Introduce Yourself
to the Transforming
Criminal Justice Program

The Introduce Yourself form is a way for us to learn about organizations and projects we don’t already know about. Our Program Officers (POs) can review your responses to learn more about your work, which will help them understand if you might be a good fit for a current or upcoming funding cycle. Completing this form does not guarantee that someone will be in contact with you, but if your work is a good fit for our funding cycle (now or in the future), someone will likely reach out.

The Navigation Fund’s Program Officers receive numerous requests for funding regularly. We are unable to speak with every single inquiry we receive. We use the information shared in this form to filter submissions based on relevance to our funding priorities and identify who we might contact for more information and/or invite to apply for funding in any given cycle. Submissions not aligned with our funding priorities may remain in our database indefinitely without receiving a response from us.

Probably not. If you’re already in communication with someone at The Navigation Fund, you do not need to submit this form unless you are specifically requested to do so.

We receive a lot of Introductions and are unable to respond to everyone. You’ll receive an automated confirmation once your information is received. If your organization/project is identified as a potential fit for us, a PO will be in touch via email (this could be within days, months, or even years of your submission, depending on our funding priorities at that given time). This initial contact will just be to gather additional information to aid our understanding of your work and does not guarantee that an invitation to apply for funding will follow.

No, this is not an application for funding. Funding applications are by invitation only. We determine who to invite based on the information we have about organizations and projects in our issues areas and the priorities of our current funding cycles. By filling out the Introduce Yourself form, you are sharing information about your organization/project that we can review to determine if your org/project might be a good fit. If it is, we’ll reach out for more information and/or invite your organization to apply.

We don’t expect you to spend more than a few minutes submitting this form. This is just an introduction, so you can keep the details to a minimum and focus instead on your big-picture mission and programs, utilizing the options to copy/paste or attach existing materials. We don’t expect you to generate anything new for us and we’re more interested in the content than the presentation. We encourage you to use whatever style works best for you (e.g. paragraphs, bullet points, attaching existing content, etc).

Please see the Form Content FAQs below for additional information about the level of detail we’re looking for on this form.

No. Please only submit information once. We will keep your information on file and contact you if you are a good fit for any current or future funding cycles.

If your organization has undergone significant changes (e.g. a change in mission, the launch of a new type of program not previously covered in your program code selection, or significant growth that you think might impact our assessment of your work), you can submit an updated version of this form. Please note in the Brief Description section that you’ve previously submitted this form and why an update is warranted.

If you’ve previously submitted a project-based introduction and are now working on a different project, you can submit a new form with that updated information. Please note in the Brief Description section that you’ve previously submitted this form and indicate whether or not that first project is still active.‍

If you have questions about whether or not you should submit an updated form, please contact us.

Mission statements are a great way for us to quickly understand what your organization or project does. If you don’t have an official mission statement, you can include any short statement (no more than one paragraph) that encompasses this idea.

If you are affiliated with an organization, please provide org-level content in this form. You may mention the different types of projects that your organization works on, but having a higher-level view of your work is more helpful for us at this stage. If one of your focus areas is a good fit for our funding strategy, we may invite an application for project-specific funding and get more granular details at that time.

For this form, project-specific details are more appropriate for work that is being done outside of traditional nonprofit organizations, such as exploratory research, projects not yet set up as nonprofits, etc.

The Brief Description serves an introduction to give us a general overview about what work you do that aligns with our funding strategy. Imagine that you met one of our Program Officers at an event and wanted to quickly introduce yourself and your organization to them in a way that will peak their interest and make them understand why and how you fit into our funding strategy. That’s what we’re looking for here.‍

Your description should be limited to approximately 1-2 paragraphs. If you need a little more, that’s okay, but this is not the place to make a comprehensive case for funding, as this is not a funding application. Instead, this is to quickly introduce yourself so we know you’re out there doing great work. ‍

This does not need to be super polished or formal. We’re more interested in the content than the presentation and encourage you to use whatever style works best for you (e.g. paragraphs, bullet points, attaching existing content, etc).

This is just an introduction, so please keep the details to a minimum and focus instead on your big-picture mission and programs. If the type of work you’re doing aligns with our funding strategy, one of our Program Officers will reach out to learn more.

We don’t expect you to spend more than a few minutes submitting this form. You can use the attachments section to include pre-existing content – such as an annual report or existing two-pager – that will provide a more complete picture of your work.