Butler Family Fund
/OVERVIEW: The Butler Family Fund supports local, regional and national criminal justice reform and homelessness initiatives. It especially prioritizes programs based on the intersection of the two.
IP TAKE: This funder does not award many grants each year. Grantseeker should expect funding competition when approaching Butler. This is a difficult funder to approach that does not like to be contacted and tends to reward previous grantees. Tough nut to crack, but check with previous grantees to see how they got on this funder’s radar.
PROFILE: The Butler Family Fund was established in 1992 by the nieces and nephews of prominent New York philanthropists Jack and Zella Butler. The foundation “envisions a world where members of our society do not have to choose between housing and food, and where everyone can have faith in our justice system.” The Butler Family Foundation’s grantmaking revolves around the principles of collaboration, advocacy, risk-taking, and leveraging strategic investments. The foundation works closely with other like minded funders within homelessness and criminal justice reform.
Grants for Criminal Justice Reform and Racial Justice
The Butler Family Foundation’s criminal justice reform program focuses on “making the U.S. criminal justice system more humane, fair and equitable.” Specifically, the fund invests in organizations advocating for the abolition of the U.S. death penalty; ending life sentences without the possibility of parole for juvenile offenders; improving the juvenile justice system; and other issues as the align with the fund’s grantmaking priorities such as mass incarceration. Past grantees in this space include the 8th Amendment Project, which received support for its advocacy to the low or non-use of the death penalty in select states; and Reprieve US, which received a grant for its Stop Lethal Injections project. The fund also awards grants for organizations working at the intersection of criminal justice and homelessness.
Grants for Housing and Homelessness
The Butler Family Foundation’s homelessness program is committed to “housing the most marginalized people in our society.” It supports organizations and programs that work to increase the supply of affordable housing, advocate for policy reform, prevent homelessness for youth aging out of foster care, and strengthen the public safety net. It is particularly interested in efforts to expand housing opportunities for Americans coming out of the criminal justice system and “redirecting resources from criminal justice into housing and other programs that help communities thrive.” Grantees include Alliance for Housing Justice, Community Solutions, National Housing Law Project, Right to the City, and Youth Collaboratory.
Important Grant Details:
This funder made about $1.4 million in grants in a recent year. Grants typically range in amount from $10,000 to $100,000. While the foundation often funds local organizations throughout the United States, it generally prefers to support projects with a national scope. To learn more about the types of organizations Butler supports and at what level, examine its grantees page.
The Butler Family Fund does not accept unsolicited grant applications or requests for funding. General inquiries may be submitted to the foundation via email.
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