User:Vipul/Laura and John Arnold Foundation

The Laura and John Arnold Foundation (also known as LJAF and the Arnold Foundation) is a private foundation run by John D. Arnold, an American hedge fund manager, and his wife Laura Arnold. Laura and John Arnold are among the signatories to the Giving Pledge, a pledge by some high net worth individuals to donate a large fraction of their income to philanthropic causes, and wrote an open letter describing why they were signing on.

Strategy and areas of focus
LJAF's activities are primarily centered around improving life in the United States. LJAF's mission is to produce big and lasting changes in society over the long term. They are not in a hurry to spend a lot of money steadily, but rather, they wish to intensively research each area before putting their money behind strategies that are likely to work.

As of March 2014, LJAF has four areas of focus: criminal justice, K-12 education, public accountability, and research integrity. In the period 2011-2013, LJAF made $222,390,887 in grants, distributed as follows: $5,492,869 for criminal justice, $102,069,458 for education, $48,979,934 for public accountability, and $55,007,826 for research integrity.

Criminal justice
LJAF aims to discover and deploy strategies that will reduce crime, improve safety, and improve the functioning of the criminal justice system. In the period 2011-2013, they allocated $5,492,869 in grants for their criminal justice initiative.

As of March 2014, LJAF's focus in criminal justice is in two areas:


 * The front end of the system, which runs from arrest to sentencing.
 * Forensic science

Anne Milgram, the Vice President for criminal justice at LJAF, worked earlier as the Attorney General for the state of New Jersey. In a TED talk, she explained how smart statistics were the key to fighting crime.

K-12 education
LJAF supports the portfolio model school management structure, a governance system that separates the authorization and oversight of public schools from their day-to-day operations. This is in contrast with the district-based educational system, where syllabi and textbooks are chosen at the level of the school district. The Arnolds have committed $40 million to this educational model. According to their list of grants, they have spent $102,069,458 on grants related to education.

The Arnolds' interest in education is deep, and in fact their initial foray into philanthropy (before they decided to be more strategic and do deeper research) involved a donation to the Knowledge is Power Program charter schools.

In May 2012, Reuters reported that the Laura and John Arnold Foundation had committed $20 million over a five-year period to an initiative called StudentsFirst led by Michelle Rhee, who used to head the Washington D.C. public school system. StudentsFirst reported its spending shortly thereafter.

Public accountability
LJAF claims to be committed to supporting "evidence-based decision making by governments, promoting transparency and data-sharing, exploring innovative financing mechanisms for social problem solving, and maximizing overall government performance and efficiencies." In the period 2011-2013, they awarded grants worth $48,979,934 to this effort.

In particular, LJAF has looked closely at the issue of public employee benefit reform, specifically pension reform. In a video, they describe how they have approached pension reform: they first got experts together to define the problem and the solution, then they figured out implementation details and looked for jursdictions that were friendly to their proposals. LJAF's attempts at pension reform have been met with hostility, and critics have argued that they have bought out groups such as the Pew Charitable Trust, the Public Broadcasting Service, and the Brookings Institution. In March 2014, the Chronicle of Philanthropy reported that Pensions and Investments had asked the Pew Charitable Trust to stop taking money from the LJAF because of the LJAF's support for pension reform.

Research integrity
LJAF says that its research integrity initiative aims "to improve the reliability and validity of scientific evidence across fields that inform governmental policy, philanthropic endeavors, and individual decision making." In the period 2011-2013, they awarded $55,007,826 in grants for research integrity initiatives. LJAF has published guidelines, based on the Open Science Framework, that anybody seeking research funding from them must follow.

Media coverage
LJAF has been covered by the Chronicle of Philanthropy and GiveSmart (a website of the BridgeSpan Group).