The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is no longer funding a pro-immigration group that Mark Zuckerberg cofounded over a decade ago.
It’s the latest change for the organization amid the Meta CEO’s public rightward shift since President Donald Trump was reelected.
CZI, the philanthropic organization founded by Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, did not provide funding for the pro-immigration and criminal justice reform group FWD.us in 2025, according to two people familiar with the matter. It was the first year CZI did not fund FWD.us.
The shift had been in motion for years, beginning in late 2022, when CZI started pivoting its focus more squarely toward scientific research, the two people said. Discussions at the time indicated that the organization’s financial relationship with FWD.us would eventually conclude, and the separation was formalized in April 2025, the people said. Bloomberg first reported the funding cut.
“Nearly five years ago, we shared that we were focusing on our core work in science, education, and supporting our local communities,” a CZI representative told Business Insider in a statement. “As part of that transition, we committed foundational funding to FWD.us to continue their bipartisan work. We have fulfilled that financial commitment and wound down our social advocacy funding.”
Earlier this year, Jordan Fox, CZI’s chief of staff, also stepped down from FWD.us’s board of directors, leaving a vacancy that will not be filled by another CZI representative, the two people added.
“Our focus remains on advancing pragmatic, bipartisan solutions that strengthen the economy and make the immigration and criminal justice systems work better,” said Todd Schulte, president of FWD.us. “That mission hasn’t changed.”
Zuckerberg was key to building FWD.us. He cofounded the organization in 2013, launching it via an op-ed in The Washington Post.
FWD.us was backed by other tech leaders, including LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Dropbox cofounder Drew Houston, and VC and “All In” cohost Chamath Palihapitiya.
In 2024, Mark Zuckerberg met with Trump advisor Stephen Miller, who reportedly raised questions about CZI’s ties to FWD.us, one person familiar with the matter said.
Zuckerberg has met and dined with Trump multiple times since his reelection and Meta contributed $1 million toward his inaugural fund, as well as helping fund the White House’s new ballroom.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
And in a move widely viewed as an effort to curry favor with the Trump administration, Zuckerberg reversed course earlier this year on some Facebook and Instagram policy initiatives that had been previously criticized by conservatives. In January, Meta replaced its third-party fact-checkers with community notes and loosened its definition of hate speech. And in September, the CEO pledged a $600 billion US investment from Meta.
In November, Zuckerberg and Chan announced that they would shift CZI’s focus to science and AI. The philanthropy now focuses on Biohub, a group of biology labs it has supported since 2016.
CZI’s recruiting pitch? They’ve got GPUs, Chan said in July. Zuckerberg later said that CZI researchers don’t want more employees or office space; they want more GPUs.
