Welcome to the ACTIVISM section of our website! We invite you to get to know some tried and true grassroots groups. Today is the day to get involved, whether you are a seasoned activist, someone who wants to make a difference but isn't quite sure how or where to begin, or simply someone who wants to learn about and gain access to experienced, effective activist groups and resources that cover a variety of critical issues facing our communities and world. We think you will find, as we have, that all of the issues are connected. And you can connect by simply clicking on links!
We will keep you up to date on current projects to raise money and awareness for timely issue actions. In addition, get to know and make use of our list of RESOURCES below, categorized by issues.
A profound shift is needed to ensure a world where the health and dignity of human beings and all species takes precedence over private economic gain. Take part, take heart, take action!
Gratefully,
Amy and Emily
RESOURCES
PEACE, JUSTICE, & HUMAN RIGHTS
Below are groups working to address prisoner rights, criminal justice, gun violence, equity for women, children and people of color, and an end to war.
The Angola 3
This is the story of Albert Woodfox, Herman Wallace and Robert King Wilkerson – aka the Angola 3. In 1971, these men organized a Black Panther Party chapter within the confines of the prison. Together they led campaigns to stop prison rape and to inform prisoners of their rights. All three became targets of the prison administration and were convicted of murders with shoddy evidence. All of the Angola 3 are now Free. The Angola 3 continue to stand up to injustice in the US legal system and call for an end to the use of solitary confinement in US prisons and for the release of other political prisoners who are unjustly incarcerated.
The Carter Center
The Carter Center is committed to advancing human rights and alleviating unnecessary human suffering. Founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, the Atlanta-based Center has helped to improve the quality of life for people in more than 65 countries. Their mission is to wage peace, fight disease, and build hope by both engaging with those at the highest levels of government and working side by side with poor and often forgotten people.
Georgia Women's Action for New Directions (Georgia WAND)
Georgia WAND empowers women to advocate for climate, environmental and social justice, grounded in racial equity.
Witness
WITNESS partners with human rights defenders, training them to use video to document abuse and create change. They identify critical situations and teach those affected by them the basics of video production, safe and ethical filming techniques, and advocacy strategies.
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) is a worker-based human rights organization internationally recognized for its achievements in fighting human trafficking and gender-based violence at work. The CIW is also recognized for pioneering the design and development of the Worker-driven Social Responsibility paradigm, a worker-led, market-enforced approach to the protection of human rights in corporate supply chains.
Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)
Established in 1977, RAWA is an Afghan women's organization working in Afghanistan and Pakistan to empower women and peacefully resist fundamentalist domination. RAWA works for secular democracy, full participation in public life for women and girls, and respect for all human rights.
MADRE
MADRE is an international human rights organization that transcends geographies and generations to deliver sustainable gender, racial, climate, and disability justice. Founded in 1983, they foster a world rooted in feminist values, where women and girls, and other marginalized groups, fully participate in shaping policies and decision making, their expertise and leadership is recognized and upheld, and they equitably hold power and resources within their communities.
National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, a coalition of organizations and individuals committed to the abolition of capital punishment, provides information, advocates for public policy and mobilizes and supports people and institutions that share our unconditional rejection of the state's use of homicide as an instrument of social policy.
The John's Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions
The John's Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions conducts rigorous research and uses advocacy to implement evidence-based, equitable policies and programs that will prevent gun violence in our communities. Their experienced researchers and public health-trained advocates to address gun violence as an epidemic-level public health emergency. Because gun violence disproportionately impacts communities of color, we ground our work in equity and seek insights from those most impacted on appropriate solutions.
Everytown
Everytown for Gun Safety is a movement of moms, dads, students, survivors, educators, gun owners, and concerned citizens working together to fight for public safety measures that can protect people from gun violence. Everytown works with local, federal, and state governments to enact and implement policies that reduce gun violence.
The Brady Center
The Brady Center works to reform the gun industry and educate the public about gun violence through litigation and grassroots mobilization, and works to enact and enforce sensible regulations to reduce gun violence including regulations governing the gun industry.
American Friends Service Committee
American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) brings together people of all faiths and backgrounds to challenge injustice and build peace around the globe.
If Americans Knew
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the world's major sources of instability. Americans are directly connected to this conflict, and increasingly imperiled by its devastation. It is the goal of If Americans Knew to provide full and accurate information on this critical issue, and on our power – and duty – to bring a resolution.
Foundation for Middle East Peace
The Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP) is a nonprofit organization that promotes an enduring Israeli-Palestinian peace, via two states, that brings security for Israel and freedom for Palestinians. FMEP sponsors programs, public speaking, makes small grants, and publishes the Report on Israeli Settlement in the Occupied Territories containing analysis, commentary, maps, and other data.
B'tselem: The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories
B'tselem was established in 1989 by a group of prominent academics, attorneys, journalists, and Knesset members. It endeavors to document and educate the Israeli public and policymakers about human rights violations in the Occupied Territories, combat the phenomenon of denial prevalent among the Israeli public, and help create a human rights culture in Israel.
