The Chan Zuckerberg initiative, the philanthropy of Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, plans to revamp its political program and outsource much of its advocacy to outside organizations, Recode has learned.
This is a strategic shift for CZI and the biggest structural change to the organization since the couple created it five years ago.
Zuckerberg and Chan are starting a new group focused on criminal law reform that will get them back $ 350 million from their fortunes. CZI will also effectively merge its internal immigration work with an outside group also backed by Zuckerberg, Fwd.us, which insists on comprehensive reform.
The billionaire couple has committed another $ 450 million to the two businesses over the next few years. The changes are the latest evolution in the way Zuckerberg seeks to pursue his policy ambitions at the beginning of a friendlier Joe Biden government – and at a time when he becomes more of a political responsibility for those very same issues.
CZI was launched in 2015 with a special focus on politics – one of its three original central “pillars” was an advocacy unit called the Justice and Opportunity Initiatives – and has grown into one of the most important philanthropies in America. Now that political work is being outsourced to external organizations, and the JOI team at CZI is expected to fold greatly.
The philanthropy increases the total amount it commits each year to criminal justice reform, and it seems likely that the overhaul will increase the total amount of money that CZI puts into politics at least in the short term. CZI has spent just under $ 450 million on these JOI programs over the past five years. This could mean that the CZI spends about as much in the long run as before, but in a faster, less centralized way – giving outsiders the autonomy to spend on any non-profit or political cause, and not CZI, the best ag.
CZI would then be more of a political bank account and less involved than now in direct campaign and advocacy work, which can be hairy and dangerous work that generally makes enemies.
According to two sources familiar with the matter, some CZI employees are worried about where they would fit into the new structure, but CZI told Recode there will be no layoffs. Some employees working on CZI’s political projects may find new homes with the criminal justice group or at Fwd.us.
Some people affiliated with CZI are also concerned about whether each existing beneficiary will take the same total amount under the new arrangement. CZI is not expected to offer so-called ‘sunset grants’ – important financial obligations for non-profit organizations if a philanthropy ends its work in an area. But groups like Fwd.us plan to try to ensure that grassroots groups do not experience unexpected funding gaps, one source said, though some are nervous because these CZI awards will have to convince a new party to fund their work.
CZI’s political spending has been further investigated as its co-CEO, Zuckerberg, has become more and more politically divided due to his role as CEO at Facebook. Some of Zuckerberg’s work in his day job has grown on CZI, which is a separate organization but with good reputation linked to the Facebook founder. When CZI made an ambitious effort this year to take an initiative in California to amend a law widely regarded as the state’s third track, opponents opposed Zuckerberg’s involvement as an attack.
The new arrangement will, intentionally or not, give Zuckerberg more distance from his specific commitment, even if it ultimately funds the same amount and kinds of political projects. CZI has also recently been plagued by unrest in the organization over how it deals with race and in its political work, including an ongoing discrimination claim (which CZI said was ‘unfounded’).
The sprawling, independent criminal justice group, called the Justice Accelerator Fund, will be led by Ana Zamora, who heads CZI’s work on the subject and previously led the ACLU in Northern California. Zuckerberg said CZI spends about $ 40 million annually on criminal justice reform subsidies, making it among the largest funders of this philanthropic work.
CZI currently plans to spend about $ 350 million to raise the Justice Accelerator Fund over the next five years, for an average of about $ 70 million a year. The organization, whose exact structure has not yet been determined, will then award grants to new groups. CZI expects the Justice Accelerator Fund to eventually raise money from other donors in the future.
“This time is ripe for a more just America, and this increase in funding will dramatically accelerate the pace of progress,” Zamora said in a new letter to CZI partners.
Another $ 100 million over the next three years will go from CZI to Fwd.us, which was originally focused solely on immigration work but now also advocates for criminal cases. A small amount of that $ 100 million is expected to be returned to other groups. The bulk of Fwd.us’ operating funding has long come from CZI, about $ 30 million a year in funding, which means its budget is dwindling, albeit with a long-term commitment.
CZI’s work on affordable housing issues, the third plan of its JOI program, will remain under CZI’s roof and remain more on regional issues in California. Recode reported last month that the head of JOI, which oversees all of this policy work, has left the organization.
The more than $ 100 billion philanthropy will continue to work on the other two non-political priorities of his work – his support for scientific research and his educational efforts, both of which were heavily involved in coronavirus relief.