into action. Over the three-year Prize term, we bring awardees together for two convenings each year. Each of these meetings, spotlighting a different awardee’s organization, offers opportunities for peer learning and mentoring from experts in organizational development, board cultivation, media coaching, leadership training, and more. From West Virginia coal country to Monterey, California, our awardees have shared powerful learning moments, embedded in one another’s work and reflecting on their role as change agents.