Vera Institute of Justice (VIJ)

VIJ supports the Black Lives Matter movement, ² the Black Visions Collective, the far-left Movement for Black Lives, and the National Bail Fund Network ³ and has called for a “federally led strategy to ensure racial justice.” ⁴ VIJ works to shrink jails and prisons, ⁵ supports taxpayer-funded programs to provide legal representation for illegal immigrants in deportation proceedings, ² opposes “tough-on-crime” tactics, ⁶ and supports the critical race theory-influenced concepts of antiracism and equity. ⁷

VIJ has received substantial U.S. government contracts, including portions of $6.75 million contracts awarded by the Biden administration Department of Justice from 2022 to 2023. ⁸ It has also received substantial funding from left-leaning Big Philanthropy, including at least $15,000,000 from Blue Meridian Partners, ^{9 10} $11,024,679 from the Open Society Foundations, ^{11 12} $4,009,500 from Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund, $2,558,383 from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, ^{13 14} $1,000,000 from Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, ¹⁵ $908,470 from the Tides Foundation, and a grant of an undisclosed amount from MacKenzie Scott. ¹⁶

History and Leadership

The Vera Institute of Justice (VIJ) was founded in 1961 as the Vera Foundation by Louis Schweitzer, an eccentric New York philanthropist and Herbert Sturz, a trustee of liberal financier George Soros’s Open Society Foundations (OSF). ^{17 18} Vera Foundation’s first project was the Manhattan Bail Project, which was developed to end what its founders called the “injustice of money bail.” ¹⁹ In 1966, the Vera Foundation became the Vera Institute of Justice with the support of a five-year grant from the left-of-center Ford Foundation. ²

Activities

The Vera Institute of Justice (VIJ) is a left-of-center advocacy organization that agitates against what it characterizes as mass incarceration, ¹⁹ racial disparities, and marginalization. Much of its work now focuses on immigration issues. ¹

VIJ supports the far-left Black Lives Matter movement, ² runs the Reimagining Prison Project, ²⁰ and helped launch Greater Justice New York, which is committed to closing jails in New York City such as Riker’s Island. ^{2 21} VIJ also claims the American immigration system is “racist” ²² and supports the Black Visions Collective, the far-left Movement for Black Lives, and the National Bail Fund Network. ³

VIJ leadership has called for a “federally led strategy to ensure racial justice” ⁴ and claimed that the American criminal justice system is rooted in “white supremacy and racial control.” ²³ VIJ president and executive director Nicholas Turner wrote on June 8, 2020, that “Vera is committed to dismantling the current culture of policing and working toward solutions that defund police and shift power to communities.” ²⁴ Jamila Hodge, who was the director of the Reshaping Prosecution Program at VIJ at the time, ²⁵ wrote a blog at VIJ that calls for America to “radically dismantle” the current U.S. justice system because it “dehumanizes and devalues Black people.” ²⁶

VIJ works to shrink jails and prisons, elevate restoration and a commitment to human dignity, and redefine how public safety is delivered, with greater investment in public health and community. ⁵

In 2002, VIJ helped launch the Legal Orientation Program to provide legal orientation for illegal immigrants in deportation proceedings. ² In 2008, VIJ established Common Justice, which it calls an alternative to incarceration that focuses on the critical race theory-influenced concept of restorative justice. ²

VIJ is headquartered in New York City with offices in Washington, D.C.; New Orleans, Louisiana; and Los Angeles, California. Each of these offices has local initiatives: Greater Justice New York, Vera California, Vera Louisiana, and Federal Policy, respectively. ²⁷ VIJ founded its partner 501(c)(4) organization, Vera Action, in 2020. ²

In April 2025, VIJ reported that five of its federal grants, amounting to nearly $5 million, from the U.S Department of Justice (DOJ) had been terminated, with the DOJ stating the organization’s activities, “no longer effectuate[s] the program goals or agency priorities.” ²⁸ In a statement, VIJ president Nick Turner claimed, “…we are being targeted for our public opposition to President Trump’s mass deportation agenda and his gutting of federal funds for mental health and drug treatment, among other actions.” ²⁸ In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Turner also claimed, “[t]his administration is very intent on sort of kneecapping civil society that does work they view as being contrary to their interests.” ²⁹ Turner also claimed that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was planning to assign a team to the organization, but withdrew following the announcement of VIJ losing federal funding. ²⁹

Campaigns and Programming

The Vera Institute of Justice (VIJ) operates several policy campaigns and networks to advance its objectives in key areas of focus. The Safety and Fairness for Everyone Network (SAFE) aims to use taxpayer dollars to pay for legal representation for illegal immigrants seeking legal permanent residence in the United States. ³⁰ Public funds have been spent on this program in Oakland, Santa Ana ($145,000), and Sacramento ($300,000), California; Denver, Colorado ($385,000); Austin and San Antonio, Texas; Dane County, Wisconsin; Chicago, Illinois; Columbus, Ohio; Baltimore and Prince George’s County, Maryland; and Atlanta, Georgia. ^{31 32} SAFE also received donations from nonprofit organizations such as the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Kresge Foundation, and Open Society Foundations (OSF). ³³

Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons is a VIJ program that aims to reform prisons across America as part of the organization’s larger goal of “reducing the use of jail.” The project was financially supported by OSF. ^{34 35 36}

VIJ’s Race, Equity, and Inclusion (REI) Initiative supports the critical race theory-influenced concepts of antiracism and equity.⁷ VIJ and the National Partnership for New Americans operate the Fairness to Freedom program, which supports publicly funded attorneys and legal representation for illegal immigrants facing deportation from the United States. ³⁷ This program shares information on more than 50 existing publicly funded deportation defense programs and partners with some as a part of VIJ’s SAFE Network to defend illegal immigrants facing deportation and immigration detention. ³⁸

VIJ’s Reshaping Prosecution Initiative works to oppose “tough-on-crime” tactics. ⁶ Its Ending Girls’ Incarceration Initiative seeks to have zero young women in prisons by working to prohibit incarceration for misdemeanors and probation violations. ³⁹ VIJ also runs a Jail Decarceration Initiative, ⁴⁰ programs ending fines and fees, ⁴¹ and programs to “redefine public safety.” ^{42 43}

Program Funding

In 2023, it was reported that Vera Institute of Justice (VIJ) had previously provided funding towards left-of-center advocacy efforts on criminal justice, law enforcement, and prosecution. VIJ has worked with George Soros-backed ⁴⁴ St. Louis, Missouri, District Attorney Kimberly Gardner (D) on changes to prosecution that included trainings which claimed that mass incarceration is “a problem and that prosecutors have the power to change it.” These plans then became the “blueprint” for similar prosecution offices around the nation. ⁴⁵

Grantmaking

As of December 2023, Vera Institute of Justice has given community grants to organizations in 15 states through its In Our Backyards Program, which seeks to reduce jail populations. ⁴⁶

In 2021, Vera Institute of Justice spent $37,706,565 on grantmaking and similar projects. These grants included $3,685,700 to liberal immigration group Immigrant Justice Corps, $1,977,628 to left-of-center refugee advocacy organization Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), $1,600,000 to the Acacia Center for Justice, $1,572,167 to the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, $1,538,371 to the American Bar Association Fund for Justice and Education, $1,374,876 to the International Rescue Committee, $1,147,642 to Public Counsel, $800,000 to Activating Change, $750,484 to Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES), $730,693 to Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, $398,709 to Americans for Immigrant Justice, $250,000 Dignity and Power Now, $250,000 to National Partnership for New Americans, $241,999 to Pennsylvania Immigration Resource Center, $210,267 for Immigrant Legal Center, $180,000 to Freedom Agenda Urban Justice Center, $188,226 to Ayuda, $160,000 to Amistad Law Project, 150,605 for The Immigration Project, and others. ⁴⁷

In 2016, VIJ paid $245,000 to the Tides Center, a subsidiary of the left-of-center Tides Foundation, in the form of a cash grant as a “subgrant to provide expertise on criminal justice strategy on stopping the cycle of crime.” ⁴⁸

