California · Nonprofit
INITIATE JUSTICE
INITIATE JUSTICE (California) receives grants from 42 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,682,036 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($2,011,650). 25 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 59% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $3.0M
- Funders on record
- 42
- Grants received
- $8.7M
- Net assets
- $3.4M
What Initiate Justice does
Mission
Initiate Justice's mission is to activate the power of people directly impacted by mass incarceration to be leaders in the movement to end it. Through direct outreach and trainings,we develop organizers both inside and outside of prisons, and identify our members' top priorities to reduce prison populations and increase the human rights of those currently incarcerated. We envision a California with healthy and economically empowered communities, free from mass criminalization.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Inside-Outside Organizing: Initiate Justice has an inside-outside strategy where we prioritize organizing people directly impacted by incarceration, inside and outside prison walls. Our inside organizing takes place in the prison visiting rooms, in front of state prisons, and inside prisons through workshops, mailings, and in-person or phone training. Our outside organizing occurs through membership meetings and member committees that meet monthly with participants from around CA. We keep our community informed about the latest changes to California laws and prison policies that affect them. In 2024, we sent 200,072 newsletters to our 40,000+ incarcerated members and 4,818 newsletters to our 470+ inside organizers. We also aired Abolition is for Everybody Podcast," which hosts conversations led by our system-impacted co-hosts. These conversations explore the history, futures, obstacles, and joys of abolition. The podcast intends to connect the day-to-day legislative work of Initiate Justice with larger abolitionist theory and to engage new audiences in a way that allows them to lead and participate in meaningful conversations about prison reform and abolition. This project is also…
$849,849 spentof which $20,377 as grants$10,075 earned by the program72% of program spendingInitiate Justice gathers policy priorities and bill ideas from our incarcerated members and organizers that guide our policy goals and culture change work that is necessary to educate the public and change the policy landscape around incarceration in California. We create guides, public educations materials, and offer training on how the public policy process works and how to create, support, and implement state policy. In 2024, we passed AB 1186 (Bonta), AB 1986 (Bryan), AB 2310 (Hart), AB 2483 (Ting)
$227,472 spent19% of program spendingThe Institute of Impacted Leaders is a 12-week organizing training and leadership development program designed for people directly impacted by mass incarceration. Each cohort trains between 20-25 people on community organizing principles, political education materials, and training on how the California legislative process works so that graduates are empowered to join Initiate Justices work or lead their own campaigns in their communities. By the end of 2024, the Institute has graduated 357 people across Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, Fresno, San Diego, Bakersfield, Santa Barbara, San Jose, Orange County, Long Beach, Contra Costa, San Joaquin County, and the Inland Empire
$111,130 spent9% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,188,451.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 2023 to 2024, from $2.2M to $3.6M (+61%).
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.
98% of INITIATE JUSTICE’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (93% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 6 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.
Board chair
Taina Vargas
Chair&Pres.
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 19 funders, grant income rose $80k → $1.0M.
12 of 42 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 59% 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 INITIATE JUSTICE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 42 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
INITIATE JUSTICE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 23% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
63% 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 INITIATE JUSTICE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 94% · 2019 50% · 2020 35% · 2021 30% · 2022 63% · 2023 24% — 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
44% of INITIATE JUSTICE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% 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
59% of INITIATE JUSTICE'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 $3.5M that is directly attributable, 83% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $5.2M arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
INITIATE JUSTICE runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 1,337 crime & legal nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,337 crime & legal nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like INITIATE JUSTICE
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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for INITIATE JUSTICE: 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 INITIATE JUSTICE?
- INITIATE JUSTICE (California) receives grants from 42 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,682,036 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($2,011,650). 25 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 59% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does INITIATE JUSTICE have?
- IRS filings report 42 organizations giving $8,682,036 in grants to INITIATE JUSTICE, 25 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of INITIATE JUSTICE?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $2,011,650 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like INITIATE JUSTICE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 FY2024 (financials across 2019–2024), and the filings of 42 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing