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Introducing The Gravity Fund
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Renewing bipartisanship on criminal justice reform
The Gravity Fund is a fresh, forward-thinking, strategic investment vehicle driving the next generation of criminal justice reform and public safety innovation in this country. Tremendous strides have been made over the last 15 years on this issue – thanks to legacy funders, advocacy leaders, and many others – but the cultural and political winds have shifted. What got us here won’t get us to where we need to go, and we need to course correct now to ensure the long term sustainability and success of this work. To do this, we urgently need new thinking; a stable, diversified funder pool; and large-scale strategic realignment to stabilize the field through inevitable ebbs and flows in public and political appetite.
This vehicle is about helping criminal justice reform adapt to the moment and begin to overtly offer the safety and justice solutions communities want and deserve.
The Gravity Fund is an initial two year, $20 million pooled fund that will be deployed based on urgency and highest value outcomes across four key strategies...
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Supercharging effective public safety models while building bridges with law enforcement and corrections
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Investing in cutting edge innovations to level up the justice field
Specific investments will be scoped after the 2024 General Election, at which point the team of experts at The Just Trust will analyze and conduct diligence on a docket of potential investments to make progress toward these goals. Donor participants in The Gravity Fund will be invited to offer feedback and guidance on the investments before funds are distributed. Investments will be made throughout 2025 and early 2026 and impact/progress will be reported at the end of 2026.
To read more about the types of investments The Gravity Fund might consider, access our official Gravity Fund overview memo using the link below:
Stewarded by The Just Trust
The Just Trust was established as a grantmaking entity and strategy shop, seeded with an historic $350M one-time investment by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative in 2021. It aims to tackle the incarceration crisis and public safety side by side, in all 50 states. In a little over two years, The Just Trust has become one of the largest funders of state and national justice reform and safety innovation in the country, including one of the most prominent supporters and advisors on conservative reform efforts. Its broader goal is to build a strong, expansive and lasting strategic and financial center on this issue, as well as a diverse community of funders to sustain the work long term.
The team at The Just Trust – who would steward and execute the fund via their excellent grantmaking, research, and advisory shop – are experts with 100 years combined experience working on this issue and who have devoted their careers to protecting and preserving justice. They also already partner with hundreds of organizations of all shapes and sizes in red, blue, and purple states. The Just Trust’s theory of change is one of the clearest, long term roadmaps for smart, safe, effective justice reform in the country. With The Just Trust’s leadership, The Gravity Fund will build a new center of gravity for the justice field, and will bridge to an evolution of reform that everyone can see themselves in.
Fund Involvement and Advisory Opportunities
Benefits:
- Invitations to exclusive peer and grantee experiences
- Donors can recommend projects to fund
- Opportunities to collaborate with TJT Board members and other fund participants
- Deep dive learning opportunities customized to donor interest
- Customized impact reports
- Public recognition as appropriate
- Invitation to attend semi-regular activations (calls, meetings, events, etc)
- Access to exclusive experiences with grantees
Investment opportunities will be collected, analyzed, and diligenced by staff at The Just Trust starting in early 2025 and presented to The Gravity Fund advisors for feedback and guidance. Funds will be disbursed throughout 2025 and early 2026.
Commitment must be made before December 31, 2024 to participate in this first round of funding.
For more information on the Fund and how to get involved, please contact our Investment Partnerships Manager Matt Boitano at matt@thejusttrust.org.
The Safer Communities Accelerator (SCA) powers community-centered safety models that prevent crime, improve accountability, repair harm, and create pathways for rehabilitation. SCA invests in front-end solutions that can be scaled and replicated to help change hearts and minds, and to build the evidence base for policy change. The Accelerator focuses on front-end safety solutions, including: violence prevention and interruption work (commonly known as Community Violence Intervention, or CVI), deflection and diversion programs, and pre-trial restorative justice.
Element Labs—developed in partnership with Gradient Metrics—is designed to dramatically reduce the time and cost of messaging research, by creating a plug-and-play tool that provides instant insights for advocates. It can be leveraged by the scrappiest organizations, and by some of the most sophisticated national groups in the field. The goal is to help move the field from defense to offense—from a constant state of reacting (oftentimes too late) to harmful narratives that impact the political momentum we need to scale policy wins to a strong, research-informed offensive position.