Transforming Criminal Justice Grants

Geographic Scope: United States focus

Mission: End mass incarceration while promoting the true safety and well-being of communities

Context: The United States spends approximately $445 billion annually on the carceral system and incarcerates people at one of the highest rates in the world. The program recognizes that mass incarceration has never been a viable path toward safer communities and supports a comprehensive approach prioritizing human dignity, accountability, repair, and rehabilitation.

1. Expanding Non-Carceral Solutions

• Strategies that increase public safety while offering alternatives to policing, pretrial detention, probation, and prisons
• Community violence intervention
• Restorative justice
• Substance use and harm reduction
• Non-police crisis response
• Priority: Community-led models that eliminate or significantly reduce contact with system

2. Advancing System Innovation and Accountability

• System innovation efforts to accelerate decarceration
• Training and exposure to new methodologies for key practitioners (e.g., public defenders)
• Hold system and actors accountable through litigation, technological advancements, and other groundbreaking strategies

3. Supporting Impactful Change Campaigns

• Community organizing and education
• Legislative advocacy
• Direct services as base-building practice
• Campaigns must: remove barriers to improve quality of life for directly impacted people, shrink system scope/size, or bring unlikely allies into the fight

4. Increasing Strategic Communications

• Expand and strengthen journalist training
• Reporting on non-carceral solutions centers human dignity and data (not sensationalism)
• Rapid-response communications highlighting proven non-carceral solutions
• Infrastructure for sustaining long-term narrative change

What They Fund:

• Organizations and initiatives aligned with priorities
• Unrestricted and project-based funding
• Multi-year grants
• Fiscally sponsored projects and international charitable organizations (where relevant)

Program Officer: Erin Keith

Application Process: Invitation-only, rolling year-long grantmaking structure prioritizing efficiency

Overhead and Indirect Cost Policy: Available on website

Collaboration: Open to pooled funding, co-funding opportunities, and strategic advising with institutional funders and individual donors

Application Process

Mechanism: Invitation-only

How to Get on Radar:

1. Fill out "Introduce Yourself" form if your organization/project aligns with Transforming Criminal Justice strategy priorities
2. Request to meet at conferences - reach out to program officer via email or conference app

Introduce Yourself Form:

• Should take only a few minutes to complete
• Focus on content over presentation
• Include organization mission statement (or short 1-paragraph statement if no official version)
• Provide org-level content and brief overview of work that aligns with funding strategy
• Brief Description: 1-2 paragraphs introducing yourself and organization
• Can attach existing materials (annual reports, two-pagers, etc.) rather than create new documents
• Can use whatever style works best (paragraphs, bullet points, links)
• Only submit once; updates only needed if significant organizational changes occur

If Invited:

• Complete required questionnaire or application
• Use existing materials if they answer questions
• No need for customized materials if existing ones suffice

Review and Timeline:

• Form submissions reviewed once quarterly
• Program officers contact organizations identified as potential fit via email
• Contact could come within days, months, or years depending on funding priorities
• Initial contact gathers additional information; does not guarantee invitation to apply

Important Notes:

• Filling out form does not add you to mailing lists or guarantee contact
• Program officers prioritize organizations that best fit funding strategy during each grant cycle
• If already in contact with Navigation Fund staff, do not need to submit form unless requested
• Rolling, year-long grantmaking structure prioritizes efficiency so organizations can access funding when needed