Project South
Project South is a membership-based social justice organization rooted in the US South. This organization works at the local, regional and national levels to dismantle systems of poverty, racism, and violence while also building community power.
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is a global movement of people fighting injustice and promoting human rights. The world's largest grassroots human rights organization, Amnesty International investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and helps transform societies to create a safer, more just world.
Southern Poverty Law Center
The Southern Poverty Law Center is dedicated to fighting hate, bigotry and extremism. The organization tracks the activities of hate groups across America, uses the courts and other forms of advocacy to win systemic reforms on behalf of victims of bigotry and discrimination, and provides educators with free resources that teach school children to reject hate, embrace diversity and respect differences.
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an independent organization dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the world. The organization stands with victims and activists to expose human rights violations, challenging governments and those who hold power to end abusive practices and respect international human rights law.
INDIGENOUS RIGHTS & POWER BUILDING
Honor the Earth
We co-founded Honor the Earth with Winona LaDuke and the Indigenous Women’s Network. Our original board of directors was made up of members from the Indigenous Environmental Network, the Seventh Generation Fund and the Indigenous Women’s Network along with other members from Indigenous communities. Honor the Earth is under new leadership as of 2024, and a new journey has begun for this organization. We continue to support their work and we encourage you to as well. Please visit their website at www.honorearth.org and like Honor's Facebook Page. Indigo Girls continues to support environmental and cultural work all across Indian country. This resource guide shares some of the groups we are supporting.
First People’s Fund
First People’s Fund (FPF) supports the cultural, artistic and ancestral practices of American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian artists, families and communities, helping them to thrive, heal and carry forward Indigenous creative expression, teachings and lifeways. FPF’s work includes grants and awards to artists and organizations, community and youth development programs, mentorship and training programs, and national research projects to further advance our Indigenous artists and culture bearers as national change makers, catalyzers of positive social change and essential knowledge holders for the world.
Illuminative
IllumiNative’s mission is to build power for Native peoples by amplifying contemporary Native voices, stories, and issues to advance justice, equity, and self-determination. Illuminative utilizes research, narrative and culture change strategies, movement-building, and organizing to disrupt the invisibility of Native peoples, re-educate Americans, and mobilize public support for key Native issues.
Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN)
Established in 1990 within the United States, IEN was formed by grassroots Indigenous peoples and individuals to address environmental and economic justice issues (EJ). IEN's activities include building the capacity of Indigenous communities and tribal governments to develop mechanisms to protect our sacred sites, land, water, air, natural resources, health of both our people and all living things, and to build economically sustainable communities. IEN accomplishes this by maintaining an informational clearinghouse, organizing campaigns, direct actions and public awareness, building the capacity of community and tribes to address EJ issues, development of initiatives to impact policy, and building alliances among Indigenous communities, tribes, inter-tribal and Indigenous organizations, people-of-color/ethnic organizations, faith-based and women groups, youth, labor, environmental organizations and others.
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women USA (MMIWUSA)
MMIWUSA’s mission is to combat the widespread issue of violence against native people which leads to our people going missing and getting murdered. MMIWUSA aims to serve indigenous families in the United States who are affected by violence and poverty, and to protect those who are vulnerable to it in our communities through preventative measures. MMIWUSA serves all native people, no matter whether they are on or off of their home reservation land, who are: affected by the loss of a family member to the issue of missing and murdered indigenous women and people (MMIW/P); at a broader disadvantage due to things like domestic violence, addiction, trafficking, the foster care system, and other issues that are prevalent in indigenous communities; experiencing the oppressive cycles of abuse and trauma caused by the history of colonial violence.
NDN Collective
NDN Collective is an Indigenous-led organization dedicated to building Indigenous power. Through organizing, activism, philanthropy, grantmaking, capacity-building and narrative change, NDN Collective is creating sustainable solutions on Indigenous terms. NDN Collective builds the collective power of Indigenous Peoples, communities, and Nations to exercise our inherent right to self-determination, while fostering a world that is built on a foundation of justice and equity for all people and Mother Earth.
International Indian Treaty Council
The International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) is an organization of Indigenous Peoples from North, Central, South America, the Arctic, Caribbean and Pacific working for the sovereignty and self-determination of Indigenous Peoples and the recognition and protection of Indigenous rights, Treaties, traditional cultures and sacred lands. The IITC was founded in June 1974 at a gathering on the Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota attended by more than 5000 representatives from 98 Indigenous Nations. Through information dissemination, coalition building, advocacy, training and technical assistance, the IITC builds the direct, effective participation of Indigenous Peoples in regional, national and international events, gatherings and policy discussions addressing their rights, ways of life and survival.
