United Stateless Selected for 2025 J.M.K. Innovation Prize
- United Stateless
- Nov 19, 2025
- 3 min read
Contacts:
Valerie Silverman Kerr Rex Unger
Reciprocal Brand & Strategy Reciprocal Brand & Strategy
914-806-6647 646-397-7404
Organization awarded unrestricted funding and support to address invisible human rights crisis affecting 200,000+ Americans.
NEW JERSEY – NOVEMBER 20, 2025 – United Stateless, a national organization advocating for the rights of stateless people, has been awarded the 2025 J.M.K. Innovation Prize. Following a nationwide search for early-stage projects with transformative potential, the J.M. Kaplan Fund awards the biennial Prize to ten innovators tackling urgent issues in the fields of social justice, the environment, and heritage conservation. Awardees receive $175,000 each and join a collaborative designed to help navigate critical phases of growth and impact.
“United Stateless is building a movement by and for people who have been denied basic human rights and recognition,” said Julia Bator, Executive Director of the J.M. Kaplan Fund. “Grounded in lived experience, their work demonstrates the civic courage and ingenuity at the heart of the J.M.K. Innovation Prize, and we are thrilled to support them over the coming years.”
Statelessness is a human rights crisis affecting an estimated 218,000 people in the United States, where there is no legal framework for their recognition or protection. Stateless people are those not considered citizens by any country because of legal gaps, gender discrimination, or the dissolution of their country of birth. They live without access to identity documents or the ability to legally work, travel, vote, or obtain citizenship. Many face prolonged immigration-related detention, civil fines, family separation, and exploitation while living in profound legal limbo.
Founded and led by stateless people, United Stateless combines legal empowerment, policy advocacy, trauma-informed community support, and leadership development. The organization operates the nation’s only legal clinic focused exclusively on the needs of people without citizenship, while building a powerful movement to bring statelessness into public view and drive lasting solutions.
“United Stateless is working to ensure that no one living without citizenship has to navigate isolation and injustice alone,” said Karina Ambartsoumian-Clough, Founder and Executive Director of United Stateless. “Growing up stateless in the U.S., I faced barriers to employment and the denial of basic rights that most people take for granted. My goal is to keep others from that traumatic experience by offering community and lifting up the experience of statelessness on the national stage. Our goal is not only to support each other but to build a movement that demands recognition, protection, and a path to belonging.”
With support from the J.M.K. Innovation Prize, United Stateless plans to expand its legal services, deepen its policy advocacy efforts, and strengthen leadership development programs that center the voices and experiences of stateless people.
Now in its tenth year, the J.M.K. Innovation Prize honors organizations pioneering transformative approaches to complex challenges in the fields of heritage conservation, the environment, and social justice. This year’s milestone cycle drew a record 3,790 applications, underscoring the growing need for philanthropic support of untested but promising ideas.
The 2025 winners join a national network of 60 past recipients who continue to collaborate and learn from one another through convenings, mentorship, and strategic guidance provided by the J.M. Kaplan Fund.
For more information on United Stateless, visit unitedstateless.org. Learn more about the Prize and watch a video interview with Karina Ambartsoumian-Clough at jmkfund.org/awardee/karina-ambartsoumian-clough.
About the J.M. Kaplan Fund
Established in 1945 by philanthropist and businessman Jacob Merrill Kaplan, the Fund has championed visionary innovation for 80 years. Across four generations of family engagement, the Fund has invested more than $300 million in efforts focused on human rights, civil liberties, equality and justice, the arts and literacy, and the conservation and enhancement of the built and natural worlds. The J.M.K. Innovation Prize continues this legacy, providing early-stage support for entrepreneurs developing 21st-century solutions to urgent social and environmental challenges. Learn more at jmkfund.org.
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