The Open Philanthropy Project awarded a grant of $25,000 to Court Watch NOLA for general support. This grant falls within Open Philanthropy's work on criminal justice reform.
Court Watch NOLA is a small nonprofit organization that has over 100 volunteers annually who regularly monitor New Orleans courtrooms and report on practices used. Court watchers gather data relating to violations of transparency, constitutional rights, ethics rules, state law, and victim rights. This data is compiled into regular reports that the organization uses for advocacy. Open Philanthropy is interested in exploring the possibility of scaling up court monitoring as a prominent public education and engagement tactic in criminal justice reform work.