• Partner With Us
  • Focus Areas
    • Cause Selection
    • Global Health & Wellbeing
      • Abundance & Growth
      • Effective Giving & Careers
      • Farm Animal Welfare
      • Global Aid Policy
      • Global Health & Development
      • Global Health R&D
      • Global Public Health Policy
      • Scientific Research
    • Global Catastrophic Risks
      • Biosecurity & Pandemic Preparedness
      • Forecasting
      • Global Catastrophic Risks Capacity Building
      • Potential Risks from Advanced AI
    • Other Areas
      • History of Philanthropy
  • Grants
  • Research & Updates
    • Blog Posts
    • In the News
    • Research Reports
    • Notable Lessons
  • About Us
    • Grantmaking Process
    • How to Apply for Funding
    • Careers
    • Team
    • Operating Values
    • Stay Updated
    • Contact Us
  • Partner With Us
  • Focus Areas
    • Cause Selection
    • Global Health & Wellbeing
      • Abundance & Growth
      • Effective Giving & Careers
      • Farm Animal Welfare
      • Global Aid Policy
      • Global Health & Development
      • Global Health R&D
      • Global Public Health Policy
      • Scientific Research
    • Global Catastrophic Risks
      • Biosecurity & Pandemic Preparedness
      • Forecasting
      • Global Catastrophic Risks Capacity Building
      • Potential Risks from Advanced AI
    • Other Areas
      • History of Philanthropy
  • Grants
  • Research & Updates
    • Blog Posts
    • In the News
    • Research Reports
    • Notable Lessons
  • About Us
    • Grantmaking Process
    • How to Apply for Funding
    • Careers
    • Team
    • Operating Values
    • Stay Updated
    • Contact Us

Texas Organizing Project — Criminal Justice Reform (2017)

Visit Grantee Site
  • Focus Area: Criminal Justice Reform
  • Category: Global Health & Wellbeing
  • Organization Name: Texas Organizing Project
  • Amount: $1,195,500

  • Award Date: March 2017

Table of Contents

    Grant Investigator: Chloe Cockburn

    This page was reviewed but not written by the grant investigator. Texas Organizing Project staff also reviewed this page prior to publication.

    The Open Philanthropy Project recommended a grant of $1,195,500 over two years to the Texas Organizing Project (TOP) to support its work on criminal justice reform.We originally recommended a two-year, $500,000 grant to TOP in March 2017. In March 2018, we restructured the recommendation to include a larger second-year payment, bringing the total grant amount to $1,195,500 over two years.

    This grant is primarily intended to grow TOP’s organizational capacity so that it can continue building pressure for criminal justice reforms in Texas. We see the main value of this grant in building significant capacity for policy reform advocacy in counties that represent a major locus of mass incarceration in the US.

    The Open Philanthropy Project separately recommended a grant to the Texas Organizing Project Education Fund, a 501(c)(3) organization affiliated with the Texas Organizing Project.

    This grant was made by a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization, to which we occasionally make funding recommendations.

    This grant falls within our focus area of criminal justice reform.

    [toc]

    <!—BELOW TOC BODY SECTION—>

    Background on the organization

    TOP, headquartered in Houston, describes its primary activity as “organizing Black and Latino communities in Dallas, Harris, and Bexar counties with the goal of transforming Texas into a state where working people of color have the power and representation they deserve.”

    Unpublished email from TOP representative, 4/4/18

    We view TOP as particularly effective at combining community organizing with electoral politics at the city level.

    TOP has strong relationships with other organizations in the space that we checked in with. Our impression is that TOP is viewed by others in the field as a leading voice on its issues and an effective coalition leader, with a consistent track record of putting together successful electoral campaigns. TOP also has a large and diverse base of thousands of community members, which we think has a good chance of effectively advocating for significant changes to criminal justice practices.

    About the grant

    This grant will grow TOP’s organizational capacity to continue building pressure for criminal justice reforms in Texas. Several Texas counties are among the country’s largest prison admissions drivers. This grant will pay for TOP to hire two new organizers and a researcher to support both of them. TOP has also told us it needs to hire more communications staff to help defend its wins from backlash.

    In all, TOP has 43 staff members, 11 of whom will be substantially or wholly supported by this grant.

    Proposed activities

    TOP plans to continue to organize and mobilize its base to put pressure on government officials to move criminal justice policy reforms, which might include:

    • Bail reform
    • working with elected officials to create a drug diversion program
    • reducing the use of pre-trial detention for felonies through more effective use of a risk assessment instrument; and
    • creation of an oversight committee for police accountability.

    TOP also aims to continue to build out its base of supporters and of organizations signed onto its policy platform, as well as grow its event turnout, media coverage, and rapid response capacity.

    Budget and room for more funding

    This grant will increase TOP’s budget by more than a third. We are not aware of any other major national criminal justice reform funders considering grants to TOP, particularly on this scale.

    Risks and reservations

    • Beyond noting its track record of campaign victories, we feel we have less of an ability to directly evaluate TOP’s effectiveness than some of our other grantees within criminal justice reform. In addition to our own positive interactions with TOP, we are relying to a large extent on the evaluations of many people in the field whom we trust who see TOP as highly competent (including people who have worked closely with TOP).
    • TOP has a relatively short history of working on some of these policy issues.
    • We do not have a good sense of whether the scale of staff TOP plans to hire is necessary to accomplish the goals it has laid out, but we feel comfortable deferring to TOP’s assessment of its capacity needs.
    • We think TOP will likely face pressure to spend time on issues in other areas (e.g. immigration).

    Key questions for follow-up

    1. What successes or failures has TOP had in leveraging its relationships with elected officials to achieve specific policy outcomes?
    2. How does TOP evaluate its achievements so far (according to the goals and metrics it shared with us at the time of this grant)?
    3. What has gone differently (either better or worse) than TOP projected?

    Related Items

    • Criminal Justice Reform

      Texas Organizing Project — Criminal Justice Reform (2021)

      Open Philanthropy recommended two grants totaling $1,200,000 to the Texas Organizing Project (TOP) to support work on criminal justice reform. TOP intends to use this funding to continue...

      Read more
    • Criminal Justice Reform

      Texas Organizing Project — Criminal Justice Reform (2019)

      Open Philanthropy recommended two grants totaling $4,200,000 over two years to the Texas Organizing Project (TOP) to support work on criminal justice reform. TOP plans to use these...

      Read more
    • Criminal Justice Reform

      Texas Organizing Project — Criminal Justice Reform (2016)

      The Open Philanthropy Project recommended a grant of $124,400 to the Texas Organizing Project to support its work on criminal justice reform in Houston. The funds were intended...

      Read more
    Back to Grants Database
    Open Philanthropy
    Open Philanthropy
    • We’re Hiring!
    • Press Kit
    • Governance
    • Privacy Policy
    • Stay Updated
    Mailing Address
    Open Philanthropy
    182 Howard Street #225
    San Francisco, CA 94105
    Email
    info@openphilanthropy.org
    Media Inquiries
    media@openphilanthropy.org
    Anonymous Feedback
    Feedback Form

    © Open Philanthropy 2025 Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International License.

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
    Cookie SettingsAccept All
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
    CookieDurationDescription
    cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
    cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
    cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
    cookielawinfo-checkbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
    cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
    viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
    Functional
    Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
    Performance
    Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
    Analytics
    Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
    Advertisement
    Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
    Others
    Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
    SAVE & ACCEPT