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New York · Public charity

William J Brennan Center for Justice Inc

The william j. Brennan, jr. Center for justice is a nonpartisan law and policy institute that seeks to improve the american systems of democracy and justice.

$121k
Granted FY2025(still arriving)
2
Grants FY2025
4
Organizations funded FY2024
25%
First-time grantees FY2024
Read the full brief
Median grant, FY2025
$112,500
Largest grant, FY2025
$112,500
Organizations funded a year
1 to 7
FY2017 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025
2
Total assets, FY2025
$349M

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 25% of the organizations William J Brennan Center for Justice Inc funded were first-time grantees, receiving 35% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 65% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $100k went to new ones.

50%100%’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’19’20’21’22’23’24
Civil RightsPublic BenefitHuman ServicesEducationInternationalPhilanthropyOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.
The numbers by year
Fiscal yearOrganizations fundedTo those organizationsFirst-time grantees
FY2025still arriving2$121k0%
FY20244$286k25%
FY20233$179k67%
FY20222$200k100%
FY20217$317k86%
FY20204$175k100%
FY20191$30k0%
FY20171$30kn/a
100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Public Benefit$1.2MCrime & Legal$60kHuman Services$59kCivil Rights$25k

Where its grants go

Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.

Which US states its grants reach

NY
OH
CA
AR
NC
DC
GA
TX
FL

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

Show all 16 grantees

Where it is load-bearing

William J Brennan Center for Justice Inc supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 1 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 16 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetR Street Institute: $412,500 over 4y, 0.9% of budgetCommon Cause Education Fund: $103,050 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetThe German Marshall Fund of the United States: $100,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetIssue One: $100,000 over 1y, 2.0% of budgetCitizens Not Politicians: $100,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetPublic Policy and Education Fund of New York Inc: $88,000 over 3y, 0.9% of budgetWe the Veterans Foundation: $85,000 over 2y, 4.6% of budgetHouston in Action: $65,000 over 1y, 1.5% of budgetLeague of Women Voters of Florida Educat: $61,700 over 1y, 8.8% of budgetTexas Public Policy Foundation: $60,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetSouthwest Voter Registration Education Project Inc: $52,175 over 1y, 17% of budgetNew Georgia Project Inc: $25,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetNational Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Inc: $25,000 over 1y, 38% of budgetDemocracy North Carolina: $25,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetCitizen Action of New York Inc: $25,000 over 1y, 1.6% of budgetAsian Americans Advancing Justice Atlanta Inc: $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budget

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured
Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 16.

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Tides FoundationCA17.6× affinity7 shared granteesties to 10 of 10Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Tides Foundation · New Venture Fund · Democracy Fund Inc · NEO Philanthropy Inc · The Rockefeller Foundation · The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Compare William J Brennan Center for Justice Inc with peer funders

About William J Brennan Center for Justice Inc

How much does William J Brennan Center for Justice Inc give?
William J Brennan Center for Justice Inc reported 2 grants totaling $120,500 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 1 and 7 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2024.
What does William J Brennan Center for Justice Inc fund?
By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Public Benefit (89%), Crime & Legal (4%), Human Services (4%).
Who are William J Brennan Center for Justice Inc's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: R Street Institute ($413k), Common Cause Education Fund ($103k), The German Marshall Fund of the United States ($100k).
Does William J Brennan Center for Justice Inc fund new organizations?
In FY2024, 25% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Which funders back the same organizations as William J Brennan Center for Justice Inc?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Tides Foundation, New Venture Fund, Democracy Fund Inc.
Where is William J Brennan Center for Justice Inc based?
William J Brennan Center for Justice Inc is based in NY.

On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 16 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

How this is measured
Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

Generated from the IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

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