Texas Organizing Project Education Fund — Criminal Justice Reform

[Criminal Justice Reform] Grant investigator: Chloe Cockburn This page was reviewed but not written by the grant investigator. Texas Organizing Project Education Fund staff also reviewed this page prior to publication. The Open Philanthropy Project recommended a grant of $765,000 to the Texas Organizing Project Education Fund (TOP Ed Fund) to support its work on criminal justice reform.We originally recommended a two-year, $1,530,000 grant to the TOP Ed Fund in March 2017. In January 2018, we increased our funding recommendation to the Texas Organizing Project, a 501(c)(4) affiliated with the TOP Ed Fund, and the second payment on the TOP Ed Fund grant was cancelled. This funding is intended to support a build-up of TOP Ed Fund’s organizational capacity in Texas, in order to allow it to continue pushing for criminal justice reforms. Several counties in Texas are among the largest drivers of prison admissions in the country. We view the TOP Ed Fund as particularly effective at community organizing at the city level, and we expect it to have a good chance of moving significant policy reforms. The Open Philanthropy Project separately recommended a grant to the Texas Organizing Project, a 501(c)(4) affiliated with the TOP Ed Fund. This grant falls within our focus area of criminal justice reform.