Summary
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), a philanthropic organization founded in 2015 by Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, officially ended its direct partnership with FWD.us in 2024, marking a significant shift in its approach to immigration and criminal justice advocacy. FWD.us, established in 2013 and closely aligned with CZI’s founders, is a prominent left-leaning advocacy group that promotes expansionist immigration policies and reforms in the criminal justice system. The partnership had been a major vehicle for CZI’s social justice funding, with CZI providing approximately $30 million annually to FWD.us and committing over $100 million in foundational support to sustain advocacy efforts.
This strategic realignment reflects CZI’s broader effort to focus its resources on core areas such as science, education, and local community programs while transitioning sensitive advocacy grantmaking to independent organizations. By ending direct funding and collaboration with FWD.us, CZI has embraced a model that empowers autonomous advocacy groups to pursue localized, coalition-driven strategies, particularly in immigration and criminal justice reform, areas that require nuanced, state-specific engagement. The move aligns with a growing trend in philanthropy toward decentralized grantmaking and pooled funding to enhance coordination and impact across complex social issues.
The decision to end the partnership has generated notable concerns regarding the sustainability of funding for grassroots organizations previously supported through CZI and FWD.us, as these groups face the challenge of securing new financial backing amid an evolving philanthropic landscape. Additionally, internal critiques within CZI highlighted tensions related to transparency, employee roles, and political sensitivities connected to the Initiative’s advocacy projects, further complicating the transition. The restructuring also coincides with CZI’s planned discontinuation of certain diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, provoking debate about the Initiative’s continued commitment to systemic social change.
Public and media reaction to the partnership’s end underscores the complex role of Silicon Valley philanthropy in shaping immigration reform discourse. While FWD.us remains a key player in progressive immigration advocacy, questions persist about its future operational capacity without CZI’s foundational support. CZI’s shift may serve as a bellwether for other philanthropic organizations adopting LLC-based models that combine traditional grantmaking with policy influence, reflecting evolving strategies to engineer large-scale social change amid political and funding uncertainties.
Background
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) was founded in 2015 by Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, with the mission to address some of society’s most pressing challenges, including disease prevention, education improvement, and community support. Organized as an LLC, CZI combines grantmaking, impact investing, and technology-driven research to engineer change at scale. While it broadly maintains nonpartisan goals, the Initiative has frequently supported left-of-center organizations and causes, particularly in immigration and criminal justice reform.
One of the key advocacy groups associated with CZI is FWD.us, a left-leaning immigration and criminal justice reform organization co-founded by Zuckerberg and Chan in 2013. FWD.us advocates for expansionist immigration policies, including legal status for undocumented immigrants in the United States, as well as reforms to the criminal justice and education systems. Its board includes prominent figures connected to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, such as David Plouffe and Jordan Fox, reflecting close institutional ties between the two entities.
In 2021, CZI began transitioning its advocacy work by spinning off criminal justice and immigration efforts into separate independent organizations, including FWD.us and The Just Trust. This shift allowed CZI to focus more intensively on its core areas of science, education, and local community programs, while still supporting policy change through grants to third-party advocacy organizations like FWD.us. To facilitate this transition, CZI committed substantial funding—approximately $100 million over several years—to FWD.us to ensure continued support for immigration and criminal justice reform advocacy.
Over the years, CZI has emerged as a major funder in the criminal justice reform space, investing hundreds of millions in related grants and backing efforts such as the Clean Slate Initiative and movements led by formerly incarcerated individuals. Simultaneously, the Initiative has channeled millions in funding to immigration advocacy groups, including the National Immigration Forum, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, and the American Immigration Council. Despite CZI’s move to independent advocacy, FWD.us remains heavily reliant on CZI funding for its operations, receiving around $30 million annually, with plans to regrant portions of this support to grassroots groups in the immigration reform ecosystem.
This strategic realignment reflects CZI’s recognition of the importance of autonomous organizations like FWD.us in building diverse coalitions and pursuing localized strategies vital to effective criminal justice and immigration advocacy. However, the transition has also introduced uncertainties regarding funding stability for grassroots partners, as these organizations now face the challenge of securing support beyond CZI’s umbrella.
Timeline of the Partnership
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) initially engaged in a partnership with FWD.us as part of its broader commitment to support bipartisan work on criminal justice and immigration reform. This collaboration included foundational funding to FWD.us and other organizations like The Just Trust, aiming to bolster efforts in these social advocacy areas.
Over time, CZI refined its strategic focus to prioritize its core work in science, education, and local community support. As part of this transition announced in 2021, CZI fulfilled its financial commitments to FWD.us and The Just Trust and began winding down its social advocacy funding, effectively ending the direct partnership with FWD.us.
