JEWS UNITED FOR JUSTICE INC
Think Jewishly. Act Locally.
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Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Jews United for Justice advances economic, racial, and social justice in Washington DC and Maryland by educating and mobilizing our local Jewish communities to action. We move our region closer to equity and justice by advancing issue-based campaigns that make real, immediate, and concrete improvements in people's lives and build the power of working-class and poor communities of color. Through these campaigns we develop leaders, build our Jewish grassroots community, shift the consciousness of our community, and build the collective power needed to undo systemic racism and inequality.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Making Pragmatic and Prophetic Change
JUFJ works in coalitions and in partnership with grassroots and advocacy groups throughout our region, especially those led by and accountable to our BIPOC neighbors who have been systemically oppressed. Together, we seek to build and win policy campaigns that make our region more just. JUFJ's grassroots leaders work with our staff to plan events, advocate at the city, county, and state level, mobilize their neighbors and friends, and shape tactics and strategies designed to win real changes in peoples everyday lives.
Leadership Development
JUFJ’s power depends on a base of grassroots leaders who are prepared to take action, and to both follow and lead in our issue-campaigns. We build our members’ understanding of and commitment to JUFJ’s change-making by offering political, issue, anti-oppression, and Jewish education, and leadership training. A well-educated community is more deeply motivated to work for change. JUFJ staff and volunteers bring compelling content about our issues to our whole community to inspire activism, and scale-up volunteer leadership. We frame all of our work in the sacred values of Jewish tradition and learn from the history of our ancestors who sought justice.
Where we work
External reviews
Photos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of people on the organization's email list
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Number of highly active volunteer leaders
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of people who took action with us online last year.
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of people who engaged with JUFJ at least 10 times last year
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Everyone in our region should have what they need to live and thrive, and a real voice in democracy, no matter the color of their skin, where they are from, or how much money they have. We work with partners of all colors, faiths, and backgrounds to move our government to focus on equity and justice, and to respond to the needs of poor and working people, whether Black, brown, or white. We seek to build our Jewish community so that it is a proud and valued partner in bringing about a more just future through multiracial, multifaith, cross-class movements working for social, racial, and economic justice.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Our staff, board, volunteers, and key partners have developed four key strategies:
Making systemic change in our region: Advance economic, social and racial equity in our region by winning policy change that makes a real, immediate, and concrete improvement in people’s lives.
Develop Our Leaders and Engage Our Community: Create a cadre of Jewish leaders who will advance transformational social change and use community organizing to mobilize the broader Jewish community in creating a more just and equitable region.
Build the Power of Our Field: Invest our time, voice and relationships to help strengthen the social change field in our region and the Jewish social justice field nationally, and to bring additional resources and visibility to our partners.
Strengthen Our Institution: Build JUFJ’s institutional capacity so we can support and sustain this work over the long term.
We use an anti-racist/racial equity analysis in everything we do.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Since 1998, JUFJ has developed a strong track record for successfully accomplishing our goals. We win campaigns through our proven strategies--training and empowering volunteer leaders, teaching our community how to be effectively engaged in local government, and building a rich, sustaining, Jewish community. We work successfully with coalitions and trusted partners throughout our region, and have long-term relationships with key elected officials. We have over 12,000 people in our community, and we organize them successfully to work for change in our region. Our progress isnt always immediate, but weve shown that our techniques bring many victories - Paid Sick Days in DC, Montgomery County, and Maryland, Paid Family Leave in DC, a higher minimum wage in Montgomery County and DC, rental licensing and more police accountability in Baltimore, and many others.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
JUFJ is proud of our work. We have built a strong, sustaining, powerful community of thousands of people in DC, Montgomery County, Baltimore, and throughout Maryland, that together works to change our region based on our shared vision of a more just society.
We don’t just build community, we also have won substantive policy victories. Together with our partners, our recent policy wins include:
-A progressive Paid Family Leave program for hundreds of thousands of DC employees that will allow people to care for themselves, ill family members, or new babies. In addition, the bill has progressive wage replacement, with low wage workers able to receive 90% of their wages while on leave.
-Paid Family Leave for most Marylanders!
-Increased compensation for DC’s early childhood educators. The DC Council passed legislation to send childcare providers checks for at least $10,000 for their work in FY22. For many early childhood educators, that is a pay raise of about 25%.
-JUFJ is working for the implementation of the Right to Counsel program in Baltimore City. Thanks to the advocacy of JUFJ and its partners, Right to Counsel has now been funded on a state level; and, the program will start to be implemented this year. On this and other renter’s rights issues in Baltimore, JUFJ works closely with Baltimore Renter’s United (BRU), a coalition it helps lead, that seeks to center directly impacted tenants.
-Paid Sick Days for most people in Maryland and in DC.
-A $15 minimum wage in Maryland and DC.
This is just a sample of some of our successes. Today, we are working with partners in multiracial, multifaith coalitions to transform our region. Specific campaigns include our efforts to ensure Paid Family Leave in DC is implemented successfully, an effort to work with partners to transform the lives of children ages 0-3 throughout the District of Columbia, renter's rights, affordable housing, and more.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback, We ask the people who gave us feedback how well they think we responded
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
We don't have any major challenges to collecting feedback
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
JEWS UNITED FOR JUSTICE INC
Board of directorsas of 01/23/2024
Desmond Serrette
Community Change
Kathy Krieger
James & Hoffman
Desmond Serrette
Community Change
Carlos Jimenez
AFL-CIO
Debbie Goldman
Retired, Communication Workers of America
Tara Huffman
The Advocates' Assistant, LLC
Ed Lazere
United Planning Organization
Tracie Guy-Decker
Joyous Justice and Consulting
Carol Stern
Retired, First Consulting & Administration, Inc.
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 02/06/2023GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We measure and then disaggregate job satisfaction and retention data by race, function, level, and/or team.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.