The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the philanthropy of Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, is planning to revise its political program and distribute much of its advocacy work to outside organizations, Recode found.
It is a strategic change for CZI and the biggest structural change in the organization since the couple created it five years ago.
Zuckerberg and Chan will launch a new group focused on criminal justice reform that they will return with $ 350 million of their fortune. The CZI will also effectively merge its internal immigration work with an external group also supported by Zuckerberg, Fwd.us, who is pushing for comprehensive reform.
In all, the billionaire couple is committing another $ 450 million to both causes in the coming years. The changes are the latest evolution in how Zuckerberg is trying to fulfill his political ambitions at the dawn of a friendlier Joe Biden government – and at a time when he is becoming more of a policymaker for those same causes.
CZI was launched in 2015 with a special focus on politics – one of its three original central “pillars” was an advocacy unit called Justice and Opportunity Initiatives – and has grown to become one of America’s most important philanthropic companies. This political work is now being outsourced to outside organizations, and the JOI team at CZI is expected to give up.
Philanthropy is increasing the total amount it is committing each year to criminal justice reform, and it seems likely that the reformulation will increase the total amount of money that the CZI puts into politics, at least in the short term. CZI has spent just under $ 450 million on these JOI programs in the past five years. So this may mean that CZI spends almost as much as it did in the long run, but in a more agile and less centralized way – granting outside groups the autonomy to spend on any political or non-profit causes they do, CZI, judge better.
The CZI would then be more of a political bank account and less involved than it is now in direct campaigning and advocacy work, which can be hairy and dangerous work that often creates enemies.
Some CZI officials are concerned about where they would fit into the new structure, according to two sources familiar with the matter, but CZI told Recode that there would be no layoffs. Some officials working on CZI political projects can find new homes in the criminal justice group or on Fwd.us.
Some people affiliated with the CZI also have concerns, the sources say, about whether each existing beneficiary will continue to receive the same total amount of funding under the new agreement. The CZI is not expected to offer so-called “closure grants” – important financial commitments for nonprofits when a philanthropy is ending its work in one area. But groups like Fwd.us are planning to try to ensure that grassroots groups don’t face unexpected funding gaps, a source said, although some are nervous that these CZI grantees will now have to convince a new party to fund their work.
CZI’s political spending has attracted more scrutiny as its co-CEO Zuckerberg becomes increasingly politically divisive because of his role as Facebook CEO. Some of Zuckerberg’s difficulties in his daytime work have hit CZI, which is a separate organization, but is linked to the reputation of Facebook’s founder. When the CZI launched an ambitious attempt this year to pass an electoral initiative in California to modify a law that was widely considered the state’s third barrier, opponents clung to Zuckerberg’s involvement as a line of attack.
The new arrangement, whether intentionally or not, will give Zuckerberg more distance from his specific bets, even if he ends up financing the same number and types of political projects. The CZI has also recently been affected by disturbances within the organization about how it deals with race and in its political work, including an ongoing discrimination complaint (which the CZI said was “unfounded”).
The dismembered independent criminal justice group, called Justice Accelerator Fund, will be led by Ana Zamora, who heads the CZI’s work on the subject and used to lead the ACLU in Northern California. Zuckerberg said the CZI spends about $ 40 million a year on donations for criminal justice reform, becoming one of the biggest funders of this work in philanthropy.
CZI is currently planning to spend around $ 350 million to support the Justice Accelerator Fund over the next five years, averaging about $ 70 million a year. This organization, whose precise structure has not yet been determined, will award grants to new groups. The CZI hopes that the Justice Accelerator Fund will eventually receive money from other donors in the future.
“This time is ripe for a fairer America, and this sudden increase in funding will dramatically accelerate the pace of progress,” said Zamora in a new letter to CZI partners.
Another $ 100 million over the next three years will go from CZI to Fwd.us, which originally focused exclusively on immigration work, but now also works on criminal justice issues. A small amount of that $ 100 million is expected to be returned to other groups. Most of Fwd.us’s funding for operations has long come from the CZI, about $ 30 million a year in funding, which means its budget is getting smaller and smaller – although now with a long-term commitment.
CZI’s work on housing accessibility issues, the third platform of its JOI program, will remain under the CZI roof and will remain more on regional issues in California. Recode reported last month that the JOI chief, who oversaw all political work, had left the organization.
The more than $ 100 billion philanthropy will continue its work on the other two non-political priorities of its work – its support for scientific research and its education efforts, both of which have been heavily involved in coronavirus relief efforts.