Circle for Justice Innovations

**About** **Celebrating Over Two Decades of Revolutionary Philanthropy** The Circle for Justice Innovations (CJI) is national philanthropy conceived, founded, and led by Black women. Over its 20-year history, CJI has awarded over $10 million in grants to more than 275 grassroots nonprofits working in 39 states and Washington, D.C.—all engaged in the fight against the criminalization, brutalization, and mass incarceration of society’s most vulnerable people. CJI was established in 2000 to create a new source of support for a meaningful, transformative, and systemic change in the Criminal Justice system when advocacy groups were barely receiving 5% of all philanthropic funding, most of it going to the larger, more established organizations often lacking indirectly impacted leadership. Alarmed by the sharp rise in militarized police tactics, mass incarceration, and their disproportionate impact especially on women, people of color, LGBTQIA+ people, low-income communities, and other disenfranchised populations—a small group of donors and activists joined together under the auspices of the Funding Exchange. These founders formulated a novel philanthropic response that would foster organizational change from the ground up. This new effort would draw together coalitions of people representing diverse backgrounds who understand and recognize that we must all work together if we want to change systems affecting all of us. CJI’s suite of collectively operated, consensus-driven funding circles was formed in response to the rampant criminalization, concomitant state violence, record-high incarceration rates, and collateral consequences of system involvement depriving millions of people of their access to family rights, housing, education, employment, and the ballot box. Our unique approach to funding social change incorporates and amplifies the experiences of those most impacted by over-policing and mass incarceration in every stage of our grantmaking process. Trust—in our grantees and in the wisdom afforded by their lived experience—is the guiding principle behind this new brand of philanthropy.