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California Criminal Justice Funders Group

Our Vision

We envision a world rooted in racial, economic, and gender justice, where communities have access to the resources they need for health, safety, and self-determination without relying on criminalization or punishment. We believe philanthropy has an important role to play in making this vision a reality. We aim to transform the culture of philanthropy and funding in the criminal justice reform sector by fostering collaboration and solidarity among funders, and with impacted communities through long-term investments in grassroots organizations led by people of color and communities most impacted by incarceration, as well as principled allied organizations. We envision a funding community that stands in solidarity with the movements to end policing, criminalization, and imprisonment and that mobilizes and redistributes resources to see a more just, equitable and humane world.

Our Mission  

Founded in 2014, the California Criminal Justice Funders Group (CCJFG) is an established network of funders and donors that invest in a wide range of systems change. CCJFG engages funders from their current location and perspective and supports them to transform learning into collective action; develop principles that align with the movements to end policing, criminalization, imprisonment and the disinvestment of communities in California; build meaningful relationships with impacted communities; and mobilize and redistribute resources. As an active learning community, CCJFG regularly hosts educational events, prison visits, publishes a newsletter, and more. The CCJFG is guided by coordinator Adrienne Skye Roberts, and an active Steering Committee.

Values & Commitments

CCJFG’s Steering Committee recently engaged in a process to identify values and commitments to guide our work. We invite CCJFG members to review the following values, and the commitments they represent, and join us in embodying and striving towards these values from whatever current location and perspective you may hold. Our key values and commitments are: 1) Anti-Oppression & Abolition 2) Centering Directly-Impacted People 3) Learning with Humility 4) Collaboration, Engagement & Action. Read the Full Values > 

Donate to CCJFG

Criminal Justice programming coming soon. In the meantime, take a look at our past events.
Tuesday, December 20, 2022
We cannot do this work without you. We hope that you will not only consider making a multi-year commitment to support CCJFG’s work, but also share your ideas for our priorities, attend our meetings, and reach out to us directly at  CACriminalJusticeFunders@NCG.org. We are committed to supporting the funding community to act in solidarity with organizations and people most impacted by the prison industrial complex. 
Thursday, August 18, 2022

CCJFG is excited to share the second episode of our Funding the Yes podcast on Crimmigration. Funding the Yes asks the question: What does funding the yes look like within intersectional aspects of social and racial justice movements? Through conversations amongst funders and movement partners, we focus on strategies to fund building a more just future for our communities and ending systems of injustice. 

Tuesday, February 15, 2022

We are looking forward to another year together building our community of funders who are dedicated to abolition, healing, and liberation. As a part of our growing commitment to the movement, we’re thrilled to introduce our new Movement Advisors: Amber-Rose Howard, Ashley Rojas, Gilbert Johnson, and Morning Star Gali. See their bios below! 

Tuesday, December 7, 2021

A reflection on 2021 and looking ahead to 2022. 

Thursday, October 28, 2021

CCJFG is creating a three-part podcast, Funding the Yes and we are proud to share the first episode with you!

Thursday, September 9, 2021

The Sogorea Te’ Land Trust—an Indigenous women-led trust that facilitates the return of Indigenous land in the Bay Area—recently initiated a call to action to philanthropic institutions to pay institutional Shuumi Land Tax. CCJFG answered this call.

Friday, June 25, 2021

Interview with Janetta Johnson, Executive Director

Monday, May 17, 2021

Interview with Eddy Zheng, President and Founder 

Monday, April 5, 2021

CCJFG Steering Committee members are excited to share the following books and podcasts that have accompanied us as we settle into Spring 2021. The content ranges from writings on indigenous forms of justice and healing to a podcast tracing the connections between hip-hop and mass incarceration to a mixed media collection of responses to the question, what does it mean to be Black and alive? These stories are rigorous, compelling, and bring us closer to understanding the intersections of history, justice work, and future-making.

Tuesday, March 2, 2021

An interview with Somdeng Danny Thongsy, JRC Campaigner and Coordinator. 

Publication date: 
April, 2019

Funding the Future: Fellowships for Formerly-Incarcerated People in California

The California Criminal Justice Funders Group (CCJFG) is pleased to share our first-of-its-kind report “Funding the Future: Fellowships for Formerly-Incarcerated People in California.”The report provides: a background on the project’s origins; an overview of the need for and value of fellowships for formerly-incarcerated people; discussion of research methodology and report terminology; a synthesis of the research findings; and key recommendations. This, first-of-its-kind research backing the report, was conducted in the fall of 2018. The data gathered through the research is intended to inform and engage funders about the diversity of fellowship opportunities throughout the state, the immense value of fellowships for formerly-incarcerated individuals, and how fellowships benefit California’s criminal justice reform movement.

The report provides a consolidated list of 38 existing, proposed, and aspirational fellowship programs. The research findings illustrate the importance of centering the leadership of formerly-incarcerated people, as well as the need for well-designed fellowships, as an integral part of advancing the movements for social and criminal justice reform.

The CCJFG hopes that the report will inspire our members and other funders to strategically invest in efforts to support and elevate the leadership of formerly-incarcerated people through paid fellowships, both within the criminal justice reform movement as well as in other social justice sectors in California.

Read the Report

Find More By

Resource Type 

Watch our most recent webinar, 2020 Funders Education, Part 1: Prison Industrial Complex Abolition! You can find all other webinars on our YouTube channel. 

Check Out our YouTube Channel

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Find up-to-date information on 2020 criminal justice reform legislation including the California Racial Justice Act and the Family Over Fees Act. You'll also find a breakdown of 2020 ballot measures including cash bail and California voting rights restoration. 

Learn about the Sister Warrior Freedom campaign launch in March, the Drop LWOP (Life Without Parole) Spring Rally at the Capitol, and the new Alternative to Incarceration workgroup that appeared before the LA County Board of Supervisors. 

Get current information on California Freedom Campaigns, COVID-19 Decarcerate Syllabus, and the  impact COVID-19 is having on prisons.

Charisse Shumate: Fighting for Our Lives

Policy and legislative updates from the CCJFG December Newsletter.

Reports from the field in the CCJFG December Newsletter.

Resources from the CCJFG December Newsletter. 

Policy and legislative updates from the CCJFG August Newsletter.

Resources on commutations and AB 2845 from the CCJFG August Newsletter. 

We welcome all funders involved in supporting criminal justice reform in California (as staff from foundations, individual donors, donor-advised funds, etc.) to sign up for the CCJFG mailing list.

Contact

For questions and more information to become a member, please contact: Adrienne Skye Roberts, CCJFG Coordinator at CaCriminalJusticeFunders@ncg.org.

Steering Committee

  • Anuja Mendiratta, Co-Founder, CCJFG & Senior Philanthropic Advisor, Race, Gender, and Human Rights Fund
  • Iris Garcia, Co-Chair, Kataly Foundation 
  • Gina Peralta, Co-Chair, Heising-Simons Foundation
  • Karren Lane, California Wellness Foundation
  • Sergio Cuellar, Sierra Health Foundation
  • William Ing, The California Endowment 
  • Roger Perez, Roy and Patricia Disney Family Foundation
  • maisha quint, The Libra Foundation
  • Jasjit Singh, California ChangeLawyers