Transforming Juvenile Justice Through Strategic Financing

The nation's juvenile justice systems are responsible for managing youth who violate the law. These systems rely on complex financial structures and diverse funding sources shaped by the interplay of policies at the federal, state and local level. While state and local government represent the backbone of financial support to juvenile justice systems, additional funding sources — such as federal dollars, fines and fees and philanthropic contributions — also play a role.The diversity and complexity of this landscape makes it difficult to study how different structures support — or fail to support — a specific community's juvenile justice goals. This lack of clarity also hinders local opportunities to strategize and allocate resources effectively, improve program quality and achieve safe communities. In pursuit of a clearer picture, the Annie E. Casey Foundation funded Child Trends to conduct a mixed-methods study of juvenile justice systems' financing across select states and localities.Child Trends leveraged its 13 years of experience conducting the Child Welfare Financing Survey to develop a juvenile justice financing survey. This survey — administered from January 2022 to April 2023 and covering state fiscal year 2019 — covered seven states and 11 localities. It sought to better understand how individual juvenile justice systems are run and financed, what expenditures they accrue, and where they stand with savings and reinvestment practices

Ray of Hope Accelerator Impact Report: 5 Years of Impact Supporting Nature-Inspired Startups

This report showcases the past five years of achievements by the Biomimicry Institute's Ray of Hope Accelerator program to empower nature-inspired solutions for a healthy planet, Since its inception, the Ray of Hope Accelerator has distributed $750,000 in non-dilutive funding to 49 impactful startups, 35$125 million in funding post-program completion to scale systemic solutions to the world's most pressing environmental challenges. The 5-Year Impact Report showcases how these participants are addressing pressing global issues, including food security, the development of safe new materials, and innovative renewable energy solutions. The Ray of Hope Accelerator, supported by its founding sponsor, The Ray C. Anderson Foundation, is open to innovations across industries, technologies, and geographies. Each cohort is united by a common thread: they are science-driven, inspired by nature's strategies, and committed to addressing at least one of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals

Carbon Management: Primer

Carbon management tackles greenhouse gases through capture, storage, or removal. Avoiding and reducing emissions stays the top priority, but residual and legacy emissions make additional strategies necessary.This primer provides funders with orientation, outlines the main approaches, and points to ways to engage

Big Ideas and Big Money: Think Tank Funding in America

This brief provides a detailed analysis of a first-of-its-kind, publicly available repository of U.S. think tank funding — www.thinktankfundingtracker.org. The repository tracks funding from foreign governments, the U.S. government, and Pentagon contractors to the top 50 think tanks in the United States over the past five years. It serves as a vital research guide for anyone wishing to learn more about the funding sources of prominent U.S. think tanks.  The repository gives a five-point transparency score to each of the top 50 think tanks in the U.S., a scale created by the authors based on five binary questions. Based on this criteria, nine of the top 50 think tanks (18 percent) are fully transparent, while 23 think tanks (46 percent) are partially transparent. Most concerning, the remaining 18 think tanks (36 percent) are "dark money" think tanks, entirely opaque in their funding without revealing donors.In the past five years, foreign governments and foreign government-owned entities donated more than $110 million to the top 50 think tanks in the United States. The most generous donor countries were the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and Qatar, which contributed$16.7 million, $15.5 million, and$9.1 million to U.S. think tanks, respectively. The Atlantic Council, Brookings Institution, and German Marshall Fund received the most money from foreign governments since 2019: $20.8 million,$17.1 million, and $16.1 million, respectively. In that same period, the top 100 defense companies have contributed more than$34.7 million to the top 50 think tanks. The top donors include Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and Mitsubishi, which provided $5.6 million,$2.6 million, and $2.1 million, respectively, to the tracked think tanks between 2019 and 2023. The Atlantic Council, Center for a New American Security, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies were the top recipients of Pentagon contractor money:$10.2 million, $6.6 million, and$4.1 million, respectively.The U.S. government has directly given at least $1.49 billion to American think tanks since 2019. However, the vast majority of this funding —$1.4 billion — goes to the Rand Corporation, which works directly for the U.S. government.While think tanks exist to produce independent analysis, the prevalence of special interest funding raises questions of intellectual freedom, self-censorship, and perspective filtering. This is compounded by instances in which individual researchers simultaneously hold positions at a think tank and a given foreign government or corporation, a clear potential conflict of interest.  Moving forward, this brief contains a set of recommendations for various actors:For media: Adopt a professional standard to report any conflicts of interest with sources discussing U.S. foreign policy. For Congress: Pass legislation requiring all nonprofit organizations that seek to influence public policy to publicly disclose all of their corporate, U.S. government, and foreign government donors above $10,000, and improve the conflict of interest disclosure requirements for congressional witnesses.For the Department of Justice: Provide clearer guidelines surrounding what think tanks not registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act can do on behalf of their foreign donors.For think tanks: End pay-to-play research and proactively move toward identifying conflicts of interest

