Soros Justice Fellowships – United States

The Soros Justice Fellowships support outstanding individuals—including lawyers, advocates, grassroots organizers, writers, print and broadcast journalists, artists, filmmakers, and other individuals with distinctive voices—to undertake full-time projects that engage and inform, spur debate and conversation, change policy or practice, and catalyze change around the U.S. criminal legal system at the local, state, and national levels. Fellowships can be either 12 or 18 months in duration, may be undertaken with the support of a host organization, and should begin in the fall of 2024.

There are two fellowship tracks: Track I, which is for people at the earlier stages of their careers and who demonstrate the potential to develop into leaders and important voices in their respective fields; and Track II, which is for more experienced individuals with a proven record of achievement and expertise.

Project Focus

• The Soros Justice Fellowships will consider projects that focus on any aspect of the U.S. criminal legal system—which they broadly see as a set of institutions and actors (law enforcement, courts, prosecutors, and corrections) and a related set of policies, practices, narratives, and orientations that exert coercive control over individuals and communities in this country. Regardless of a project’s focus, they expect applicants to make the case that their projects have the potential to contribute something valuable to a particular issue or in a particular place.

Funding Information

• Individuals can apply for one of two fellowship grants, depending on the applicant’s level of experience. Track I comes with an grant of $100,000 over 18 months, and Track II comes with a grant of $140,000 over 18 months (grants for both tracks are prorated for 12-month projects).
• These grant amounts are all-inclusive, i.e., they are intended to cover a fellow’s living expenses, project-related expenses, travel, conference fees, health insurance, etc. They do not provide additional funds beyond the fellowship award (they do, however, cover any costs associated with attending fellowship-related conferences, gatherings, or meetings organized by the fellowships program).
• Fellowship grants are considered public information, and the fellows’ names and project descriptions will be included in the Open Society Foundations’ tax returns, as required by Internal Revenue Service regulations.

Eligibility Criteria

• Track I
  • Track I applicants must have at least two (2) years of relevant experience, which may include: full-time and part-time employment; paid or unpaid internships; sustained volunteer work; or other pertinent experience (e.g. advocacy while incarcerated). Track I is for people at a range of phases in their careers, including but not limited to: people just entering the field following post-graduate education; advocates or media makers with several years of work experience and some degree of achievement; and those beginning to work on criminal legal issues after a career in another field or after some other life experience.
• Track II
  • Track II applicants must have at least ten (10) years of relevant experience. Track II is for seasoned, established, and accomplished leaders and voices in the field— ideally people who have distinguished themselves on a local, state, or national level; and who have the kind of stature, record of accomplishment, experience, and capacity necessary to have a meaningful impact on the issue or issues their projects seek to take on.
• Education
  • All applicants must have at least a high school diploma or its equivalent.
• Time Commitment
  • Fellowships can be either 12 or 18 months in duration and should begin in the fall of 2024. Applicants must be able to devote at least 35 hours per week to the project if awarded a fellowship; and the project must be the applicant’s only fulltime work during the fellowship. Fellows cannot be full-time students during their fellowships.
• They are keenly interested in projects that address the current social, political, and ecological moment and that contribute to efforts to build a truly inclusive, multi-racial democracy. They also encourage applications that demonstrate a clear understanding of how the criminal legal system intersects and interacts with the 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 or unfair criminal legal system policies and practices.
• 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).

Ineligibility Criteria

• The fellowships do not fund the following:
  • enrollment for degree or nondegree study at academic institutions, including dissertation research
  • projects that do not have a meaningful connection to a U.S. criminal legal system issue (applicants themselves can be based outside the United States and projects can have a global focus or perspective, as long as the work has a meaningful connection to a U.S. issue).

For more information, visit Open Society Foundations.