Grassroots Leadership, Inc. — Texas Advocates for Justice Project

[Criminal Justice Reform] Grant investigator: Chloe Cockburn This page was reviewed but not written by the grant investigator. Grassroots Leadership, Inc. staff also reviewed this page prior to publication. The Open Philanthropy Project recommended two grants totaling $275,000 over two years to Grassroots Leadership, Inc. to support the Texas Advocates for Justice Project (TAJ). TAJ offers intensive community organizing and communications trainings for formerly incarcerated people, who then lead and participate in local policy-change campaigns in cities across Texas. TAJ intends to use this grant to expand its staff and launch chapters in six additional cities, including San Antonio, Dallas, and Fort Worth, by 2019. Our Program Officer for Criminal Justice Reform, Chloe Cockburn, considers Texas an especially high-impact state on which to focus decarceration work due to its large number of prison admissions. She sees additional value in supporting a project run by a formerly incarcerated person—Jorge Renaud—whom she considers an experienced and effective advocate for reform. One of these grants was made by a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization, to which we occasionally make funding recommendations. This grant falls within our focus area of criminal justice reform.