Driving Innovative, Relationship-Rich Change: The 2024 International Conference of the POD Network

Higher education faces significant challenges, and Centers for Teaching and Learning (CTLs) are a critical partner for senior leadership in both advising and addressing them. Educational developers who lead CTLs have demonstrated expertise in two key areas essential for innovative learning: research on student learning and research on faculty as learners. Their success often stems from a relationship-rich approach

Philanthropy and the G20: Strategic Insights from South Africa

This brief examines why the G20 has become a critical arena for philanthropy and how the sector can strategically shape global agendas. Drawing on insights from 20 philanthropic actors engaged during South Africa's G20 presidency, it highlights the unique value philanthropy brings as a connector, catalyst, knowledge partner, and amplifier of community voices. As geopolitical tensions rise and multilateral systems strain, philanthropy offers a bridge between global ambition and local action – advancing priorities such as climate justice, inclusive growth, and social protection. The analysis maps key entry points across formal and informal G20 structures, illustrates how coordinated philanthropy can influence policy and partnerships, and outlines pathways for sustained engagement across G20 cycles. Ultimately, the brief argues that philanthropy must evolve from an invited participant to a co-creation partner – helping embed equity, evidence, and long-term systems thinking at the heart of global decision-making

Philanthropy's role in Unlocking Social Innovation: a Strategic Partner for Governments

This policy brief outlines how philanthropy can act as a strategic partner to governments in advancing social innovation. It calls for enabling regulations, tax incentives, and national strategies to unlock domestic giving and catalytic capital. It also highlights the vital role of philanthropy support organisations in building resilient, locally rooted giving ecosystems, especially in the Global South.WINGS supports the Government Council for Social Innovation (GCSI) as an ecosystem partner, and this brief was prepared for the GCSI Summit in Luxembourg, April 2025. Learn more about GCSI here: https://governmentcouncil.org

Futures Philanthropy Case Study - Emerging futures : The Joseph Rowntree Foundation building imagination infrastructure through collaborative experimentation and visionary leadership

In 2021, JRF expanded its focus from solely focusing on poverty in the UK to include imagining and building fairer futures, alongside addressing immediate issues. While tackling poverty remains a core mission, the foundation now balances urgent policy and practice changes with the deeper structural shifts needed to create an economic and social model where people and the planet can thrive.This case study is part of Philea's Futures Philanthropy series - a selection of hands-on, practical insights into emerging forward-thinking, long-term, innovative practices in the European philanthropy sector. This material provides a foundation for contributing to building futures thinking in the philanthropic field

Futures Philanthropy : Funding with Trust and Flexibility : How Robert Bosch Foundation is experimenting with funding ideas and actors

The Robert Bosch Foundation is active in the areas of health, education and global issues. The foundation considers how the pressing challenges of today intersect as it strives to overcome silo thinking. This case study is part of Philea's Futures Philanthropy series - a selection of hands-on, practical insights into emerging forward-thinking, long-term, innovative practices in the European philanthropy sector. This material provides a foundation for contributing to building futures thinking in the philanthropic field

The Impact of Japanese Occupation on the Peking Union Medical College

Established by the China Medical Board in 1921, the Peking Union Medical College (PUMC) was the most prominent institution of Western medicine in Republican China. It had state-of-the-art buildings, equipment, and other infrastructural set-up, and it hosted leading medical experts of their field in the city of Beijing. However, most historical accounts of the PUMC remain silent on the years of its Japanese occupation. In 1942, the Japanese suspended the campus of PUMC and utilized it for their own purposes. This report draws on the records of the China Medical Board to reconstruct a picture of what happened to the PUMC during the era of Japanese occupation