The Just Trust For Education, primarily known as simply The Just Trust, is a left-of-center grantmaking organization established and funded by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI). The group was spun off from the CZI to manage its criminal justice policy efforts. After receiving $350 million in starter funds, The Just Trust has been fiscally managed by the New Venture Fund. The Just Trust began issuing grants in early 2022. As of mid-2022, most of its recipients have been state-level organizations, including many chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union. 1
The Just Trust is run by numerous former CZI executives, including CEO Ana Zamora. The Just Trust’s founding board included many prominent figures in philanthropy, including Mark Zuckerberg’s wife and CZI co-founder Priscilla Chan, former CZI executive and advisor to President Barack Obama David Plouffe, as well as right-leaning figures like Stand Together CEO Brian Hooks and Kevin Madden, a former advisor to U.S. Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT). 2
The Just Trust has a sister organization, The Just Trust for Action, which provides funding to lobbying and advocacy groups. 3
Founding
In January 2021, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s criminal justice reform grantmaking apparatus was spun off as the Justice Accelerator Fund, which was later renamed The Just Trust. The Just Trust was granted $350 million over five years as part of its efforts to push for left-of-center criminal justice policies in the United States, including reducing incarceration, changes to bail, and easier clearing of criminal records. As The Just Trust was launched, CZI also gave $100 million to FWD.US, another group associated with Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, to support criminal justice leniency efforts legislatively. 4
CZI noted that it decided to spin off the Trust as a standalone organization due to the increased focus on criminal justice-related grantmaking from CZI in recent years, noting that the Initiative had become among the largest funders of criminal justice reform efforts in the United States and had committed $164 million to fund such efforts prior to the launch of The Just Trust, supporting groups including Formerly Incarcerated, the Convicted Peoples and Family Movement, and the Clean Slate Initiative. 1
At the founding of the Just Trust, CZI stated that “here at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) we’ve learned a great deal about how we can sharpen our impact and help our partners create a better future for everyone…2020 accelerated so many of these lessons. As a team, we were at turns heartbroken by the dual impact of this pandemic (especially on those most vulnerable) and the long overdue reckoning on racial injustice — then, filled with energy and hope by the work of our grantees and teammates who pivoted to help meet this moment and do right by the communities we serve.” 1
Just Trust CEO Ana Zamora, who previously ran the criminal justice reform programs at CZI, has claimed that The Just Trust is not meant to “reinvent the wheel” of criminal justice advocacy, but rather to “accelerate [the] momentum” of the existing reform movement with grants. The Just Trust’s initial funding strategy is based on a combination of support for friendly media, public education, political advocacy, and building partnerships with established organizations in the field. 5
The Just Trust is comprised of two arms, the Just Trust, which is a charitable nonprofit called The Just Trust for Education, which funds charitable and educational organizations, and The Just Trust for Action, a 501(c)(4) organization that funds lobbying and advocacy efforts. The group notes that the Just Trust for Education “offer[s] a range of general operating and project grant types, with a focus on multi-year commitments that serve as a stabilizing force for organizations.” Adding that “We also always encourage our (c)(3) [charitable] partners to come back to us with (c)(4) opportunities for a nimble, multi-layered approach.” 6 3
In 2023, the Just Trust Released an annual report noting that in the eighteen months following March 2022, The Just Trust awarded 202 individual grants to more than 150 organizations working at the state and national level. The group funded efforts in nearly every state with a focus on the South and Appalachia, and distributed $83 million in those first eighteen months to “support advocacy infrastructure, community safety solutions, narrative change, and rapid response…[and] first-party messaging research and polling.” 6
Grantees
In March 2022, The Just Trust and The Just Trust for Action announced their first grants, which amounted to $36.3 million divided between 25 organizations. Recipients included the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky and West Virginia, as well as the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce Foundation, the National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, the Prison Fellowship, Right on Crime, and the Prison Journalism Project. 7
