Funding search · criminal justice reform · Texas
Who funds criminal justice reform work in Texas
15 funders have a record of paying for criminal justice reform work by Texas recipients: 67 grants totaling $6.0M, most recently in 2025 — mostly private foundations, plus grantmaking charities. The largest by matched giving are Marek Family Foundation ($85,000), Wal-Mart Foundation ($2.4M) and Adair Foundation ($230,000).
From IRS Form 990-PF and 990 Schedule I filings, 2019–2025. Grants already paid to Texas recipients — evidence of what these funders back, not open calls.
Largest: $20,000 to ANGELA HOUSE — to successfully transition women into society after incarceration
Wal-Mart FoundationBentonville, AR
6 matching grants · $2.4M · through 2024Largest: $1.0M to BIG THOUGHT — criminal justice reform
Largest: $40,000 to EXODUS MINISTRIES — funding for general operating expenses to support previously incarcerated women and their children as they rebuild their lives.
Largest: $493,037 to SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY — to be used by the deason criminal justice reform center to identify and promote strategies for improving access to counsel at the earliest stages of the criminal legal process by l…
Largest: $5,000 to MILES OF FREEDOM — grant supports the food pantry; the north texas food bank and the marting luther king jr. community center regularly engages former incarcerated clients to sort and distribute fres…
John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation (Consolidated)Chicago, IL
3 matching grants · $750,000 · through 2023Largest: $250,000 to Harris County Texas — to support harris county's participation as an implementation site in the safety and justice challenge the foundation's criminal justice reform initiative aimed at reducing over-in…
Largest: $83,955 to PJ RAVAL — to produce a docuseries to radically reframe the immigrant experience and educate the public about the culture of incarceration in america, through the lives and work of artists pa…
Largest: $85,000 to PRISON EVANGELISM — religious and spritual for the incarcerated
Largest: $400,000 to TEXAS CIVIL RIGHTS PROJECT AKA OFICINA LEGAL DEL PUEBLO UNIDO INC — core support for the campaign to end operation lonestar, a tx state-funded initiative to target suspected migrants for arrest, prosecution, incarceration, and deportation using sta…
Largest: $35,000 to Truth Be Told — provides transformational tools for incarcerated women behind and beyond bars
Community Foundation of North TexasFort Worth, TXCharity · may take applications
3 matching grants · $48,000 · through 2023Largest: $18,000 to GREAT PLAINS RESTORATION COUNCIL — for prairie restoration work with restoration not incarceration program
Largest: $10,000 to ONE MAN'S TREASURE — resources for formerly incarcerated.
This is one topic and one state. PaperOrbit reads your actual paper and searches on everything in it — then explains why each funder fits.
Start with one paperBroader: criminal justice reform funders nationally · all Texas-based grantmakers