Where we've been. Where we're going.
JAF is operational. We're in active discovery with immigration legal organizations across the country, the first board review of recommended grantees is complete, and Round 1 grants are in deployment.
Phased by design. Not by hesitation.
Justice Architecture follows a deliberate, evidence-driven roadmap. Each phase must be validated before the next one activates. We moved fast through formation and infrastructure. And now we're in the field.
Incorporated both entities in Washington State. Filed IRS Form 8976 (Notice of Intent to Operate) for the c3 and c4. Form 1023 (tax-exempt determination) is in preparation. Adopted bylaws, Conflict of Interest Policy, and Resource Sharing Agreement. Established banking, Google Workspace, and digital infrastructure.
Built internal systems: Partner Pipeline, vetting framework, Discovery Protocol methodology. Held Q1 Joint Board Meeting. Ratified org-to-org model, confirmed seed capital for pilot grants. Onboarded Board members with operational mandates. All compliance and governance infrastructure in place.
In active discovery with frontline immigration legal organizations. Round 1 grants are in deployment. Conducting operational interviews across priority states and nationally. First board review of recommended grantees is complete. Documenting the operational patterns that will shape where capital goes and what tools get built.
Initial capacity-building grants to vetted immigration legal organizations. Round 1 intent letters have gone out to partners and wires follow on countersign. Grants address the operational gaps surfaced during discovery: response capacity, intake systems, interpretation, and digital security. Running the 45/75/90-day monitoring cycle from day one.
Expand discovery to additional immigration legal organizations based on what the first cycle reveals. Issue second round of grants. Begin synthesizing field data to identify the highest-impact intervention points for technology development. Pursue additional fundraising to expand grant capacity.
Fund engineering teams to build open-source tools that solve the exact problems documented through discovery. Roll out to partner organizations first, then release as open-source infrastructure for the broader immigration legal ecosystem. The tools will be shaped by what we learn in the field, not by what we assumed at a whiteboard.
How we decide what matters.
Listen First, Then Fund
We don't show up with a grant and a checklist. We conduct structured discovery conversations to understand what's actually breaking inside an immigration legal organization's operations. The patterns that emerge across dozens of these conversations tell us where capital will have the most impact. We've already learned that our initial assumptions about bottlenecks were incomplete. And we adjusted.
Let the Field Shape the Work
Our four deployment lanes weren't designed in a conference room. They came directly from what frontline immigration legal organizations told us they need. If the next round of discovery reveals new patterns, we'll adjust again. The intelligence we collect is only valuable if we act on it, even when it contradicts what we expected to find.
Move Fast on What's Proven
We went from incorporation to active discovery in three months. We're not slow. We're sequenced. Formation is done. Infrastructure is done. Now we're in the field, and Round 1 grants are in deployment. Building the wrong tool is still worse than building no tool, but we don't use discipline as an excuse for inaction.
We'd rather be right and slow than fast and wrong. The people in these systems deserve precision.