Pew Charitable Trusts

Pew Charitable Trusts (Pew) is an independent nonprofit organization and the beneficiary of seven individual trusts established by the Pew family between 1948 and 1979. Through research, technical assistance, partnerships, and advocacy, Pew has a distinguished history and track record of helping governments develop and adopt evidence-based policies proven to work on a wide range of issues, including public safety and health. The award continues support for the Mental Health and Justice Initiative to assist states and counties in reducing the likelihood the default responses of jail admission or transport to an emergency department are used when responding to individuals experiencing a mental health crisis. The aim is to amplify best practices at the local level, identify meaningful reform opportunities at the state level, and create partnerships between local, state, and philanthropic partners to transform the way behavioral health needs are addressed by existing emergency response systems.

Pew Charitable Trusts (Pew) is an independent nonprofit organization and the beneficiary of seven individual trusts established by the Pew family between 1948 and 1979. Through research, technical assistance, partnerships, and advocacy, Pew has a distinguished history and track record of helping governments develop and adopt evidence-based policies proven to work on a wide range of issues including public safety and health. Pew has proposed a new initiative to foster public-private partnerships to end the use of jails as the default crisis response to people with serious mental illness in the United States through state policy reforms. The award enables Pew to lay the groundwork for national change over the next two years by convening an advisory panel to develop an evidence-based framework for state policy reform; design and pilot a model for establishing organizations in states to support implementation of those policies and monitor progress; and create a learning community among state and local system stakeholders and private philanthropy committed to the adoption and implementation of policy reforms and share promising models.

The Pew Charitable Trusts (Pew), which operates as a public charity, is the sole beneficiary of seven individual charitable funds established between 1948 and 1979 by descendants of the founder of Sun Oil Company. In its work, Pew applies a rigorous, analytical approach to improve public policy, inform the public and invigorate civic life. This grant renews support for the Pew-MacArthur Results First Initiative (Results First), an approach that aims to change the fiscal decision-making culture and practice of policymakers across the country. Results First provides legislative and executive branch officials with cutting-edge tools so they can use evidence and benefit-cost analyses to make budget choices that achieve higher returns on investment for taxpayers and achieve better outcomes for citizens.

The Pew Charitable Trusts' Election Initiatives brings an evidence-based, technocratic focus to supporting elections officials in their efforts to conduct fair, accountable, and open elections. Pew has been involved in elections work since 2007, and since that time it has developed a network of county and state elections' officials, major technology companies, academic experts, and others who work together to examine pressing elections problems, share successful practices, and undertake projects to help states implement efficient and cost-effective voting process improvements. Pew's data driven, nonpartisan approach to elections reform has been successful
in addressing ways to make the voting system more fair, efficient, and user-friendly at a time when public debate about elections reforms is often highly political and ideologically divisive.  

This grant will help support Pew's Election Initiatives over one year, including its work on upgrading voter registration, the Voting Information Project, the Elections Performance Index, and new work designed to understand the motivations and attitudes of non-voters.

This grant supports the Pew Research Center and the MacArthur Research Network on an Aging Society to conduct survey research and analysis on the dynamics of intergenerational relations in the U.S., Germany and Italy. The study will explore a wide range of issues related to aging and family relationships, including a detailed analysis of the relation between family evolution and intergenerational exchanges of both time and money, in the context of major demographic transformation; and will inform policymakers, the media and the public of the rapid aging of populations in the three countries and its effect on family relations.