Change Labs
Change Labs is a Native-led and Native-controlled 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based on the Navajo and Hopi nations fostering the creation of successful Native American small businesses that provide a social benefit to tribal communities. Tribal America has no deficit of challenges: a lack of infrastructure, rampant and persistent poverty, and under-performing public schools. Despite our sovereignty, we remain dependent on outside forces to address these problems by providing needed jobs, sustaining our governance, and driving our economies. Change Labs was created to empower Native-owned small businesses operating within our communities, so we can begin to take steps toward economic self-sustainability.
National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS)
The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS) leads in the pursuit of understanding and addressing the ongoing trauma created by the US Indian Boarding School policy. There were 523 known government-funded, and often church-run, Indian boarding schools across the US in the 19th and 20th centuries. Indian children were forcibly abducted by government agents, sent to schools hundreds of miles away, and beaten, starved, or otherwise abused when they spoke their native languages. NABS was created in 2011 to develop and implement a national strategy that increases public awareness and cultivates healing for the profound trauma experienced by individuals, families, communities, American Indian and Alaska Native Nations resulting from the U.S. adoption and implementation of the Boarding School Policy of 1869.
Idle No More
Idle No More started in November 2012, among Treaty People in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta protesting the Canadian government’s dismantling of environmental protection laws, endangering First Nations who live on the land. Born out of face-to-face organizing and popular education, but fluent in social media and new technologies, Idle No More has connected the most remote reserves to each other, to urbanized Indigenous people, and to the non-Indigenous population. Led by women, and with a call for refounded nation-to-nation relations based on mutual respect, Idle No More rapidly grew into an inclusive, continent-wide network of urban and rural Indigenous working hand in hand with non-Indigenous allies to build a movement for Indigenous rights and the protection of land, water, and sky.
Sogorea Te’ Land Trust
Sogorea Te’ Land Trust is an urban Indigenous women-led land trust based in the San Francisco Bay Area that facilitates the return of Indigenous land to Indigenous people. Through the practices of rematriation, cultural revitalization, and land restoration, Sogorea Te’ calls on Native and non-native peoples to heal and transform the legacies of colonization, genocide, and patriarchy and to do the work our ancestors and future generations are calling us to do. Watch the short documentary “Beyond Recognition” about their work here.
Association of Ramaytush Ohlone (ARO)
The Association of Ramaytush Ohlone (ARO) represents the interests of the original peoples of the San Francisco Peninsula. The purposes of the ARO align with our ancestral responsibilities to care for Mother Earth and to care for the people who reside in our ancestral homeland. The ARO partners with other organizations and agencies to pursue its objectives: the rematriation of our ancestral homeland; cultural revitalization, including language; research, consultation, and education to ensure accuracy in public culture and history; ecological restoration; community service.
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
Below are groups on the front lines of protecting the earth and creating solutions to the ecological and economic challenges of our time.
Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS)
NIRS is the information and networking center for citizens and environmental organizations concerned about nuclear power, radioactive waste, radiation, and sustainable energy issues. Throughout the world, NIRS provides technical expertise to guide organizing efforts and public education campaigns against some of the most dangerous nuclear proposals facing our communities.
Southern Alliance for Clean Energy
The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) promotes responsible and equitable energy choices to ensure clean, safe, and healthy communities throughout the Southeast. SACE is one of the few organizations in the Southeast with the analytical capacity to approach utilities and decision makers with multi-disciplinary arguments showcasing the true costs of high risk energy sources, and the real values of energy efficiency and renewable energy sources like solar and wind. In addition to our technical and policy advocacy work, SACE is also on the ground in local communities throughout our region working to mobilize concerned citizens and to elevate the conversation around the dangers of climate change and the importance of clean energy choices.
State PIRGS (Public Interest Research Groups)
The State PIRGs speak for the public interest against the special interests, on issues in the news and below the surface. When consumers are victims of private greed, the State PIRGs are there; when average citizens suffer from the absence of government attention or an excess of government bureaucracy, the State PIRGs are there; when our natural environment is threatened, the State PIRGs are there. As a public interest watchdog organization, we uncover dangers to public health and wellbeing and fight to end them, using the time-tested tools of investigative research, media exposes, grassroots organizing, advocacy, and litigation.
Climate Forests
Climate Forests is a campaign launched by more than 120 organizations that have worked to protect federal forests, wildlife, watersheds, and our climate for decades. The campaign aims to conserve our remaining older forests and trees on federal public lands – this is one of the country’s most straightforward, impactful and cost-effective climate solutions. This must be prioritized alongside rapidly reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We are calling on the Biden Administration to enact a strong, lasting rule that protects mature trees and forest stands from logging across federal lands as a cornerstone of US climate policy.
Organic Consumers Association
The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) is an online and grassroots non-profit public interest organization campaigning for health, justice, and sustainability. The OCA deals with crucial issues of food safety, industrial agriculture, genetic engineering, children's health, corporate accountability, Fair Trade, environmental sustainability and other key topics.
Appalachian Voices
Appalachian Voices brings people together to solve the environmental problems having the greatest impact on the central and southern Appalachian Mountains. Their mission is to empower people to defend the region's rich natural and cultural heritage by providing them with tools and strategies for successful grassroots campaigns.