In August 2022, The Just Trust announced the first grantees for its State-by-State Campaign focused on state-level criminal justice reform initially in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Oklahoma. Grantees included ACLU chapters in all four states, as well as the Alabama Justice Initiative, the Pelican Institute, the Louisiana chapter of the Vera Institute for Justice, the Power Coalition for Equity and Justice, the Oklahoma Policy Institute, and Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform. 8
In December 2022, the Just Trust launched the Safer Communities Accelerator, which was designed to provide funding to organizations to fund programs for crime prevention, harm reduction, violence prevention and other programs designed to “get people the help they need while reducing reliance on policing and incarceration.” The accelerator launched with a $4 million grant divided among eight organizations including Atlanta Policing Alternatives and Diversion Initiatives (PAD), the Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP), CAHOOTS/White Bird Clinic, the Community Based Public Safety Collective, Cure Violence Global, Equal Justice USA, Common Justice, and Impact Justice. 9
The Just Trust’s lobbying arm also seeded the Adams Project, which it calls “the first independent 501(c)(4) organization dedicated to advancing conservative criminal justice reform.” 6 Regarding the Adams Project, the group stated that “The conservative criminal justice reform field is essential to shrinking the footprint of the justice system in this country, yet it is vastly underfunded. There have been no 501(c)(4) organizations singularly dedicated to championing conservative justice reform policies, until now.” 6 3
Leadership
Priscilla Chan
Priscilla Chan is a founding board member of The Just Trust. Chan is the wife of billionaire Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, with whom she co-founded and with whom she works as co-CEO of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation, and Chan Zuckerberg Advocacy. 10
Brian Hooks
Founding board member Brian Hooks is the chairman and CEO of Stand Together, a right-libertarian group supported by billionaire Charles Koch. He was formerly president of both the Charles Koch Foundation and Charles Koch Institute, and ran the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, a libertarian think tank. 11
Candice Jones
Founding board member Candice Jones is the president of the Public Welfare Foundation, a left-of-center grantmaking group primarily focused on criminal justice policy and advancing labor unions. She has also worked for Chicago CRED, which advocates against gun violence, as a White House fellow for the U.S. Department of Education, and as a program officer at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. 12
Kevin Madden
Founding board member Kevin Madden is the executive vice president at Arnold Ventures, a for-profit left-of-center grantmaking institution. Madden previously worked for U.S. Senator Mitt Romney’s (R-UT) 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns, as communications director for the Office of the Majority Leader during periods of Republican control in the U.S. Congress, as deputy director of public affairs for the U.S. Justice Department under President George W. Bush, and as a campaign spokesman for President Bush’s 2004 presidential campaign. 13
David Plouffe
Founding board member David Plouffe was the president of policy and advocacy at CZI from 2017-2019. Plouffe is best known as a Democratic political operative; his management of Barack Obama’s (D) 2008 presidential campaign brought him to prominence. Since then, Plouffe has served as a senior adviser to President Obama, worked as executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, sat on the board of the Obama Foundation, and worked as senior vice president of policy and strategy for Uber. 14
Ana Zamora
Ana Zamora is the first CEO of The Just Trust after a long career in criminal justice reform advocacy, particularly relating to the death penalty. 15 She is also listed as The Just Trust’s founder. 5
Zamora previously worked at CZI for almost three years as criminal justice manager and then director of criminal justice reform. From 2009 through 2018, Zamora was the criminal justice director of the ACLU of Northern California, during which time she also was the campaign manager for Californians for Justice’s No on Prop 66 campaign, which opposed a referendum to expedite use of the death penalty. Zamora took a one year break from the ACLU to work as a policy director at the 8th Amendment Foundation, which also opposes the death penalty. From 2011through 2013, Zamora was the program director at Death Penalty Focus, and worked as an assistant campaign manager on SAFE California’s unsuccessful campaign for Proposition 34, which would have outlawed the death penalty. 15
From 2005 through 2008, Zamora was an information resources manager for the California Appellate Project, which provided legal counsel to death row inmates. Prior, she started her career working as a health, environment, and safety officer at Bayer. 15