Despite concerns among some CZI employees about their roles in the changing structure, the organization assured there would be no layoffs, with some staff potentially transitioning to related groups such as the Justice Accelerator Fund or FWD.us. However, unlike traditional “sunset grants,” CZI did not provide extended financial commitments during the winding down phase, prompting FWD.us and allied grassroots organizations to prepare for funding adjustments and seek new supporters to maintain their advocacy work.
Throughout the partnership, CZI maintained its focus on impactful collaboration, reflecting the founders’ belief in enabling everyone to reach their full potential and the importance of deep partnerships across government and private sectors to translate research discoveries into tangible benefits.
Reasons for Ending the Partnership
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) decided to end its partnership with FWD.us as part of a broader strategic restructuring aimed at refining its advocacy and grantmaking efforts. One of the primary reasons behind this move was to shift sensitive advocacy grantmaking onto external intermediaries, allowing CZI to focus more intensively on its core strengths such as grantmaking, issue advocacy, community collaboration, impact investing, and technology development. This shift aligns with a growing trend among large philanthropic organizations to pursue collaborative and pooled funding approaches, which enable better coordination amid complex societal challenges and promote leadership from affected communities.
Another factor influencing the decision was the organizational structure of CZI itself. As a limited liability company (LLC) rather than a traditional tax-exempt foundation, CZI possesses greater flexibility in its funding strategies, including the ability to invest in for-profit startups and engage in political advocacy and lobbying. However, this structure also led to internal criticisms and concerns about transparency and employee roles, particularly regarding politically sensitive projects like those undertaken with FWD.us. Some CZI employees expressed uncertainty about their fit within the new structure, and a former employee noted efforts to avoid initiatives that might be perceived as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)-related, which could have impacted collaboration dynamics.
Furthermore, the need to tailor advocacy to local and state-specific strategies, especially in areas such as criminal justice reform and immigration, underscored the importance of maintaining diverse coalitions through independent organizations. CZI acknowledged that an independent advocacy organization could better remain attuned to the hyper-local considerations essential for effective criminal justice and immigration reform, suggesting that such policy work may be better served outside of direct CZI management.
While CZI remains committed to its Justice and Opportunity Initiative—including immigration reform as a key focus—it has chosen to continue supporting advocacy efforts through grants to third-party organizations rather than direct partnership with FWD.us. This approach aims to sustain impact while allowing CZI to concentrate its resources and structure on scalable, long-term change across its multiple focus areas.
Partnership Objectives and Activities
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) established its partnership with FWD.us to advance bipartisan efforts in criminal justice and immigration reform, aligning with CZI’s broader mission to engineer change at scale through technology, research, and philanthropic investment. FWD.us, founded in 2013 by Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, is a left-of-center advocacy group focused on liberalizing immigration policies, criminal justice reform, and increasing higher education funding. CZI has been a primary funder of FWD.us and its charitable component, the FWD.us Education Fund, providing nearly $24 million in grants since 2015.
The partnership was part of CZI’s Justice and Opportunity Initiative, which emphasizes community health, safety, and healing over punishment, with a strong focus on racial and economic equity. This initiative sought to center those most impacted by the criminal justice system in advocacy efforts. To further these goals, CZI committed $450 million toward criminal justice and immigration reform, including a $350 million investment in the Justice Accelerator Fund, a new criminal justice reform organization, and $100 million to support FWD.us.
CZI’s approach aimed to leverage independent advocacy organizations like FWD.us to build diverse coalitions and pursue state-specific strategies, recognizing the localized nature of criminal justice reform efforts. This strategy also reflected CZI’s unique status as an LLC-based philanthropic organization, allowing flexible operations and direct policy engagement. Beyond immigration and criminal justice reform, the partnership’s activities included funding numerous left-of-center organizations supporting immigration advocacy, such as the National Immigration Forum and the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, highlighting the Initiative’s commitment to systemic reform and social justice.
Effects of Partnership on FWD.us
The partnership between the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) and FWD.us has played a significant role in shaping the landscape of immigration and criminal justice advocacy. As part of CZI’s strategic shift in 2021 to focus more intensively on its core work in science, education, and local communities, the organization committed foundational funding to FWD.us, alongside The Just Trust, to sustain bipartisan efforts in criminal justice and immigration reform. This move effectively transitioned CZI’s immigration portfolio to FWD.us, enabling the advocacy group to leverage these resources at a critical juncture for national reform with a window for historic policy wins.
FWD.us, launched in 2013 with the support of Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, is a left-of-center advocacy organization that promotes expansionist immigration policies and criminal justice reforms. The collaboration with CZI not only provided significant financial backing but also positioned FWD.us to amplify its agenda through strengthened coalitions and coordinated funding mechanisms. This aligns with CZI’s broader approach of embracing collaborative and pooled funding efforts to enhance the impact of advocacy work, particularly in state-specific and hyper-local criminal justice reforms.