Tar Sands Solution Network
Tar Sands Solutions Network is a growing international network of First Nations, environmental groups, landowners, farmers, scientists, community leaders, academics, and grassroots groups calling for a safe, clean energy economy that protects human and environmental rights. The network is focused on stopping the expansion of the Canadian tar sands and its infrastructure of pipelines and tankers across North America.
Americans Against Fracking
Fracking poses a direct and immediate threat to the drinking water, air, climate, food, health and economies of communities across the United States. Americans Against Fracking is a coalition of groups dedicated to banning fracking for oil and natural gas. This coalition supports federal, state and local efforts to ban and enact moratoriums on fracking and stop practices that facilitate fracking, like natural gas exports, frack sand mining and the construction of pipelines. Check out coalition members to find member groups in your state.
Earth Island Institute
Earth Island Institute is a non-profit, public interest, membership organization that supports people who are creating solutions to protect our shared planet. Earth Island Institute is a hub for over 60 grassroots campaigns dedicated to conserving, preserving, and restoring the ecosystems on which life depends. Visit their web site to see the great groups they sponsor.
Bioneers
Bioneers is a non-profit organization that highlights breakthrough solutions for restoring people and planet. Since 1990, Bioneers has served as a fertile hub of social and scientific innovators with nature-inspired approaches to the world's most pressing environmental and social challenges.
Food and Water Watch
Food & Water Watch works to ensure the food, water and fish we consume is safe, accessible and sustainably produced. This group helps people take charge of where their food comes from, keeps clean, affordable, public tap water flowing freely to our homes, protects the environmental quality of oceans, and educates about the importance of keeping the global commons — our shared resources — under public control.
350.org
350.org works on grassroots campaigns across the globe, leveraging people power — individuals working together in pursuit of a common goal — to dismantle the influence and infrastructure of the fossil fuel industry and to power up clean systems rooted in justice. The number 350 means climate safety. To preserve our planet, scientists tell us we must reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere from its current levels of 400 parts per million to below 350 ppm. To build a more sustainable and just future, we collaborate with communities at the frontline of the climate crisis, those who have historically contributed the least emissions but are feeling the worst effects. We campaign and organise to show the world we really want, in pursuit of energy justice and distributed renewable energy solutions that will move us away from fossil fuels, for good.
WOMEN'S SEXUAL & REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH & RIGHTS
Below are groups that are empowering women and girls, providing reproductive health services and women's health education.
Sister Song Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective
SisterSong is a Southern based, national membership organization building an effective network of individuals and organizations to improve institutional policies and systems that impact the reproductive lives of marginalized communities. SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective was formed in 1997 by 16 organizations of women of color from four mini-communities (Native American, African American, Latina, and Asian American) who recognized that we have the right and responsibility to represent ourselves and our communities, and the equally compelling need to advance the perspectives and needs of women of color.
Thistle Farms
Thistle Farms is a non-profit business operated by the women of Magdalene, a two-year residential community founded in Nashville Tennessee in 1997 for women with a history of prostitution and drug addiction. Magdalene was founded not just to help a sub-culture of women but also to help change the culture itself. We stand in solidarity with women who are recovering from sexual abuse, violence, and life on the streets, and who have paid dearly for a culture that buys and sells women like commodities. Through Thistle Farms, the women of Magdalene gain much needed job skills, and learn responsibility and cooperation. Into every product goes the belief that freedom starts with healing, and love can change lives. By hand, the women create natural bath and body products that are as kind to the environment as they are to the body. All sales proceeds go back into the program.
International Center for Research on Women (ICRW)
ICRW is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of women in poverty, advancing equality and human rights, and contributing to broader economic and social well-being. ICRW accomplishes this, in partnership with others, through research, capacity building and advocacy on issues affecting women's economic, health and social status in low- and middle-income countries. The HIV/AIDS epidemic has had a devastating impact on women and girls. ICRW believes that the global challenge is to assure that they have access to the prevention and treatment services they need. ICRW focus areas include: how the stigma of HIV/AIDS increases infection and reduces the use of programs for prevention, treatment, and care; how to empower adolescents to protect themselves from HIV infection; how to improve access to prevention methods that women can control; and how HIV/AIDS affects household food security. ICRW has offices in India, Uganda and Washington DC.
Feminist Majority Foundation
The Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF), founded in 1987, is a cutting edge organization dedicated to women’s equality, reproductive health, and non-violence. In all spheres, FMF utilizes research and action to empower women economically, socially, and politically. Our organization believes that feminists of all genders are the majority, but this majority must be empowered.
Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood is the nation's leading sexual and reproductive health care provider and advocate. The organization works to improve women's health and safety, and advance the right and ability of individuals and families to make informed and responsible choices about parenthood.