Jolene Forman
Chief program officer Jolene Forman is a CZI and ACLU of Northern California alumnus, and a long-time criminal justice policy advocate. Prior to joining The Just Trust, Forman was also a director of criminal justice reform at CZI for 2.5 years. From 2015 through 2019, she worked at the Drug Policy Alliance as a senior staff attorney. From 2013 through 2015, Forman was a policy attorney at ACLU of Northern California, and prior she worked for numerous organizations supporting female prisoners in California. 16
Jenna LeDoux
Vice president of brand and communications Jenna LeDoux worked as director of communications, justice, and opportunity at CZI from 2018 through 2021. 17
Ali Tamboura
Associate program lead Ali Tamboura was also a manager of criminal justice reform at CZI prior to the establishment of The Just Trust. He is concurrently the director of strategic partnerships at the Anti Recidivism Coalition, which is a 2021 field advisor to The Just Trust. 18
James Gore
Senior program officer James Gore previously worked for over 13 years at the Z Smith Reynolds Foundation, a left-of-center grantmaking group based in North Carolina. 19
Matt Boitano
Investment partnerships manager Matt Boitano previously worked for over four years as the national director of development at Dream Corps, a left-of-center policy advocacy group primarily focused on the environment and tech companies which was also a 2021 field advisor for The Just Trust. 20
Partner Organizations
The Just Trust listed the following “2021 Field Advisors”: Forward Justice, Dream Corps, JustLeadership USA, the Anti Recidivism Coalition, Reform Alliance, the American Conservative Union Foundation, and Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform. 10
References
- “Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Announces $450 Million to Accelerate Criminal Justice & Immigration Reform.” Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. January 27, 2023. Accessed December 2, 2024. https://chanzuckerberg.com/newsroom/chan-zuckerberg-initiative-announces-450-million-to-accelerate-criminal-justice-immigration-reform/
- Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). Just Trust for Education. 2022. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/883436668/202343199349327379/full
- “About.” The Just Trust. Accessed December 2, 2024. https://www.thejusttrust.org/about
- “Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Announces $450 Million to Accelerate Criminal Justice & Immigration Reform.” Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. January 27, 2021. Accessed August 24, 2022. https://chanzuckerberg.com/newsroom/chan-zuckerberg-initiative-announces-450-million-to-accelerate-criminal-justice-immigration-reform/.
- “Letter From Our Founder.” The Just Trust. September 20, 2021. Accessed August 24, 2022. https://thejusttrust.org/news/letter-from-our-founder/.
- “The Just Trust Publishes 2022-2023 Annual Report.” The Just Trust. August 15, 2023. Accessed December 2, 2024. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-just-trust-publishes-2022-2023-annual-report-301901390.html
- “The Just Trust and the Just Trust for Action Announce First Grants; Launch Open Funding Call in Select States.” The Just Trust. March 1, 2022. Accessed August 24, 2022. https://thejusttrust.org/news/the-just-trust-and-the-just-trust-for-action-announce-first-grants-launch-open-funding-call-in-select-states/.
- “The Just Trust Announces First Grant Recipients By State Campaign.” The Just Trust. August 2, 2022. Accessed August 24, 2022. https://thejusttrust.org/news/the-just-trust-announces-first-grant-recipients-for-state-by-state-campaign/.
- “The Just Trust Launches New Safer Communities Accelerator.” Cure Violence Global. December 15, 2022. Accessed December 2, 2024. https://cvg.org/the-just-trust/
- “About Us.” The Just Trust. Accessed August 24, 2022. https://thejusttrust.org/about-us/.
- “Brian Hooks.” LinkedIn. Accessed August 24, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-hooks/.
- “Candice Jones.” Public Welfare. Accessed August 24, 2022. https://www.publicwelfare.org/team/candice-c-jones/.
- “Kevin Madden.” LinkedIn. Accessed August 24, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinmadden/.
- “David Plouffe.” LinkedIn. Accessed August 24, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-plouffe-00662396/.
- “Ana Zamora (She/Her).” LinkedIn. Accessed August 24, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ana-zamora-6180ab17/.
- “Jolene Forman (She/Her).” LinkedIn. Accessed August 24, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/joleneforman/.
- “Jenna LeDoux (She/Her).” LinkedIn. Accessed August 24, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenna-ledoux-3535a221/.
- “Aly Tamboura (He/Him).” LinkedIn. Accessed August 24, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/aly-tamboura/.
- “James Gore (He/Him).” LinkedIn. Accessed August 24, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-gore-8892284/.
- “Matt Boitano (He/Him).” LinkedIn. Accessed August 24, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattboitano/.