The Circle for Justice Innovations began in 2000 as the Criminal Justice Initiative (CJI), a program of The Funding Exchange, a progressive foundation based in New York. Born from concern of prison expansion, mass incarceration and its disproportionate impact on marginalized communities, as well as understanding the limited funding for progressive criminal legal organizing, the CJI Circle was established to create a new source of support for a meaningful, transformative and systemic change of the criminal legal system. CJI was founded as a community of activists and donors working together based on the recognition that to change systems that affect all of us, we must all work together. CJI was housed at the Solidago Foundation from 2009 to 2018. Following the 2016 grant cycle, CJI will have given away over $2 million in grants to over 50 grassroots organizations working to transform the criminal legal system.