The JEHT Foundation was established in April 2000. Its name stands for the core values that underlie the Foundation's mission: Justice, Equality, Human dignity, and Tolerance. The Foundation's programs, in Criminal Justice, Juvenile Justice, International Justice, and Fair and Participatory Elections, reflect these interests and values.
Criminal Justice
The Criminal Justice Program works to reduce levels of incarceration in the U.S. while protecting public safety; easing the financial burden to society of criminal justice systems; and ensuring that adults who come into contact with the justice system are fairly and appropriately treated and have a better chance of success upon re-entry.Juvenile Justice
The Juvenile Justice Program works to reduce the unnecessary detention and incarceration of youth in the U.S. while protecting public safety; easing the financial burden to society of juvenile justice systems; and ensuring that juveniles who come into contact with the justice system are fairly and appropriately treated and have a better chance of success into adulthood.International Justice
The International Justice Program seeks to promote U.S. adherence to the international rule of law and the engagement of key stakeholders in and outside of government to this end.Fair and Participatory Elections
The Fair and Participatory Elections Program seeks to improve the voting process by promoting best practices and reducing barriers to voting. The Program also seeks to enhance fair representation and competitive elections and to strengthen government transparency and responsiveness.Other Grantmaking Interests
From time to time the Foundation Board makes grants outside its normal program areas. These grants are solely at the discretion of the Board members and are by invitation only.
The Foundation recognizes that systemic and social change requires a long-term perspective and strategy and, at the end of the day, a measure of patience, luck and good timing.
With this in mind, the Foundation makes a combination of multi-year and one-time grant commitments for general operating support, project support, capacity building, and special needs and opportunities as they arise in its fields of interest. We support collaborations and coalition building when they serve to avoid duplication of effort and strengthen a specific goal. The Foundation does not set limits on the size of its grants or on the number of years it will consider supporting an organization. Each request will be considered based on its merit, relationship to the Foundation's goals, the need, the ability to advance the work of the field, and the Foundation's available resources.
The Foundation entertains proposals that fall within the program interests described above and that make use of one or more of the following approaches:
- Innovative, focused, results-oriented efforts that take into account:
- The political, economic, and social environment in which the work is occurring and the readiness for change
- Existing research that informs the agenda
- The constituencies that need to be engaged to effectively promote the goals and how best to engage them
- Messaging and other communication strategies appropriate to the issues, audiences, and goals that have been set;
- The political, economic, and social environment in which the work is occurring and the readiness for change
- Litigation and other legal strategies that further program goals;
- Development and use of practices based on evidence-based research that have the potential to be taken to scale and inform policy decisions;
- Conceptual or applied research that illuminates problems or issues and/or suggests promising solutions to policy issues;
- Convenings that have the potential to effect concrete results by bringing together appropriate stakeholders – including government, business communities, researchers, and advocates – around specific agendas;
- Planning and technical consulting services directly related to strategic efforts to change systems; and
- Evaluation directly related to informing change efforts and or promoting an environment for taking changes to scale.
While the Foundation's style is flexible and open, we do expect that applicants carefully review the program interests before submitting an inquiry to ensure that their work corresponds to our goals. We further expect work plans and budgets to reflect a realistic view of the organization's institutional capacity to carry out the proposed work.