Board overlap between the two entities—featuring prominent figures such as David Plouffe (CZI’s president of policy), Lorella Praeli, Andrew Pincus, and Jordan Fox—has fostered strategic alignment and facilitated resource sharing. Furthermore, CZI’s funding support has been instrumental in sustaining the organizational infrastructure of FWD.us, ensuring continuity in advocacy despite CZI’s own withdrawal from direct social advocacy funding. However, some concerns remain among grassroots groups about potential funding gaps due to the reshuffling of grantmaking responsibilities to external intermediaries like FWD.us, necessitating ongoing efforts to maintain stable financial support for local advocacy.
In sum, the partnership has allowed FWD.us to enhance its role as a major player in immigration reform advocacy, benefitting from CZI’s substantial financial commitments and collaborative funding philosophy. This relationship underscores a trend in philanthropy toward coordinated, coalition-driven advocacy efforts that prioritize those closest to the issues. Nonetheless, as CZI winds down its direct funding in this arena, FWD.us faces the challenge of sustaining momentum while securing new sources of support to continue its mission effectively.
Consequences of Partnership Termination
The termination of the partnership between the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) and FWD.us has generated significant uncertainty within the immigration advocacy community. CZI had been a major funder of FWD.us, providing approximately $30 million annually and committing an additional $100 million over three years to support both immigration and criminal justice advocacy efforts. With the end of this arrangement, concerns have arisen about the continuity of funding for grassroots organizations previously reliant on CZI’s grants, as these groups will now need to secure resources from new donors.
FWD.us, originally focused solely on immigration but later expanding its scope to include criminal justice reform, had become a central conduit for CZI’s policy-driven philanthropic efforts. The shift in funding strategy reflects a broader trend among large donors toward using external intermediaries to manage advocacy grantmaking, enabling more localized and coalition-driven approaches. Nevertheless, this transition complicates existing grantee relationships, as organizations face the challenge of convincing new funders to maintain or increase their support amid a changing political and financial landscape.
The departure of CZI’s support also marks a strategic reorientation, with the initiative discontinuing funding for programs associated with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as of May 2025. This has attracted critique given CZI’s prior emphasis on addressing systemic social issues, some of which are rooted in platforms owned by Mark Zuckerberg himself. Meanwhile, FWD.us continues to advocate for expansionist immigration policies and reform efforts aligned with progressive causes, but the loss of foundational backing from CZI could impact its operational capacity and long-term advocacy goals.
Despite the funding uncertainties, CZI’s prior investments helped build a strong infrastructure for immigration reform advocacy, reinforcing the importance of sustained philanthropic engagement. The Initiative’s move to wind down direct social advocacy grants while supporting independent organizations like The Just Trust and FWD.us signaled an intent to focus more on grantmaking and impact investing in science, education, and technology sectors, potentially diminishing its role in immigration policy influence going forward.
Broader Implications for Philanthropy and Advocacy
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s (CZI) decision to end its partnership with FWD.us marks a significant moment in the evolving landscape of philanthropy and advocacy, particularly in how large donors engage with complex social issues such as immigration and criminal justice reform. CZI’s organizational structure as a limited liability company (LLC) rather than a traditional tax-exempt foundation has allowed it a distinctive degree of flexibility. This includes the ability to invest in for-profit ventures, engage in lobbying, and make political donations without the same transparency requirements that bind conventional charitable organizations.
By transitioning foundational funding from CZI directly to independent organizations like FWD.us and The Just Trust, CZI has embraced a model that supports autonomous advocacy groups to build diverse coalitions and pursue hyper-local, state-specific strategies—an approach seen as critical in areas like criminal justice reform. This shift underscores a broader trend among large philanthropic entities to decentralize their grantmaking and rely more on intermediaries and pooled funding efforts to foster coordination and amplify impact.
However, this restructuring also raises concerns within the advocacy community about funding stability and continuity. While organizations like FWD.us aim to mitigate the risk of unexpected funding gaps for grassroots groups, there remains uncertainty about how these groups will adapt to new funding dynamics and the need to cultivate relationships with different donors. The situation highlights the challenges philanthropy faces in balancing strategic influence with sustainable support for frontline advocates.
CZI’s move reflects a growing inclination among high-profile donors—such as Pierre Omidyar, Laurene Powell Jobs, and the Arnolds—to adopt LLC-based philanthropic models that combine policy influence with traditional grantmaking. This hybrid approach allows philanthropists to wield greater control over their social investments while navigating the political and operational complexities of systemic reform. Consequently, CZI’s evolving strategy may serve as a bellwether for other philanthropic organizations grappling with how best to engineer change at scale through both innovation and collaboration.
Public and Media Reaction
The decision by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) to end its partnership with FWD.us, a prominent immigration and criminal justice reform advocacy group co-founded by Mark and Priscilla Zuckerberg in 2013,
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