| Arnold Ventures | |
| Type: | LLC |
| Founded: | 2010 |
Arnold Ventures LLC (formerly known as the Laura and John Arnold Foundation) is a limited liability company focused on evidence-based philanthropy in a wide range of areas including criminal justice, education, health care, and public finance. The organization was founded by billionaires John D. Arnold and Laura Arnold in 2010.[1] [2]
The organization has funded a wide range of studies and programs in health care, education reform, criminal justice, and initiatives in open science and metascience.
The Laura and John Arnold Foundation was initially created as a philanthropic organization, but was restructured as a limited liability company (LLC) and renamed Arnold Ventures in January 2019.[3] The organization's LLC structure is intended to allow it to operate more efficiently and cohesively.[4]
The Arnolds were among the first to sign the Giving Pledge in 2008,[5] a commitment by high-net-worth individuals to donate a significant portion of their wealth to philanthropic causes during their lifetimes.
Since 2010, the organization has invested more than $1 billion in philanthropic efforts, focusing on using expert research and statistical analysis to drive systemic social change.[6] In August 2012, the foundation launched the Giving Library to assist other philanthropists in making their donations more effective.[7] Arnold Ventures has published guidelines based on the Open Science Framework that researchers seeking funding must follow.[8]
In 2018, the organization donated $204.3 million.[9] As of 2021, Arnold Ventures had made over $1 billion in grants.[10]
The Arnolds apply an investment management approach to philanthropy, targeting a significant portion of their giving toward high-risk efforts with the potential to drive long-term change, while also supporting established institutions to sustain their ongoing work.[11]
As of 2021, Arnold Ventures allocated $316 million in grants for its criminal justice initiative.[10] An overview of criminal justice reform in the United States by GiveWell listed the Arnold Foundation as one of the top foundations in this field.[12]
In March 2019, Arnold Ventures announced the creation of the National Partnership for Pretrial Justice, aimed at bringing together stakeholders from various sectors affected by pretrial policies.[13] By November 2020, the organization had committed $48 million to the partnership.[14] Arnold Ventures also supports the Council on Criminal Justice, a bipartisan group formed in 2019 to improve the criminal justice system. The Council's initial projects included exploring incarceration trends by race and gender and examining the impact of the 1994 Crime Bill.[15]
In July 2019, Arnold Ventures provided $9.8 million for 17 research grants awarded by the National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research.[16] These grants are funding studies on topics such as background check laws, the role of firearms in domestic violence, gun-carrying by high-risk youth, and police training for high-stakes situations.
In June 2020, Arnold Ventures donated $2.7 million to the University of California, Irvine (UCI) to study the sources and consequences of prison violence in seven states. The goal of the three-year study is to develop evidence-based strategies to reduce and prevent violence.[17] The participating states are Arizona, Colorado, Massachusetts, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
As of April 2021, the organization had committed $7.8 million to COVID-19-related criminal justice grants, supporting initiatives such as alternatives to arrest, pretrial reforms, and the release of vulnerable inmates.[18]
The foundation funded Data-Driven Justice, a program initiated by the Obama administration in 2016 to identify repeat low-level offenders with substance abuse or mental health issues and provide targeted interventions. In 2018, the foundation pledged $1.6 million for pilot programs in Middlesex County, Massachusetts; Long Beach, California; and Johnson County, Iowa.[19] In May 2018, the foundation announced $4.1 million in grants to help communities address the needs of “frequent utilizers”—individuals who frequently cycle between jails and hospitals.[20]
In 2011, the Vice President of Criminal Justice at the then-LJAF, former New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram, led the development of a risk assessment tool called the Public Safety Assessment (PSA) for use in pretrial release decisions.[21] The PSA has been the subject of controversy, including a 2017 lawsuit brought by a family whose son was allegedly murdered by a man granted pretrial release based on the PSA.[22] In 2020, a U.S. Appellate Court upheld the dismissal of the complaint.
