Justice and Democracy Committee

 Mission Statement & Guidelines

Threshold Foundation’s Justice & Democracy Committee is a donor-based fund that seeks to ensure human rights for youth impacted by the criminal justice and drug policy systems, and political rights for those in historically disenfranchised communities.

The prison-industrial complex is a self-perpetuating system based on the subjugation of an increasing segment of our communities through racial and economic scapegoating. The economic angle of this is immediate, bottom line, material gain for the corporations supporting and profiting from the prison industrial complex.

The "war on drugs," rather than protecting youth, has resulted in the institutionalized persecution of Black, Latino and Native American young people. While more and more young men and women of color are being ushered into the criminal justice system under the guise of fighting drugs, resources for educating youth are diminishing and barriers to education restrict students with drug convictions from receiving higher education.

Threshold Foundation envisions an authentic participatory democracy through which social justice can be achieved, and believes that when engaged in the political decisions that affect their lives, ordinary people are central to making possible that change.

In order to be most effective with grants of the scale that the committee is able to offer, and represent the interests of the foundation's membership, the committee has chosen three areas of focus for 2009-2010:

In 2010-2011, the committee will fund in the following areas:

1. Criminal Justice Reform: To support criminal justice reform efforts that benefit youth (programs for children of the incarcerated, rehabilitation, transformative justice alternatives to incarceration, spiritual and emotional healing, and re-entry) and transform criminal justice systems and policies that negatively impact youth (the "school-to-prison pipeline", aggressive sentencing, racial profiling).   

2. Drug Policy Reform: To encourage a holistic approach to mitigating the drug trade that realigns funding priorities away from incarceration and towards rehabilitation programs.  Examples of these might include, but are not limited to: promoting treatment instead of incarceration policies, reducing the crack-cocaine disparity, reducing prison spending, and abolishing mandatory minimum sentencing and the criminalization of drug possession. 

3. Civic Participation: To support sustained, bottom-up models of electoral power-building led by and for historically under-represented constituencies. Core strategies supported include leadership development, coalition building, and civic engagement. 

The Committee is guided by a concern that its support is neither too small nor too large a part of the work to be funded and therefore its support must constitute at least five percent and not more than fifty percent of the funded work. Grants are typically in the range of $15,000 to $30,000.

The Committee gives grantmaking priority to youth-led organizations and grassroots organizations whose staff and board reflect the constituency engaged.  We also hold a strong preference for funding organizations that exhibit a commitment to diversity and financial sustainability.

The Committee does not support work outside the United States, and does not support organizations with budgets over $700,000.  The Committee has the capacity to fund non-profit organizations organized under Section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue code, as well as those organized under Section 501(c)(3).