ABOUT Friends of San Quentin News

We are a small but mighty team dedicated to elevating the voices of the incarcerated and formerly incarcerated.  We help restore dignity in how they're viewed, giving them hope for fair treatment and motivating them toward civic engagement.  We operate and support programs that use journalism and storytelling as tools  to promote rehabilitation, inform conversations around criminal justice reform, and challenge structural barriers to achieve a more open, just, and equitable society.  Our community connections, criminal justice experience, and financial management expertise enable us to make your donations go as far as possible towards supporting that mission.
​
Friends of San Quentin News was founded as the non-profit fundraising organization for San Quentin News. In 2013, the San Quentin News partnered with the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business and its Center for Social Sector Leadership to develop a sustainable long-term strategic plan that would provide free access to the San Quentin News for every incarcerated individual in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (at the time over 120,000 people).  As the incarcerated do not have internet access, providing access requires physical printed copies and distribution.  However, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) does not provide any funding for San Quentin News printing and distribution (it does pay for staff salaries at up to 24 cents per hour), and as San Quentin News is a prison program, it is not able to directly solicit or receive any outside funding or enter into legal contracts.  Friends of San Quentin News was created to assist the San Quentin News in realizing its mission and vision of providing free access to all incarcerated.    The CDCR and San Quentin Prison Warden have agreed to the fiscal arrangement with Friends of San Quentin News so that San Quentin News can exist and flourish.  Today, because of your support, a majority of CDCR incarcerated do have free access to the San Quentin News.  The Friends of San Quentin News continues to support the San Quentin News as it develops into new areas and pursues bold new goals to promote rehabilitative efforts in order to increase public safety and achieve social justice.

Where Our Funding Comes From:

1. Reva and David Logan Foundation
2. Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative
3. The San Francisco Foundation
4. Large Individual Donations
5. Small/Medium Individual Donations 
6. The Nathan Cummings Foundation
7. Rotary Clubs
8. Charitable Fundraising Events

Our Friends of San Quentin News Staff and volunteers

Jesse Vasquez, Executive Director
Jon Spurlock, Founder/Strategic Advisor
Wayne Boatwright, Webmaster
Lisa Armstrong, Program Manager and Strategic Advisor
Susanne Karch, Donor Outreach
Richard "Bonaru" Richardson, Visual Design Editor
​Lisa Adams, Reentry Advisor
LaKeesha Richardson, Liaison to Families of the Incarcerated
Madeline Scott, Women's Facility Volunteer Coordinator
Melody Serra, Web Design Volunteer
Nayeli Peña Arce, Incarcerated Women Consultant

Social Good Fund

​Friends of San Quentin News is fiscally sponsored by Social Good Fund (SGF).  Social Good Fund works to create and establish positive influences for individuals, communities, and the environment. Their goal is to sponsor and develop projects that will help positively impact and develop local communities into healthier and happier places to live, work, and be.  SGF supports over 400 charitable projects that, in turn, serve many thousands of people throughout the United States and the world. Social Good Fund was founded on the idea that positive social change is not only possible, it’s an absolutely necessary and critical component of a healthy community.

SGF Contact and Tax ID Information
socialgood@socialgoodfund.org
www.socialgoodfund.org
510.621.7223
(EIN) TAX ID: 46-1323531