The California Endowment: $4 billion endowment, first foundation to divest (2015), now 100% mission-aligned
Nathan Cummings Foundation: $500 million, 95%+ in harm-prevention investments since 2018, reports no financial setbacks
F.B. Heron Foundation: $275 million, 100% mission-aligned after discovering prison holdings in 2015
Edward W. Hazen Foundation: $30 million, divested with established screening policies
By mid-2019, eight major banks announced plans to end private prison financing: JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, SunTrust, BNP Paribas, Fifth Third, PNC, and Barclays.
This created an 87.4% financing gap for CoreCivic and GEO Group, representing $2.352 billion in withdrawn credit lines and term loans.
Warning: In 2025, Bank of America reversed its position and resumed providing banking services to CoreCivic. Corporate commitments remain subject to change based on shifting political environments. Sustained pressure and ongoing vigilance are required.
Banks and financial services companies play a crucial intermediary role in the carceral industrial complex:
Financing: Provide capital for private prison companies to build facilities, maintain operations, and expand capacity
Underwriting: Facilitate access to capital markets through bond issuance
Investment products: Manage mutual funds and ETFs that direct individual and institutional capital into these companies
When major banks withdrew, smaller regional banks and alternative lenders filled part of the void. New York State passed legislation prohibiting state-chartered banks from financing private prisons to address this gap.
Trillium Asset Management: Pioneer in sustainable investing since 1982. Excludes companies with 5%+ revenue from private prisons, jails, detention centers, or correctional facilities.
Boston Trust Walden: ESG-screened mutual funds explicitly exclude prison operations.
Abacus Wealth Partners: "Minimum Societal Values Criteria" screens out private prisons. Deeper options include: prison involvement, prison funding, prison labor, money bail, and immigrant detention.
Just Futures: Social justice lens screening. Offers retirement plans, asset management, and the Just Transition Integrated Capital Fund (0% loans and catalytic grants to BIPOC-controlled funds).
Prison Free Funds (prisonfreefunds.org): Grades 3,000+ U.S. equity funds for prison industrial complex exposure. Launched 2020 by As You Sow and American Friends Service Committee.
AFSC Investigate (investigate.afsc.org): Tracks companies in prison and border industries with detailed profiles.
Worth Rises (worthrises.org): "The Prison Industry: Mapping Private Sector Players" assigns harm scores to companies across the carceral apparatus.