In 2016, the foundation donated $360,000 to a trial of continuous aerial surveillance in Baltimore, Maryland, using drones. The project, funded by the LLC, was implemented without the knowledge of local authorities, leading to legal challenges and public outcry.[23] [24]
In 2019, the foundation committed $17 million in grants to study the effectiveness of prisons in the U.S. as part of the criminal justice system.[25]
As of 2020, Arnold Ventures had spent $425 million on education-related grants.[10]
In May 2012, Reuters reported that the Laura and John Arnold Foundation had committed $20 million over five years to an initiative called StudentsFirst, led by Michelle Rhee, former head of the Washington, D.C. public school system.[26] [27]
On June 26, 2012, the foundation launched the ERIN Project, a tool for analyzing the national K-12 education landscape.[28] [29]
Arnold Ventures partnered with other organizations to create The City Fund in 2018, a nonprofit focused on improving public schools using the portfolio model. Under this model, school systems invest in schools that deliver good results and close or change those that do not. The City Fund raised nearly $200 million in its first year.[30]
In March 2020, Arnold Ventures gave $3 million to The City Fund to help schools during the coronavirus pandemic. The money was distributed among the 14 cities where the group has active grants.[31]
In 2016 and 2018, the foundation joined other donors in providing $40 million to end gerrymandering and implement open primaries and ranked choice voting.[32] In 2018, Arnold Ventures partnered with six organizations to sponsor an independent committee of scholars to conduct research on Facebook’s role in elections and democracy. The Social Science Research Council oversaw the research proposal selection and peer-review process.[33]
The foundation has funded various politically-oriented 501(c)4 organizations. Many focus on tax and retirement policies.
LJAF’s pension reform efforts have been controversial.[34] [35] However, the foundation's goal has been to identify failed systems and propose viable alternatives.[36] Even critics acknowledge the need for reform.[37] In 2014, public pension systems faced shortfalls exceeding $1 trillion, contributing to the bankruptcy filings of two cities in California and Michigan.
In July 2014, the Arnold Foundation donated $2.8 million to the Center for Public Integrity to support a project focused on state campaign finance. The foundation has also funded think tanks and research institutes focused on public pension issues, including the libertarian Reason Foundation and Boston College’s Center for Retirement Research. In 2016, the foundation and unions in Arizona supported a ballot measure that reduced cost-of-living payments to retired police and firefighters.
By 2020, Arnold Ventures had donated $347 million to health care initiatives, including $5.67 million to the Center for Healthcare Transparency, $23.19 million to the Nutrition Science Initiative, and $1.67 million to the Research Triangle Institute.[38] Arnold Ventures was one of three organizations that invested in Civica RX, a nonprofit focused on reducing drug costs. Fifty large hospital systems partnered with Civica RX.
Arnold Ventures donated $27.6 million to the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER), accounting for 69% of its funding. ICER conducts cost analyses of prescription drugs and medical procedures using metrics like the quality-adjusted life year (QALY) and Equal Value of Life Years Gained (evLYG). Arnold Ventures’ work through ICER has been praised for standardizing drug pricing but has faced criticism for potentially limiting investment in treatments for elderly patients or those with rare diseases.[39]
In January 2021, the organization helped fund the Action Collaborative on Countering the U.S. Opioid Epidemic, formed by the National Academy of Medicine and the Aspen Institute to address the risks posed by the COVID-19 pandemic to people with substance use disorders and chronic pain.[40]
See also: Metascience. One of the first projects funded by the foundation was research into obesity, inspired by John Arnold's interest after hearing an interview with Gary Taubes on the EconTalk podcast.[1] This led to a $4.7 million seed grant to the Nutrition Science Initiative (NuSI), a nonprofit co-founded by Taubes and Peter Attia to investigate the causes of obesity.[1] [41] The foundation later promised an additional $35.5 million. It also funds The Nutrition Coalition, which advocates for changes in how the Dietary Guidelines for America are formulated.[41]
The foundation provided a $5.25 million grant to launch the Center for Open Science, followed by an additional $10 million in funding by 2017.[1] The Center has undertaken reproducibility projects to confirm the validity of published scientific research.
The foundation also funded the launch of the Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford at Stanford University, led by John Ioannidis and Steven Goodman, to study ways to improve scientific research; and supported the AllTrials initiative co-led by Ben Goldacre.
As of 2017, Arnold Ventures had given around $80 million in grants under its "Research Integrity" initiative.[1]