Soros Justice Fellowships

Deadline

Overview

The Soros Justice Fellowships fund outstanding individuals to undertake projects that advance reform, spur debate, and catalyze change on a range of issues facing the U.S. criminal justice system. The fellowships are part of a larger effort within the Open Society Foundations to reduce the destructive impact of current criminal justice policies on the lives of individuals, families, and communities in the United States by challenging the overreliance on incarceration and extreme punishment, and ensuring a fair and accountable system of justice.

Benefits

Fellows receive funding through the following three categories, which you can read in more detail at https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/grants/soros-justice-fellowships:

Advocacy Fellowships

Advocacy Fellowships are 18 months in duration and may be undertaken with the support of a host organization. Advocacy Fellowships come with an award that ranges between $94,500 and $127,500, depending on level of experience, for the 18 months.

Media Fellowships

Media Fellowships are 12 months in duration, and fellows are expected to make their projects their full-time work during the term of the fellowship. Media Fellowships come with an award that ranges between $63,000 and $85,000, depending on level of experience, for the 12 months. Up to three people can apply jointly for a single Media Fellowship, but joint applications carry a single award.

Youth Activist Fellowships

Youth Activist Fellowships must be undertaken in partnership with a host organization. Projects can be full-time or part-time and 12 or 18 months in duration. Youth Activist Fellowships come with an award of $57,500 for full-time, 18-month projects (the award is pro-rated for part-time or 12-month projects).

Eligibility criteria

All projects must, at a minimum, relate to one or more of the following U.S. criminal justice reform goals: reducing the number of people who are incarcerated or under correctional control, challenging extreme punishment, and promoting fairness and accountability in our systems of justice. Please carefully review the complete guidelines for more details on the specific requirements for each category of fellowships. 

They strongly encourage applications for projects that demonstrate a clear understanding of the intersection of criminal justice issues with the particular needs of low-income communities, Black, Indigenous, and people of color communities, immigrants, LGBTQ people, women and children, and those otherwise disproportionately affected by harsh criminal justice policies, as well as applications for projects that cut across various criminal justice fields and related sectors, such as education, health and mental health, housing, and employment.

They especially welcome applications from individuals directly affected by, or with significant direct personal experience with, the policies, practices, and systems their projects seek to address (e.g., applicants who have themselves been incarcerated, applicants who have a family member or loved one who has been incarcerated and whose fellowship project emerges from that experience, or applicants who are survivors of violence or crime).

Award requirements

The fellowships do not fund the following:

• enrollment for degree or nondegree study at academic institutions, including dissertation research
• projects that address criminal justice issues outside the United States (applicants themselves—with the exception of Youth Activist Fellowship applicants—can be based outside the United States, as long as their work directly relates to a U.S. issue)
• lobbying activities

Application Process

Applications must be submitted online via the application portal that will be available at: https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/grants/soros-justice-fellowships.