Feminist Women's Health Center
As Atlanta's leading non-profit women's health resource, the Feminist Women's Health Center provides quality care and community education, while working to improve women's health. The center believes that education and knowledge are vital components in a woman's ability to make positive health care decisions, and therefore provides community educational initiatives along with advocating for reproductive justice and reproductive rights.
Native Youth Sexual Health Network
Created by and for Indigenous youth, this organization addresses issues of sexual and reproductive health, human rights and justice for Indigenous peoples throughout the U.S. and Canada. The organization works at the intersection of environmental and reproductive justice, seeking to fight homophobia and transphobia, sexual violence and violence against the earth.
HIV & AIDS
Below are groups addressing the pandemic of HIV/AIDS.
Society for Women and AIDS in Africa (SWAA)
SWAA is a pan-African women's organization dedicated to women and their families in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The organization has branch offices in 40 countries across Africa serving some of the areas in the world most heavily impacted by HIV/AIDS. SWAA offers programming to address the disproportionate impact of HIV/AIDS on women and children; access to information about HIV using a creative variety of media (including TV, videocassette recorders, and satellite technology); advocacy leading to inclusion of women on policy making bodies; and advocacy against gender based discrimination in access to HIV treatment, care and support services. In addition, SWAA works to reduce HIV-related stigma, enable access to counseling and testing, and strengthen services for children orphaned by HIV/AIDS. Currently, SWAA is placing special emphasis on the development and use of HIV prevention methods controlled by women, including the female condom and potential microbicides.
World Health Organization (WHO) Global HIV Programme
The WHO Department of Global HIV, Hepatitis and Sexually Transmitted Infections Programmes leads the development and implementation of the global health sector strategy on the elimination of HIV as a public health threat. They have developed a comprehensive Fact Sheet on HIV and AIDS.
Global Network of People Living with HIV (GNP+)
GNP+ is a network for people living with HIV, run by people living with HIV. GNP+ engages with and supports national and regional networks of people living with HIV to ensure that their global work is grounded in their local experiences and priorities. GNP+ works with communities that are both geographic and identity based, and is a network of interconnected individuals and organizations that is open to all. GNP+ builds broad partnerships with individuals, organizations and institutions to increase influence and uses the power of evidence-based advocacy to challenge governments and global leaders to improve access to quality HIV prevention, treatment, care and support services.
WORLD (Women Organized to Respond to Life-threatening Disease)
WORLD is a diverse organization for, by, and about women living with, and at risk for, HIV/AIDS. The organization seeks a world where women, girls, and families affected by HIV and AIDS have the tools, support and knowledge to live healthy and productive lives with dignity. For WORLD, human rights and wellness includes freedom from violence; access to housing; quality healthcare; food security; physical, spiritual and emotional wellbeing; education and economic justice.
Positive Women's Network
PWN-USA envisions a world where women living with HIV (WLWH) can live long, healthy, dignified and productive lives, free from stigma and discrimination. Their mission is to prepare and involve all women living with HIV, in all our diversity, including gender identity and sexual expression, in all levels of policy and decision-making.
The Well Project
The Well Project's mission is to change the course of this HIV/AIDS pandemic through a unique and comprehensive focus on women. The Well Project offers a wealth of information on their web site for women living with HIV/AIDS.
Positive Impact Health Centers
Mission: Client-centered care for the HIV community to have a life worth loving. Comprehensive services are available at the Duluth, Decatur and Marietta Centers in Georgia for those individuals living with HIV. Grant funding enables most services to be provided on a sliding fee basis.
AID Atlanta
AID Atlanta was established in 1982 in response to the devastating impact that HIV/AIDS was having on the Atlanta community, and has been providing HIV/AIDS-related services, care, and education since its inception. The mission of AID Atlanta is to reduce new HIV infections and improve the quality of life of its members and the community by breaking barriers and building community. AID Atlanta currently offers HIV/AIDS prevention and care services, including (but not limited to) HIV Medical Care, HIV/STD Screening, PrEP, Community HIV Prevention Programs, Linkage Services, Case Management, and a state-wide Information Hotline. In the area of HIV outreach and education, AID Atlanta continues to actively work in communities of high impact to reach those most at risk of HIV and/or living without knowing their status. AID Atlanta has grown to be the most comprehensive AIDS service organization in the Southeast.
QUEER
Below are groups working with LGBTQIA2S+ youth and their families, groups working for gender justice as an integral component of racial, social and economic justice, and groups building grassroots political strength through education, litigation and advocacy.
Youth Pride
Youth Pride strives to enhance the lives of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth through support services, social activities, outreach and education.
National Youth Advocacy Coalition
The National Youth Advocacy Coalition is a social justice organization that advocates for and with young people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning (LGBTQ) in an effort to end discrimination against these youth and to ensure their physical and emotional well being.
Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League (SMYAL)
The Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League (SMYAL) is the only Washington, DC metro area service organization solely dedicated to supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth. Founded in 1984, SMYAL is a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization. Our mission is to promote and support self-confident, healthy, productive lives for LGBTQ youth ages 13-21 as they journey from adolescence into adulthood. To fulfill our mission, we focus our commitment and energy on five focus areas: (1) Life Skills & Leadership Development, (2) Counseling & Support, (3) Health & Wellness Education, (4) Safe Social Activities, and (5) Community Outreach and Education.
Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG)
PFLAG promotes the health and well-being of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons, their families and friends through: support, to cope with an adverse society; education, to enlighten an ill-informed public; and advocacy, to end discrimination and to secure equal civil rights. Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays provides opportunity for dialogue about sexual orientation and gender identity, and acts to create a society that is healthy and respectful of human diversity.
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Foundation (NGLTF)
Founded in 1973, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Foundation is a national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights and advocacy organization. The group works to build the grassroots political strength of our community by training state and local activists and leaders, developing the infrastructure of state and local allies, and organizing broad-based campaigns to build public support for complete equality for LGBT people.
The National Center For Lesbian Rights (NCLR)
The National Center for Lesbian Rights is a national, lesbian, feminist, non-profit law firm. Our mission is to create a world in which every lesbian can live fully, free from discrimination. For the past 26 years, through impact litigation, public policy advocacy, public education, and free legal services, we have advanced the legal and human rights of lesbians, gay men, and bisexual and transgender individuals across the United States.
Trans Justice Funding Project
The Trans Justice Funding Project is a community-led funding initiative supporting grassroots trans justice groups run by and for trans people. Visit their web site to see the dozens of trans justice groups the Project has funded.
National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE)
The National Center for Transgender Equality is a social justice organization devoted to ending discrimination and violence against transgender people. By empowering transgender people and allies to educate and influence policymakers and others, NCTE facilitates a strong and clear voice for transgender equality in our nation's capital and around the country.
Sylvia Rivera Law Project (SRLP)
SRLP works to guarantee that all people are free to self-determine their gender identity and expression, regardless of income or race, and without facing harassment, discrimination, or violence. The Project seeks to increase the political voice and visibility of low-income people and people of color who are transgender, intersex, or gender non-conforming.
Audre Lorde Project
The Audre Lorde Project is a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two Spirit, Trans and Gender Non Conforming People of Color center for community organizing, focusing on the New York City area. Through mobilization, education and capacity building, the Project works for community wellness and progressive social and economic justice.
Astraea Foundation
The Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice is the only philanthropic organization working exclusively to advance LGBTQI human rights around the globe. The Foundation supports hundreds of grantee partners in the U.S. and internationally who challenge oppression and seed change. Working for racial, economic, social, and gender justice is essential because we all deserve to live our lives freely, without fear, and with dignity.
Southerners On New Ground (S.O.N.G.)
SONG is creating a multi-issue southern justice movement across class, age, race, ability, gender, immigration status, and sexuality; a movement in which LGBTQ people – poor and working class, immigrant, people of color, rural – take a rightful place as leaders in shaping the region's legacy and future.
INDEPENDENT MEDIA
Independent media is more critical than ever today given the corporate ownership of mainstream news outlets. Below are sources of news, information and analysis from the lens of independent journalism.
The 19th News
The 19th News is an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy, and empowering women and LGBTQ+ people — particularly those from underrepresented communities — with the information, resources and tools they need to be equal participants in our democracy.
Indian Country Today Media Network
Indian Country Today is one of the best sources for national Native news. The publication features stories, editorials and reporting from a Native perspective.
Indymedia
Indymedia is a collective of independent media organizations and hundreds of journalists offering grassroots, non-corporate coverage. Indymedia is a democratic media outlet for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate communication of truth.
Democracy Now
Democracy Now is a daily radio and TV news program on over 400 stations, pioneering the largest community media collaboration in the U.S.
AlterNet
AlterNet is an award-winning news magazine and online community that creates original journalism and amplifies the best of dozens of other independent media sources. AlterNet's aim is to inspire citizen action and advocacy on the environment, human rights and civil liberties, social justice, media, and health care issues.
Clamor Magazine
Clamor is a quarterly print magazine and online community of radical thought, art, and action. An iconoclast among its peers, Clamor is an unabashed celebration of self-determination, creativity, and shit-stirring. Clamor publishes content of, by, for, and with marginalized communities. From the kitchen table to shop floor, the barrio to the playground, the barbershop to the student center, it's old school meets new school in a battle for a better tomorrow. Clamor is a do-it-yourself guide to everyday revolution.
Z Magazine
Z Magazine is an independent magazine of critical thinking on political, cultural, social and economic life in the US. It sees the racial, gender, class and political dimensions of personal life as fundamental to understanding and improving contemporary circumstances; and it aims to assist activists' efforts to better the future.
