John M. Lloyd Foundation is a left-of-center grantmaking organization that focuses on criminal justice policy. The foundation was founded in 1991 as an HIV/AIDS public health advocacy group. Founder John Lloyd, who died shortly after its establishment, was the son of Clifton and Margaret Musser, who founded the General Service Foundation (GSF), a private grantmaking group which donates to left-of-center nonprofit organizations. Both the GSF and the John M. Lloyd Foundation are mostly run by the Musser-Lloyd family today. ¹

For its first 23 years, the foundation awarded more than $400,000 per year to HIV/AIDS advocacy groups. ² In 2014, the foundation pivoted to focus on race-based criminal justice initiatives. Its current priorities are to “end racial discrimination” in the justice system, “vastly reduce” the number of individuals incarcerated in the United States, develop better mental health treatment programs for prisoners, and encourage investment in youth programs to discourage future criminal behavior. ³ The Foundation donates to a number of left-of-center and left-wing criminal justice organizations to pursue these goals.

Grants

The John M. Lloyd Foundation gives grants to left-of-center and left-wing criminal justice policy organization. As of July 2021, the Foundation has giving grants to the California Immigrant Youth Alliance, the Community Coalition for Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment, Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB), Dignity and Power Now, Echo Parenting and Education, the Emergent Fund, the Essie Justice Group, Healing Dialogue and Action, Human Rights Watch, Initiate Justice, Justice Teams Network, JusticeLA, the Movement for Black Lives, and the Youth Justice Coalition. ⁴

The Youth Justice Coalition, Dignity and Power Now, and the Essie Justice Group are all members of the Check the Sheriff Coalition, which opposes the Los Angeles County Sherriff’s Office’s homelessness policy. ⁵ On its website, the foundation claims that the homelessness policy “stands out nationally for its problems.” ⁶

Previously, the foundation has given grants to left-of-center and left-wing organizations including the Children’s Defense Fund – California, the Drug Policy Alliance, the Labor Community Strategy Center, and Public Counsel. The foundation has also funded the Anti-Recidivism Coalition, the founder of which, James Anderson, sits on the Lloyd Foundation’s board. ⁷⁸

Leadership

Many of the John M. Lloyd Foundation’s executives and board members are in the Lloyd-Musser family, which founded both the John M. Lloyd Foundation and General Service Foundation (GSF). Board chair Zoe Lloyd Foxley also sits on the board of the GSF and works as an organizer and donor to Resource Generation, a left-of-center activist training organization. Foxley’s husband, Griff Foxley, is the treasurer of the foundation and a GSF board member. He was previously an executive board member of VoteLocal, a nonprofit which runs local get-out-the-vote campaigns. ⁹ Artist Heidi Mage Lloyd is also a board member of the foundation. ¹⁰

Prior to her death in 2020, Mary Lloyd Estrin was vice chair of the foundation. She also sat as chair emeritus of the Ploughshares Fund, an anti-nuclear group, and on the boards of the LIFT Fund and Neighborhood Funders Network. ¹¹ Her husband, Robert Estrin, and her sons, Jesse and Eliot Estrin, are also on the foundation’s board. ¹²

Foundation executive director Melanie Havelin describes herself as a “leftist” and “registered Democrat” on her Twitter profile. ¹³

Board member Priscilla Ocen is a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. She previously had a fellowship at the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights of the San Fransisco Bay Area, worked for the NAACP, and interned for the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center and the Congressional Black Caucus. ¹⁴

Foundation board member James Anderson is the founder of the Anti-Recidivism Coalition, which previously received funds from the foundation. In 2014, he was appointed to California’s State Advisory Committee on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention by then-Governor Jerry Brown (D-CA). He is also on the executive board of the Coalition for Juvenile Justice, and on the advisory board of the California Alliance for Youth and Community Justice. ¹⁵

1. “The GSF Story.” General Services Fund. Accessed July 22, 2021. https://generalservice.org/story/.
2. “Grant Programs.” John M. Lloyd Foundation. Accessed July 22, 2021. http://www.johnmlloyd.org/archived-site-2007-2012/grant_programs.html.
3. “JMLF Priorities.” John M. Lloyd Foundation. Accessed July 22, 2021. http://johnmlloyd.org/.
4. “Current Grants.” John M. Lloyd Foundation. Accessed July 22, 2021. http://johnmlloyd.org/.
5. “About.” Check the Sheriff. Accessed July 21, 2021. https://www.checkthesheriff.com/about.
6. “One Justice System.” John M. Lloyd Foundation. Accessed July 22, 2021. http://johnmlloyd.org/.
7. “Current Grants.” John M. Lloyd Foundation. Accessed July 22, 2021. http://johnmlloyd.org/.
8. “About JMLF.” John M. Lloyd Foundation. Accessed July 22, 2021. http://johnmlloyd.org/.
9. “Griff Foxley, MBA.” LinkedIn. Accessed July 22, 2021. https://www.linkedin.com/in/grifffoxley/.
10. “About JMLF.” John M. Lloyd Foundation. Accessed July 22, 2021. http://johnmlloyd.org/.
11. “Honoring the Life of Mary Lloyd Estrin.” Ploughshares Fund. Accessed July 22, 2021. https://ploughshares.org/honoring-life-mary-lloyd-estrin.
12. “About JMLF.” John M. Lloyd Foundation. Accessed July 22, 2021. http://johnmlloyd.org/.
13. “Melanie Havelin.” Twitter. Accessed July 22, 2021. https://twitter.com/urb_u_t_ful?lang=en.
14. “Priscilla Ocen.” LinkedIn. Accessed July 22, 2021. https://www.linkedin.com/in/priscilla-ocen-68670b14/.
15. “James Anderson.” Hatch Experience. Accessed July 22, 2021. https://hatchexperience.org/pitch_experts/james-anderson/.