Center for Community Alternatives (CCA)

The group receives substantial government funding.  ³

Background

The Center for Community Alternatives is a left-of-center advocacy group focused on prison and criminal justice policy in New York, as well as addiction recovery services and youth programs.  ^{1  4}

The group’s four-year advocacy campaign contributed to the passage of the New York Clean Slate Act in 2023. CCA claims the New York law is the most “expansive legislation to seal old conviction records” in the nation. The group states that 80 percent “of people in New York with conviction records are Black or Latinx due to racism in policing and prosecution.”  ⁵

CCA has offices in Brooklyn, Syracuse, Rochester, and White Plains New York.  ⁶

Activities

The Center for Community Alternatives runs the Justice Roadmap campaign. The campaign states it is intended to combat “the criminal and immigration legal systems that oppress and criminalize Black and brown communities.” One of the campaign’s priorities is ending U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s contracts with local prisons, to enable individuals to “more capably fight deportations.”  ²

CCA also runs a campaign called “Communities not Cages.” The campaign claims it is intended to end the “racist and draconian sentencing laws that funnel thousands of New Yorkers into cages and fail to deliver safety, healing, or justice.”  ⁷

CCA runs “judicial accountability” and “judicial pipeline” initiatives, the latter of which the group claims are to ensure that future judges will uphold values promoted by the group, such as “decarceration.” The group also advocates against the nomination of judges, such as in 2025 when the group sent a letter to New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) opposing the nomination of Judge M. William Boller for an interim seat on the New York Supreme Court 8^th Judicial District. The reason cited by the group for its opposition was Boller’s alleged record of imposing “excessive sentences.”  ^{8  9}

The CCA owns a cannabis dispensary based in New York according to the group’s public Internal Revenue Service (IRS) filings.  ¹⁰

Funding

In 2023, the Center for Community Alternatives had $18,928,608 in revenue, $18,176,040 in expenses, and $14,575,873 in total assets. The same year, CCA reported receiving $15,634,491 in government grants, which accounts for around 82 percent of the organization’s total funding that year.  ^{11  3}

In 2024, the National Philanthropic Trust gave $70,000 to CCA.  ¹²

In 2023, the Tow Foundation gave $100,000 to CCA, $75,000 in 2022, $75,000 in 2021, $50,000 in 2020, $50,000 in 2019, $60,000 in 2018, and $60,000 in 2017.  ¹³

In 2023, the New Venture Fund gave $150,000 to the Center for Community Alternatives, $150,000 in 2022, $160,000 in 2021, and $90,000 in 2020.  ¹⁴

In 2023, the Vital Projects Fund gave $50,000 to CCA and $120,000 in 2021.  ¹⁵

In 2023, the Chase and Stephanie Coleman Foundation gave $200,000 to CCA, $25,000 in 2022, $15,000 in 2021, and $200,000 in 2020.  ¹⁶

In 2022, the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation gave $175,000 to CCA, $75,000 in 2021, $21,739 in 2020, and $65,218 in 2019.  ¹⁷

In 2021, the Open Society Institute gave a two-year grant totaling $250,000 to CCA.  ¹⁸

In 2020, the Robin Hood Foundation gave $78,000 to CCA.  ¹⁹

People

As of 2025, David Condliffe was executive director of the Center for Community Alternatives, a position he first took in 2015. Previously, Condliffe was a senior adviser for U.S. Programs at the Open Society Institute and the executive director of the Drug Policy Foundation. Condliffe is a member of the Governor’s Council on Community Re-Entry and Reintegration and the New York State Task Force on Raise the Age Implementation. He is a member of the board of directors at the InUnity Alliance, the Human Services Council, Human Services Action, and the Havens Relief Fund Society.  ^{20  21}

As of 2025, Tammar Cancer was serving as an assistant to the executive director and director of special projects at CCA. Cancer’s duties included “leading CCA’s efforts to open its first cannabis dispensary in Syracuse and develop youth services programming in Albany,” according to CCA’s website.  ²²