The Michelson 20MM is seeking applications for its Smart Justice Spark Grants funding cycle and awarding grants of up to $25,000 to nonprofits at the intersection of higher education, workforce development, and incarceration.
Donor Name: Michelson 20MM
State: California
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Type of Entities: Non-profits and Educational Institutions
Deadline (mm/dd/yyyy): 12/01/2021
Size of the Grant: $25,000
Details:
Michelson 20MM is committed to helping individuals and communities impacted by the criminal justice system forge a brighter, more prosperous future through educational attainment.
The Smart Justice Initiative (SJI) at Michelson 20MM launched in 2019 to leverage higher education as a catalyst for personal transformation and justice reform.
SJI components include higher education in prison, reentry, supporting justice-involved students on campus, workforce development and economic success, racial justice, and gender justice, with a particular focus on policy and systems change.
The vision for the Michelson Spark Grant program is to introduce an innovative just-in-time grant-making process to fill urgent needs for organizations that are well-aligned with focus areas. They seek to fund highly impactful initiatives that would not be possible if they needed to wait through a traditional grant decision timeline.
Michelson 20MM is interested in supporting initiatives that address the following:
- Expanding access to professional development opportunities for staff, faculty, and administrators on college campuses to provide them with the tools and resources needed to successfully work with formerly incarcerated students.
- Elevating the voices of justice-impacted student leaders so they can play a role in educating policymakers on the measures needed to support this student population.
- Research on best practices for higher education institutions to retain and provide support to formerly incarcerated students during this time of declining enrollments nationwide.
- Supporting soon to be released or recently released individuals with reentry services including: a) transitional housing b) employment and/or c) college transfer support for students who were enrolled in a postsecondary educational program while in prison.
Funding Information
Michelson 20MM will be awarding grants up to $25,000 to non-profits and educational institutions looking for support of projects that hit one of the focus areas outlined above.
Eligibility Criteria
- For this round of funding they have decided to focus impact on organizations that are doing work in California. Organizations whose work does not impact California will be ineligible for this opportunity.
- Michelson 20MM seeks to fund efforts that provide scalable solutions that can impact students statewide and are not limited to just one particular campus.
For more information, visit Smart Justice 2021 Funding Cycle.