Ms. Magazine
An Ad-Free Feminist Magazine
Adbusters
Adbusters is a not for profit global network of culture jammers and creative people working to change the way information flows, the way corporations wield power, and the way meaning is produced in our society. Their magazine is often cited as the inspiration behind the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Yes! Magazine
YES! Magazine is a solutions-oriented source of news that empowers people with the vision and tools to create a healthy planet and vibrant communities. Yes! does this by reframing issues and outlining a path forward, giving a voice to the people who are making change and offering organizing materials to use and pass along.
Colorlines
Colorlines is an online news site and magazine that focuses on race, culture and organizing. Published by Race Forward , a national organization that advances racial justice through research, media and practice, Colorlines features award winning investigative reporting and news analysis where race matters.
Grist
Grist has been providing environmental news and commentary (with a wry twist) since 1999. They draw out the real meaning behind green stories, and connect big issues like climate change to daily life. Grist is a not for profit organization.
Truth-out
Truth-out is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing independent news and commentary that sparks action by revealing systemic injustice. Through in-depth investigative reporting and critical analysis, Truth-out provides a platform for transformative ideas.
Truth Dig
Truth Dig is a news website that works to provide insightful and accurate reporting on current subjects and issues. Challenging conventional wisdom, Truth Dig seeks to offer a solid and reliable resource for those who want to explore particular topics by drilling deeply.
Prometheus Radio
The Prometheus Radio Project is a non-profit organization that builds, supports, and advocates for community radio stations as a means to empower participatory community voices and movements for social change. To democratize the airwaves, Prometheus Radio Project is creating a strong network of LPFM (low power FM) stations and listeners. They work with local groups at every stage of the process to support the development and growth of non-commercial, community-based, micro-power stations.
MUSIC COMMUNITY
The Future of Music Coalition
The Future of Music Coalition is a not-for-profit collaboration between members of the music, technology, public policy and intellectual property law communities. The FMC seeks to educate the media, policymakers, and the public about music / technology issues, while also bringing together diverse voices in an effort to come up with creative solutions to some of the challenges in this space.
Sweet Relief Musicians Fund
Since 1994 Sweet Relief Musicians Fund has provided assistance to all types of career musicians who are struggling to make ends meet while facing illness, disability, or age-related problems. We have all received so much out of music. Sweet Relief gives back by helping heal musicians in need.
VOTER EDUCATION
With the gutting of the Voting Rights Act by the Supreme Court and numerous state-led efforts to curb voter turnout among people of color and poor communities, efforts to ensure all people are able to exercise the right to vote are crucial. Groups that are working on voter education, registration and turn out along with electoral reform to ensure a genuinely democratic election process are listed below.
Rock the Vote
Rock the Vote is a non-profit, non-partisan organization, founded in 1990 in response to a wave of attacks on freedom of speech and artistic expression. They are dedicated to mobilizing young people to participate in the political process in order to effect positive change in their own communities. By connecting with the entertainment industry, Rock the Vote coordinates voter registration drives, get-out-the-vote events, and voter education efforts, all to help young people take advantage of their right to vote. Rock the Vote's website hosts easy online voter registration for all states as well as information on key issues such as health care, education, jobs and finance, war and the draft, and voting rights.
Headcount
Headcount's mission is to use the power of music and popular culture to register voters and promote participation in democracy. They stage nonpartisan voter registration drives at more than 1,000 live events each year and collaborate with cultural leaders to promote civic engagement on a national scale. Headcount’s website hosts voter registration for all states as well as extensive information about the process for registering to vote.
Project Vote
Since its founding in 1982, Project Vote has dedicated itself to increasing civic participation and voter engagement in low-income and minority communities. In 2004, Project Vote registered 1.15 million low- and moderate-income and minority voters, and mobilized 2.3 million. Project Vote keeps a vigilant eye on any barriers facing voters during elections and works to prevent such disenfranchisement; their website is full of resources and news relating to voter intimidation, violations of the National Voter Registration Act, and related issues.
League of Women Voters
Rooted in the movement that secured the right to vote for women, the League has worked to foster civic engagement and enhance access to voting since 1920. Along with protecting, engaging and educating voters, the League works to reform campaign financing, defend the environment and stop gun violence.
League of Conservation Voters
The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) is a national non-profit organization that works to turn environmental values into national priorities. To secure the environmental future of our planet, LCV advocates for sound environmental policies, elects pro-environment candidates who will adopt and implement such policies, and provides state chapters with the resources and tools to accomplish and sustain their mission.
Emily's List
Electing women to create progressive change, Emily's List seeks a world where women are equally represented at all levels of government, and achieve the highest leadership positions with our legislative and executive bodies as a means to ensure that women have equal opportunities at home, in the workplace and in the public sphere.
Advancement Project
Advancement Project is a multi-racial civil rights organization that focuses on tackling inequity to achieve systemic change on issues of democracy, voting rights and access to justice.
Fair Elections Legal Network (FELN)
FELN is a national, nonpartisan voting rights and legal support organization whose mission is to remove barriers to registration and voting for underrepresented constituencies and improve overall election administration through administrative, legal, and legislative reform. The organization also provides legal and technical assistance to voter mobilization organizations.
Project Vote Smart
Project Vote Smart is a non-partisan, nonprofit educational organization funded exclusively through individual contributions and foundations (the organization does not accept any political contributions) with the purpose of providing Americans access to information about candidates and elected officials. Biographies, voting records, issue positions, ratings, speeches, campaign finance information – you can find it all on Project Vote Smart's web site.
GEORGIA & THE SOUTH
Project Say Something
Project Say Something (PSS) strives to affirm and center Black lives through communal health programs, education resource programs, skill building workshops, and the practice of radical inclusivity. We do this by aiding in programs for holistic reproductive health, workshops on anti-discrimination and allyship training programs, as well as encouraging and affirming all Black voices, especially those of us who confront marginalization on various axes and intersection of our identity. In our work, we seek to create a world outside of racial supremacy as we work towards creating intentional transformative change in our society.
Project South
Project South is a membership-based social justice organization rooted in the US South that works at the local, regional, and national levels to dismantle systems of poverty, racism, and violence while also building community power.
Southern Poverty Law Center
The Southern Poverty Law Center is dedicated to fighting hate, bigotry and extremism. The organization tracks the activities of hate groups across America, uses the courts and other forms of advocacy to win systemic reforms on behalf of victims of bigotry and discrimination and provides educators with free resources that teach school children to reject hate, embrace diversity and respect differences.
Deep South Center for Environmental Justice
The Deep South Center for Environmental Justice (DSCEJ) is dedicated to improving the lives of children and families harmed by pollution and vulnerable to climate change in the Gulf Coast Region through research, education, community and student engagement for policy change, as well as health and safety training for environmental careers. A major goal of the Center continues to be the development of leaders in communities of color along the Mississippi River Chemical Corridor and the broader Gulf Coast Region that are disproportionately harmed by pollution and vulnerable to climate change.
Institute for Southern Studies
Since its founding in 1970 by veterans of the civil rights movement, the Institute for Southern Studies has established a national reputation as an essential resource for grassroots activists, community leaders, scholars, policy makers and others working to bring lasting social and economic change to the region. The Institute issued a report in 2012 on the impacts of the BP oil disaster called "Troubled Waters."
Highlander Center
Highlander serves as a catalyst for grassroots organizing and movement building in Appalachia and the South. Through popular education, participatory research, and cultural work, Highlander creates spaces for people to gain knowledge, hope and courage, expanding their ideas of what is possible. The Center supports strong, democratic organizations that work for justice, equality and sustainability in their own communities and that join with others to build broad movements for social, economic and restorative environmental change
Appalshop
Appalshop is a non-profit multi-disciplinary arts and education center in the heart of Appalachia producing original films, video, theater, music and spoken-word recordings, radio, photography, multimedia, and books. Their education and training programs support communities' efforts to solve their own problems in a just and equitable way. Each year, Appalshop productions and services reach several million people nationally and internationally.
Loretto Community
Loretto Community’s priority concerns are immigration justice, care for Earth and the abolition of nuclear weapons. Members work for justice and act for peace in the United States, at the United Nations and around the world, including in education, healthcare, spiritual accompaniment, the empowerment of women, environmental stewardship, anti-discrimination, land acknowledgement and advocacy.
Bridge the Gulf
Bridge the Gulf is a storytelling initiative promoting cultural survival, environmental justice, and sustainable development in Gulf Coast communities following Hurricane Katrina. This citizen journalism and new-media initiative is designed to help Gulf Coast communities convey their stories and their vision for a just, healthy and sustainable future.
Feminist Women's Health Center
As Atlanta's leading non-profit women's health resource, the Feminist Women's Health Center provides quality care and community education, while working to improve women's health. The center believes that education and knowledge are vital components in a woman's ability to make positive health care decisions, and therefore provides community educational initiatives along with advocating for reproductive justice and reproductive rights.
Positive Impact Health Centers
Mission: Client-centered care for the HIV community to have a life worth loving. Comprehensive services are available at the Duluth, Decatur and Marietta Centers in Georgia for those individuals living with HIV. Grant funding enables most services to be provided on a sliding fee basis.
AID Atlanta
AID Atlanta was established in 1982 in response to the devastating impact that HIV/AIDS was having on the Atlanta community, and has been providing HIV/AIDS-related services, care, and education since its inception. The mission of AID Atlanta is to reduce new HIV infections and improve the quality of life of its members and the community by breaking barriers and building community. AID Atlanta currently offers HIV/AIDS prevention and care services, including (but not limited to) HIV Medical Care, HIV/STD Screening, PrEP, Community HIV Prevention Programs, Linkage Services, Case Management, and a state-wide Information Hotline. In the area of HIV outreach and education, AID Atlanta continues to actively work in communities of high impact to reach those most at risk of HIV and/or living without knowing their status. AID Atlanta has grown to be the most comprehensive AIDS service organization in the Southeast.
