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Last Prisoner Project is the poster child association for cannabis advocacy and rights in the USA with its cause of getting non-violent cannabis prisoners out of Federal incarceration and back home with their families.

I can’t argue with that, you can’t argue with that and a host of celebs and cannabis companies are happy to fund them to the hilt as it makes for great PR and is a great way to assuage that nagging guilt that whilst they are minting money others are still locked up for no good reason for the forseeable future.

Last Prisoner Project write in  the wrapping up section of  their 2024 report

We proudly participate in evaluations by charity monitoring groups. The Last Prisoner Project has achieved a Four-Star Charity designation from Charity Navigator and a Platinum Seal of Transparency Rating on Candid, the world’s largest source of information on non-profit organizations. These ratings puts us in the top 0.1% of charities nationally in terms of transparency.

Here’s a roll call of just a small percentage of the names that have supported the organisation over the past five years.

If there was a cannabis industry aristocracy this would be it

Ascend
Curaleaf
Jim Belushi
Leafly
Weedmaps
Wana
Dr Bronners
Dutchie
Ayr
Scotts
Leafly
Canopy
RAW
Pharmacann
Benzinga
TerrAscend
Truelieve

A few recent things popped into the CLR in-tray over December that gave me pause for thought on LPP and how the organization defines itself and what it actually does as we move into 2026

Initially a linked in post about wages at the organisation popped up in my feed and somewhat surprised me,  subsequently and entirely unrelated a source spoke to CLR asking the open question asking whether the organisation has moved from being a prisoner advocacy organisation to just being another policy outfit and all that that entails in terms of spend on things other than direct prisoner advocay.

Then as things always come in threes I also noticed via a report in online rag Hollywood Unlocked that LPP Advocacy Associate Donte West was recently to be found in a Indonesian courtroom alongside Jarred Shaw in his high profile medical cannabis gummies case that has now been finalised

Hollywood Unlocked write ..Donte West, who served as Shaw’s international humanitarian negotiator and advocate, was present in court for the verdict. Working side-by-side with Indonesian legal counsel and in direct coordination with the U.S. Embassy, West pushed a humanitarian-centered defense that brought Shaw’s medical reality front and center.

The report does not mention whether West was there on his own dime, on Shaw’s dime, the NBA’s dime, Grissom Miller’s Law Firm dime or on LPP’s dime. But for an organisation that has a plethora of cases of “unknown” people sitting in US jails for years it does seem rather odd that one of “their” people is jetting across the Pacific to be there by the side of a high profile baskeball player and acting as an intermediary between local lawyers, the US embassy and the Indonesian justice system. It would be interesting to learn how this outing was funded ?

The positive result then reported via a Hollywood media outlet

Finally the open question. Will the Trump auto-pen issue undo their good work  and should / have they made accomodations for the arbitrary nature of the current administration

Firstly let’s tackle the basic funtamental financials what’s coming in and what’s going out

All numbers are quoted as $USD

2020
In 2,075,822.65
Out 745,890.23

2021
In 3,608,667.00
Out 2,675,017.00

2022
In 3,388,551.00
Out 4,113,135.00

2023
In 2,974,496.00
Out 3,042,077.00

2024
In 2,266,193.00
Out 2,738,267.00

TOTAL
In 14,313,729.65
Out 13,314,386.23

Leaving them + 999,343.42 at end of reporting season 2024

The important thing to highlight is the 2020 & 2021 were the years that have supported the following years with 2024 clawing back the discrepancies of 23 & 24 but without a doubt the spend is up and analyzing that spend is the nub of the issue

If we look at how they then define their incomings and spending year by year

2020
IN
GENERAL DONATIONS: $1,134,071.89
PARTNERS FOR FREEDOM: $719,192.77
ROLL IT UP FOR JUSTICE: $181,363.79
SALES AND OTHER REVENUE: $41,194.20
OUT
PROGRAM SERVICES: $333,106.40
SUPPORT FUND: $195,706.88
MANAGEMENT & GENERAL: $111,990.41
DEVELOPMENT: $105,086.54

2021
IN
GENERAL DONATIONS: $1,164,241
PARTNERS FOR FREEDOM: $1,385,326
ROLL IT UP FOR JUSTICE: $1,005,246
SALES AND OTHER REVENUE: $53,854
OUT
PROGRAMS: $1,947,496
MANAGEMENT & GENERAL: $488,312
DEVELOPMENT: $239,209

2022
IN
GENERAL DONATIONS: $884,615
PARTNERS FOR FREEDOM: $1,556,129
ROLL IT UP FOR JUSTICE: $913,965
SALES AND OTHER REVENUE: $33,842
OUT
PROGRAMS: $3,098,156
MANAGEMENT & GENERAL: $605,865
DEVELOPMENT: $409,114

2023
IN
GENERAL DONATIONS: $649,886
PARTNERS FOR FREEDOM: $1,435,328
ROLL IT UP FOR JUSTICE: $859,678
SALES AND OTHER REVENUE $29,604
OUT
PROGRAMS: $2,511,538
MANAGEMENT: $251,365
DEVELOPMENT:$279,174

2024
IN
GENERAL DONATIONS: $619,379
PARTNERS FOR FREEDOM: $902,433
ROLL IT UP FOR JUSTICE: $704,325
SALES AND OTHER REVENUE $40,056
OUT
PROGRAMS: $2,270,151
MANAGEMENT & GENERAL: $192,916
DEVELOPMENT: $275,200

Patterns now start to emerge. On the in side general donations are on their way down and corporate donations are becoming increasingly important to the organisation  via their Partners for Freedom & Roll It Up For Justice programs. There also seems to be a flatlining effect  2023-24 for these corporate donations which suggests in future years sales and marketing at the organisation wil become increasingly important as the big donors lose the desire to be seen as champions of those less fortunate.

Also RAW have just bought into the bottomless pit that is High Times, he’s known for being overly generous for the right reasons on these issues but how long can these organisations rely on  sun king’s Kesselman’s royal like benificence.

This is where we get to the nub of the issue, outgoings.

As always definitions are somewhat vague with emphasis being applied to the catch all  phrase “Programs” .  I have attached all the reports to thie piece (see below) so it makes it easier to try and define the fluff from the reality. This will always be difficult to define where the money is spent within in programs and how much of that money actually end up with particular incarcerated individuals and their familes

PROGRAM EXPENDITURE
2020 $333,106.40
2021 $1,947,496
2022 $3,098,156
2023 $2,511,538
2024 $2,270,151

Again we see a flatlining as we round out 2024

MANAGEMENT & GENERAL
2020 $111,990.41
2021 $488,312
2022 $605,865
2023 $251,365
2024 $192,916

Things got very out of hand in 2021-22 and then have calmed down since although that low number in 2024 looks like massaging when we take a closer look at executive salaries

Non profit explorer can tell us

As of 2026, compensation data for Sarah Gersten, the Executive Director and General Counsel of the Last Prisoner Project (LPP), is available through IRS Form 990 filings for fiscal years 2020 through 2023.

Her reported compensation for the requested period is as follows:

• 2023: $186,012 (Base compensation).
• 2022: $156,000 (Base compensation), plus $6,734 in other compensation.
• 2021: $178,922 (Base compensation), plus $6,946 in other compensation.
• 2020: $123,542 (Base compensation), plus $7,345 in other compensation.
• 2019 (Partial): $103,000 (Base compensation), plus $2,403 in other compensation.

In total records tell us she has earnt 2019-2023  $USD770,913.00 under the aegis of the LPP charity

Executive  Director Stephanie Shepard’s wages are somewhat harder to define with current publicly available information

Once again Non Profit explorer tells us

Based on publicly available nonprofit records, Stephanie Shepard’s reported compensation from the Last Prisoner Project for a specific fiscal year (likely 2022 or 2023) was $93,417. This figure is part of her overall compensation which included other benefits, totaling $99,396.

Reported Wages. The specific annual total compensation found in public records (which can be viewed on the ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer) for Stephanie Shepard as Board Chair is as follows:

• Total Compensation: $93,417
• Other Benefits/Compensation: $5,979
• Total Payments: $99,396

For other years in the 2020-2024 period, specific individual compensation figures for Stephanie Shepard were not detailed in the search results, though she held the roles of Director of Advocacy and later Acting Executive Director. One public record filing (likely an earlier year) listed her as a Board Chair with $0 compensation.

Next up is Mary Bailey, the Managing Director of the Last Prisoner Project. As with Shepherd we don’t get a full rundown over the years but what we do know is that here’s and Shepherd’s renumeration is in the same ballpark for LPP work

Bailey received a reported compensation (Source: ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer and Charity Navigator) of $119,555 (or $119,600 in slightly different reports) in recent years. This information is available in public nonprofit compensation records.

A summary of Mary Bailey’s reported compensation as Managing Director in different reporting periods:

• Most recent period shown: $119,555 or $119,600
• Prior period: $102,787
• Earlier period: $82,500

These figures represent her compensation from the organization and do not include related or other forms of compensation in the available data

I was unable to locate renumeration for the rest of the “team”  as highlighted on their website and some may work on a voluntary basis. it would be interesting to see this documented publicly

ANNUAL REPORTS

2020 2021 2022 2023 2024