Organization Revenue

Government Contracts

Vera Institute of Justice has won numerous contracts from the U.S. federal government. Despite its involvement in “defund the police” ⁴⁹ movements and its calls to “radically dismantle” ⁵⁰ and “divest” police departments, it has received over $811 million in funding from the federal government since 2008. As of July 29 of the 2021 fiscal year, VIJ had received over $89 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and other federal government agencies. ¹¹

VIJ was a part of at least $6.75 million of contracts awarded by the Biden administration DOJ from 2022 to 2023. ⁸ In July 2022, VIJ received a $171,000,000 contract from the HHS to help illegal immigrants avoid deportation. If renewed until 2027, this contract could potentially be worth up to $1 billion. ⁵¹

The bulk of the VIJ’s funding in the 2020 fiscal year came from DOJ to represent illegal immigrants and refugees through various subagencies, including the Office for Victims of Crime and the Office for Violence Against Women. ¹¹

Non-Governmental Funding

Vera Institute of Justice also receives funding from individual contributions and grants. ⁵² In 2021, VIJ reported revenue of $265,119,422 and expenses of $245,436,672. The organization reported revenue of $183,290,508 and expenses of $173,665,500 in 2020. ⁵³

In 2023, VIJ received grants of $650,000 from the left-of-center Ford Foundation. ¹⁶  In 2022, VIJ received a grant from MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, ⁵⁴ and $350,000 from the Ford Foundation. ¹⁶

VIJ received $7,000,000 from Blue Meridian Partners, ⁹ $4,009,500 from Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund, $2,558,383 from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, and $300,000 from the Ford Foundation in 2021. ^{55 14} VIJ also received $8,000,000 from Blue Meridian Partners ¹⁰ and $62,141 from Columbia University in 2020 ⁵⁶ and $1,000,000 from Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors ⁵⁷ and $908,470 from the Tides Foundation in 2019. ⁵⁸

In June 2019, the National Football League (NFL) awarded $2 million worth of grants to eight nonprofit organizations including VIJ to support critical race theory-influenced social justice causes. The NFL explained their goal is to “support programs and initiatives that reduce barriers to opportunity.” ^{59 60}

Several left-of-center organizations have long histories of funding VIJ. VIJ has received $15,601,707 of grants from the left-of-center Ford Foundation between 1989 and 2021. ⁵⁵ Liberal financier George Soros’s Open Society Foundations has given VIJ  $11,024,679 of grants since 2016, including a $10 million grant in 2016. ^{11 12} It also received $600,000 in grants labelled as “Legacy” since 2005 from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. ⁶¹

VIJ has also received $800,000 from left-of-center FWD.us Education Fund in 2018; ⁶² $600,000 from California Community Foundation, ⁶³ $450,000 from Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, and $50,000 grant from the Open Philanthropy Project in 2017; ^{64 65} and $200,000 from Arnold Ventures in 2016 to reduce the jail population in New Orleans, Louisiana. ⁶⁶

In December 2025, VIJ was one of multiple organizations that received a grant from Yield Giving, the philanthropic initiative started by MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. In 2025 alone, Scott, through Yield Giving, donated over $7.16 billion to philanthropies and other charity organizations around the world. ⁶⁷

Leadership

Nicholas Turner is the president and director of the Vera Institute of Justice (VIJ), serving in the role since 2013. He is also the president and director of Vera Action. Prior to joining VIJ, he was a managing director at the left-of-center Rockefeller Foundation. ⁵ Former Obama administration Department of Justice official and Center for American Progress vice president Ed Chung is the vice president of VIJ’s initiatives. ⁶⁸

Frederick A. O. Schwarz Jr. is a trustee of VIJ. He is also chief counsel of the William J. Brennan Center for Justice, a left-of-center legal policy organization which has been funded by OSF. ⁶⁹ Previously, left-of-center activist Kica Matos was the vice president of VIJ’s initiatives. She held several roles at the Center for Community Change, Fair Immigration Reform Movement, and the U.S. Reconciliation and Human Rights Program at Atlantic Philanthropies. ⁷⁰