The Public Welfare Foundation supports efforts to advance justice and opportunity for people in need. The Foundation looks for strategic points where its funds can make a significant difference and improve lives through policy change and system reform. The Foundation focuses on three program areas: Criminal Justice, Juvenile Justice and Workers’ Rights.
Criminal Justice
The Foundation’s Criminal Justice Program supports groups working to end overincarceration of adult offenders in America, with a specific aim to reduce racial disparity. In particular, the Program makes grants to groups that are working to:
- Reduce the number of people jailed unnecessarily pending trial by promoting the use of risk assessment tools and pretrial release policies and practices;
- Reduce lengths of criminal sentences through reform of charging, sentencing, and supervision policies and practices; and
- Reduce jail populations through the use of diversion at the front end of the criminal justice system that connects individuals with substance abuse disorders and mental illness to the public health system.
Juvenile Justice
The Foundation’s Juvenile Justice Program supports groups working to end the criminalization and overincarceration of youth in the United States. In particular, the Program makes grants to groups that are working to:
- Advance state policies that restrict the juvenile justice system’s use of incarceration and expand the use of community-based programs for youth;
- End the practice of trying, sentencing, and incarcerating youth in the adult criminal justice system; and
- Promote the fair and equitable treatment of youth of color who come into contact with the juvenile justice system.
Workers' Rights
The Foundation’s Workers’ Rights Program supports policy and system reforms to improve the lives of low-wage working people in the United States, with a focus on securing their basic legal rights to safe, healthy, and fair conditions at work. Specifically, the Program makes grants to groups working to:
- Advance reforms to hold employers accountable for wage theft;
- Advance reforms to prevent severe illness, injury, and death on the job; and
- Advance workers’ rights in complex, fissured employment arrangements through research and strategic thought leadership.
The Foundation does not fund individuals, scholarships, direct services, or international projects.