If You Seek Our Help
The National Center for Reason and Justice has compassion for all victims of injustice and we wish to help if we can. If you seek our help, however, you should be aware of certain limitations that constrain us: First, we are constrained by the purposes and goals laid out in our by laws and filed with the Internal Revenue Service:
2.1 Purposes. The purposes and goals of The National Center for Reason and Justice are as follows:
- To educate the public about the plight of low income individuals who are accused of crimes;
- To act as a national clearinghouse for information on community crises, junk science, biased testimony and media distortions which contribute to the imprisonment of innocent individuals;
- To provide resources for community groups that seek to support low income individuals who are wrongfully accused of criminal conduct; and
- To act exclusively for charitable, scientific, educational, or literary purposes, as defined under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 or any equivalent law, including but not limited to, the making of grants to organizations that are exempt under said Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3).
Second, we are constrained by our resources. We are a young organization and currently have little money and no paid staff. We cannot provide pro bono legal help. For the time being, we are limiting our help to cases involving accusations of harm to children. Nevertheless, we have been able to help a number of individuals.
- Our grant-making is not limited to 501(c)(3) organizations. Thus we are able to provide fiscal sponsorship for defense funds set up by community groups. Donors can make deductible donations to the NCRJ. But donations restricted to a specific individual are not deductible. Click here for information about setting up a defense fund. The NCRJ does not have the resources to raise funds for individual cases. Thus you may want to explore other sources of help.
- Fiscal sponsorship must be approved by a vote of our Board of Directors.
- If we approve fiscal sponsorship, we will link the web site containing information about your case. We also provide links to web sites of some cases we do not sponsor. By directing traffic to your site, we can help bring injustice to public attention. We will not create the web site for you, but we may be able to provide advice and technical assistance. We can also provide information about your case to the public at educational events that we hope to sponsor in the future.
- We may be able to provide you with advice and suggestions, and direct you to people who can help with your case.
Given these limitations, you may have decided that the NCRJ cannot be of significant help to you. But if you think we can be of help, please follow this link and fill out the form you will find there. Warning: We are currently backlogged and rely on volunteers to investigate requests for help. If you have decided that the NCRJ is not the appropriate organization to help you, you may wish to explore some other organizations who work to help the falsely accused and wrongfully convicted. Here are a few: