Public Welfare Foundation

The Public Welfare Foundation is listed as a member of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, an advocacy group for left-of-center philanthropic effectiveness. ²

History and Background

Charles Edward Marsh founded the Public Welfare Foundation in 1947 as his personal fortune swelled from building the Marsh-Fentress newspaper chain alongside brothers Charles and E.S. Fentress. ³ Marsh’s newspaper business ultimately turned into an early source of income for the foundation. After Marsh retired from the business in the early 1940s, ⁴ he donated three newspapers he owned to the organization in 1952 to provide it with a stable source of funding. ⁵

The organization’s vague name was deliberately chosen by Marsh to allow the foundation to “evolve with the times.” Not wanting to tie down the organization with a fixed, unchanging purpose, Marsh obscurely named the foundation to allow it to be involved in any activities that would “promote the well-being and happiness of human beings” in the future. ³

Marsh aligned and associated with prominent mid-20th-century Democrats, including future President Lyndon Johnson, former Vice President Henry Wallace, and controversial U.S. Senator Claude Pepper (D-FL); Wallace and Pepper opposed President Harry Truman’s re-election because Truman was insufficiently left-wing. Marsh oversaw the organization until the decline of his health in the late 1950s and eventual death in 1964. His wife at the time, Claudia Haines Marsh, remained actively involved with the Public Welfare Foundation until her death in 2000. ³

Activities

As of 2026, Public Welfare Foundation makes grants to support left-wing policy in several issue areas, focusing on so-called “difficult” and “often overlooked” areas to spur political and policy activism. In 2018, the largest projects included left-of-center interests such as liberalized criminal justice, union-aligned employment and labor policy, and youth justice. ⁶ Since its inception, the organization has distributed more than $700 million in grants to thousands of left-leaning organizations. ¹

The foundation provides grants to organizations and associations that claim to work towards reducing state incarceration levels and racial disparities. ⁷ The organization likewise advances left-leaning policy in juvenile justice. ⁸ The foundation supports organizations that advance alternatives to incarceration for crimes. ⁸ Another area of focus is worker advocacy, in which the foundation works to donate grants to those willing to “advance reforms to hold employers accountable for wage theft,” “advance reforms to prevent severe illness, injury, and death on the job,” and develop “private enforcement of fundamental workplace protections,” all major labor union priorities. ⁹

The foundation describes “over-incarceration” as a “uniquely American problem” and a “failed experiment” that costs the United States tens of billions of dollars per year in economic growth and government expenditure. The foundation has donated grants to left-of-center judicial reform groups that advocate in favor of “targeted investments that support system-involved individuals in their communities.” ² These include the Detroit Justice Center, Safe and Just Michigan, Wisconsin Voices’ African American Roundtable, WISDOM, the People’s Advocacy Institute, the National Reentry Network for Returning Citizens, the Deep Center, the Promise of Justice Initiative, the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, and the Second Chance Center. ¹⁰

In 2025, the Public Welfare Foundation joined a coalition of groups to launch the Courage Project, a national initiative recognizing “everyday acts of civic bravery” by individuals and nonprofit organizations across the United States. The project was established with an initial $5 million commitment and provides awards ranging from $10,000 to $50,000 to support grassroots civic engagement efforts. ¹¹

According to research from the Pelican Institute for Public Policy, the foundation contributed over $1 million to members of Louisiana Against False Solutions (LAFS), a coalition of left-of-center environmentalist groups advocating against the use of fossil fuels and in favor of weather-dependent energy projects. The foundation is listed as one of the 30 largest donors to LAFS. ¹²

The foundation allocated grants to hundreds of left-of-center organizations in 2016 including $100,000 to the union-environmentalist coalition group Bluegreen Alliance Foundation, $150,000 to the far-left community organizing group Center for Popular Democracy, $150,000 to the labor union-aligned think tank Economic Policy Institute, and $975,000 to left-of-center “dark money” group New Venture Fund. Grants totaling $1,175,000 were also allocated to the Tides Center, “a subsidiary entity of the Tides Foundation, a donor-advised fund for left-of-center causes that allows donor organizations which might otherwise have to disclose contributions to left-of-center organizations to obscure their contributions.” ¹³

From 2011 to 2019, the foundation ran its Civil Legal Aid program to provide legal services to low-income individuals. During this period, it donated $9 million in grants to roughly 20 community activist organizations including the Justice for All Project and Voices for Civil Justice. ¹⁴

The foundation’s Race, Redemption, and Restoration program funds organizations that advocate in favor of racially conscious social policy including Forward Justice, Common Justice, and Community Connections for Youth. ¹⁵

The foundation has previously donated grants to left-of-center media outlets including the Associated Press, National Public Radio, the Marshall Project, and the Baltimore Banner. ¹⁶

Funding

The Public Welfare Foundation is primarily financed by sales of its assets and dividends. The group generates little to no revenue annually from charitable contributions. In 2024, the Public Welfare Foundation earned $29,646,969, with $21,352,137 coming from sales of assets. The group ended the year with $601,086,862 in remaining assets. ^{17 18}

Leadership

Public Welfare Foundation is run by Candice C. Jones, who has worked as the president and chief executive officer of the Foundation since 2017. Prior to her work at the Public Welfare Foundation, Jones was a senior advisor at Chicago CRED, an organization focusing on gun violence in Chicago, where she secured funding for violence intervention programs. Jones also served as a program officer with the left-of-center MacArthur Foundation. ¹⁹ In 2024, Jones earned a $515,952 salary from the foundation. ¹⁷

John Burkhart has worked as a program director at the Public Welfare Foundation since 2022. Previously, Burkhart co-founded and led Louisianans for Prison Alternatives. Prior to this, she founded the Louisiana Campaign for Equal Justice. ²⁰

Thena Robinson Mock is a “racial justice lawyer” who has worked as the vice president of programs of the Public Welfare Foundation since 2023 and as the group’s program director going back to 2021. Robinson Mock previously worked as a program officer at the Communities for Just Schools Fund, a director at the Advancement Project, an executive director at Rethink, and a staff attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center. ²¹

Jed Oppenheimer has served as a program director at the Public Welfare Foundation since 2022. Oppenheimer previously worked as a program officer at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation for almost six years, as the director of community engagement at the United Way of the Capital Area for over two years, and as a community advocate at the Southern Poverty Law Center for over five years. ²²

Rickke Mananzala is on the board of the Public Welfare Foundation and is president of the New York Foundation. In 2026, Mananzala was appointed to the board of the Fund to Advance New York City by Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D). Earlier, Mananzala worked as vice president of programs at Borealis Philanthropy and executive director of FIERCE NYC. ²³