Arnold Ventures LLC

As of 2020, LJAF allocated $288 million in grants for its criminal justice initiative.[5] An overview of criminal justice reform in the United States by GiveWell listed the Arnold Foundation as one of the top foundations in the United States working in the area.[12]

In 2011, the Vice President of Criminal Justice at the then LJAF, former New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram, led a team in creating a risk assessment instrument, the Public Safety Assessment (PSA), for courts to use as part of their pretrial release systems.[13][14] The Leadership Conference Education Fund published a statement about their support for ending secured money bail and the principles that pretrial risk assessments should ensure if they are necessary to be used. [15]

In 2017, a family whose son was allegedly murdered by a man granted pretrial release submitted a complaint against the PSA.[13][16] In 2020, a U.S. Appellate Court supported the District Court's dismissal of the complaint.[13] In 2019, the Metropolitan Crime Commission released a report[13] calling the "public safety assessment tool" a "waste of money" and concluded that the tool "underrates the risk offenders pose to public safety."[17] The foundation remains a partner for the Data Collaborative for Justice.[18]

In 2016, the foundation donated $360,000 to a trial of continuous aerial surveillance using drones of Baltimore, Maryland.[17][19]

In 2019, the Foundation committed $17 million in grants to study prisons in the U.S. and how they can be a more effective part of the criminal justice system.[20] In March, it announced the opening of the National Partnership for Pretrial Justice, focused on bringing together individuals and organizations from every constituency affected by pretrial policies.[21]

Arnold Ventures also supports the Council on Criminal Justice, a bipartisan reform group formed in 2019 in order to improve the criminal justice system. The Council grew out of the federal First Step Act and its two initial research projects were to explore incarceration trends by race and gender; and, examine the fallout from the 1994 Crime Bill.[22]

In July 2019, Arnold Ventures provided $9.8 million for 17 research grants awarded by the National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research.[23] The grant awardees are studying a range of topics that includes background check laws, the role of firearms in domestic violence, gun-carrying by high-risk youth, and police training for high-stakes situations.[23][24]

The Foundation funded Data-Driven Justice, a data-driven program to identify repeat low-level offenders suffering from drug abuse or mental illness, and the treatment options and intervention points that work to address their needs. The program was started by the Obama administration in 2016.[25] In 2018, the Foundation pledged $1.6 million for several Data-Driven Justice pilot programs in Middlesex County in Massachusetts; Long Beach, California; and Johnson County, Iowa.[25][26]

In May 2018, the Foundation announced $4.1 million in grants to help communities address “frequent utilizers” - people who cycle between jails and hospitals on a steady basis. They included $1.6 million for pilot programs to test new methods of coordination between police, hospitals, and social services; $2.1 million to fund evaluations of intervention programs; and $375,000 to the National Association of Counties to organize county leaders to focus on the issues.[27]

The Foundation also supported the University of Rochester Medical Center, the City of Long Beach, and MDRC with grants to evaluate their interventions and research into what actually works to address frequent utilizers’ needs.[28]

According to their list of grants, they have spent $425 million on grants related to education as of 2020.[5]

In May 2012, Reuters reported that the Laura and John Arnold Foundation had committed $20 million over a five-year period to an initiative called StudentsFirst, led by Michelle Rhee, who used to head the Washington D.C. public school system.[29][30]

On June 26, 2012, the foundation launched the ERIN Project, a tool to help analyze the national K-12 education landscape.[31][32]

Arnold Ventures partnered with other organizations to create the nonprofit The City Fund in 2018. It works with cities and school systems to improve public schools using the portfolio model. Under this model, school systems invest in schools that deliver good results, while closing or changing schools that don’t. The City Fund raised nearly $200 million in its first year.[33]

In March 2020, Arnold Ventures gave $3 million to The City Fund to help schools during the coronavirus pandemic. The money was distributed between the 14 cities where the group has active grants.[34]

In 2016 and 2018 the foundation donated $40 million towards ending gerrymandering, opening primaries and ranked choice voting.[35] In 2018, Arnold Ventures partnered with six other organizations on a research initiative to increase public understanding of Facebook’s role in elections and democracy. The organizations sponsored an independent committee of scholars that invited researchers to conduct research using proprietary Facebook data. The Social Science Research Council oversaw the selection of research proposals and the peer-review process.[36]

The foundation has funded various politically-oriented 501(c)4 organizations. Many of the organizations funded focus on tax and retirement policies.

LJAF's attempts at pension reform have been met with hostility, and critics have argued that they have bought out groups such as the Pew Charitable Trust, the Public Broadcasting Service, and the Brookings Institution.[37][38] However, the Foundation’s efforts haven’t been to eliminate pensions, but to identify where existing systems have failed and provide options for new, viable funding systems.[39] Even critics recognize that there is a need for reform.[40] In 2014, public pension systems faced shortfalls of more than $1 trillion; these shortfalls had contributed to two cities in California and Michigan filing for bankruptcy.[40]

In July 2014, the Arnold Foundation donated $2.8 million to the Center for Public Integrity to launch a new project focused on state campaign finance. The Foundation also provided funds to various think tanks and research institutes focused on public pension, both those who advocate for the current system, such as the libertarian Reason Foundation, and those focused on other solutions, like the Boston College’s Center for Retirement Research.[39] In 2016, the Foundation and unions in Arizona both supported a ballot measure that reduced cost-of-living payments to retired police and firefighters.[39]

By 2020, Arnold Ventures had donated $119 million to address concerns with health care organizations. This included funds for the Center for Healthcare Transparency ($5.67 million), Nutrition Science Initiative ($23.19 million), and the Research Triangle Institute ($1.67 million).[41] Arnold Ventures was one of three organizations to invest in Civica RX, a nonprofit focused on driving down drug costs.[41][8] Fifty large hospital systems partnered with Civica RX.[8]

One of the first projects funded by the foundation was research into obesity, which was drawn to Arnold's attention when he heard an interview with Gary Taubes on the EconTalk podcast.[1] Subsequent conversation between Arnold and Taubes led to the foundation making a $4.7 million seed grant to the Nutrition Science Initiative (NuSI) in San Diego, a nonprofit cofounded by Taubes where he and Peter Attia are trying to find the cause of obesity.[1][42] The following year, the foundation promised an additional $35.5 million.[1] The foundation also funds The Nutrition Coalition (TNC), which works to reshape the process by which the Dietary Guidelines for America are formulated.[42]

The foundation also funded the launch of the Center for Open Science with a $5.25 million grant and by 2017 had provided an additional $10 million in funding.[1] Among other projects, the Center has been responsible for a few reproducibility projects - reviewing published scientific research in order to see if all reported findings can be confirmed.[1]

The foundation also funded the launch of the Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford at Stanford University run by John Ioannidis and Steven Goodman to study ways to improve scientific research;[1] and provided funding for the AllTrials initiative led in part by Ben Goldacre.[1]

As of 2017 it had given around $80 million in grants under its "Research Integrity" initiative.[1]