Maryland · Nonprofit
EQUAL JUSTICE USA INC
EQUAL JUSTICE USA INC (Maryland) receives grants from 51 organizations whose IRS filings report $25,569,095 to it, the largest being Silicon Valley Community Foundation ($10,500,000). 31 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 56% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.5M
- Funders on record
- 51
- Grants received
- $26M
- Net assets
- $1.6M
What Equal Justice USA Inc does
Mission
Our mission is to transform the justice system by promoting responses to violence that break cycles of trauma. We work at the intersection of criminal justice, public health, and racial justice to elevate healing and safety over retribution, advance racial equity, and meet the needs of survivors.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
On its FY2025 return the organization reported a significant change in how it conducts a program.
On september 30, 2025, the board of directors of the organization formally approved a plan to dissolve the organization and distribute its remaining assets in accordance with its articles of incorporation, bylaws, and applicable state and federal laws governing not-for-profit entities. The plan of dissolution provides for the orderly wind-down of the organization's activities, satisfaction of outstanding obligations, and distribution of any residual assets to qualified charitable organizations consistent with the organization's mission.
Its own explanation, from Schedule O of that return (Part III, line 3).
Repealing the death penalty programthe death penalty is a modern-day relic of lynching that promotes gross racial disparities in determining who lives and dies. Fortunately, for this and many other reasons, including the horrific risk of executing an innocent person, the death penalty in the u.s. Is on its way out. Eleven states have ended the death penalty in the modern era, with ejusa and its state partners playing a prominent role in achieving each of these successes. Ejusa educates the public about the death penalty's problems; mobilizes opposition to high-profile executions that illuminate systemic racism, the risk of wrongful conviction, or other injustices; trains and coaches local organizers around the country; fosters dialogue across the aisle, with law enforcement, survivors of violence, and other unlikely allies; and advocates for an end to the death penalty in key states.
$877,225 spentof which $273,652 as grants15% of program spendingCommunity safety and justiceejusa employs community organizing, advocacy, coalition building and other tactics to build community solutions to violence that lessen the u.s.'s dependence on over-policing and incarceration. The program employs the following strategies to advance this goal: (1) policy advocacy to create and expand funding streams for violence prevention alternatives to law enforcement; (2) systems change via organizing, advocacy, and technical assistance on the ground in key cities to implement violence prevention and healing approaches on the ground; (3) capacity building to individual community-based organizations that offer violence prevention and healing programming in local neighborhoods, to help them strengthen their programs, access more funds, and expand their reach; and (4) trauma training and consulting with police officers.
$2,503,021 spentof which $548,653 as grants$141,447 earned by the program42% of program spendingNarrative shifting programto create the climate for new approaches to take hold, ejusa educates the public and policymakers about community-led approaches to violence prevention, brings media attention to the impact and success of these programs, and elevates key voices that push back on the current punitive narrative of justice. In newark, nj, baton rouge, la, and other cities, ejusa engages in public education campaigns to lift the stories of people most affected by the justice system. Ejusa builds on these local stories - including holding newark up as a national model for addressing violence - to create a national narrative that emphasizes the success of programs that address violence while reducing reliance on policing and mass incarceration. This national communications program works to change false narratives about violence, race, and trauma while lifting up the effectiveness of community-centered, trauma-informed responses to violence that center the healing and well-being of the most impacted communities.
$140,295 spentof which $22,175 as grants2% of program spendingHealing justice, restorative justice, and research and evaluation
$2,474,327 spentof which $783,006 as grants41% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $5,994,868.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2024 to 2025, from $6.4M to $2.0M (−68%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2020 9% · 2024 11% · 2025 18%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
92% of EQUAL JUSTICE USA INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (97% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Jamila Hodge
Executive director
Board chair
Leonard Noisette
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2021 and FY2022 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 22 funders, grant income rose $172k → $4.3M.
19 of 51 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 56% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of EQUAL JUSTICE USA INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 51 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
EQUAL JUSTICE USA INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 41% of grant income and the top three 68%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
68% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund EQUAL JUSTICE USA INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 87% · 2018 90% · 2019 37% · 2020 29% · 2021 59% · 2022 50% · 2023 33% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
34% of EQUAL JUSTICE USA INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
56% of EQUAL JUSTICE USA INC's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $11M that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Maryland, across 13 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $14M arriving through sponsors registered in 13 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
EQUAL JUSTICE USA INC's revenue grew 148% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 479 civil rights nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding EQUAL JUSTICE USA INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $4.0M on record — $3.8M federal, $141k state.
- Department of Justice$3.8M
- GRANT IN AID$141k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like EQUAL JUSTICE USA INC
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Maryland
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
76% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
56%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 37 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for EQUAL JUSTICE USA INC: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds EQUAL JUSTICE USA INC?
- EQUAL JUSTICE USA INC (Maryland) receives grants from 51 organizations whose IRS filings report $25,569,095 to it, the largest being Silicon Valley Community Foundation ($10,500,000). 31 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 56% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does EQUAL JUSTICE USA INC have?
- IRS filings report 51 organizations giving $25,569,095 in grants to EQUAL JUSTICE USA INC, 31 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of EQUAL JUSTICE USA INC?
- Silicon Valley Community Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $10,500,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like EQUAL JUSTICE USA INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Maryland. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 51 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing