American Jewish World Service
/OVERVIEW: The American Jewish World Service supports grassroots, Indigenous and community groups in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Its areas of engagement address disaster relief, human rights, climate change, women and girls and LGBTQ causes.
IP TAKE: The American Jewish World Service is “united by a deep belief in the human dignity of each and every person.” While this is a faith-based organization that takes “Jewish values and teachings”as its inspiration,” its giving occurs beyond that focus. AJWS has been a steady supporter of humanitarian aid and human rights in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean since its founding in 1985 and has spearheaded many philanthropic coalitions at times of crises and disasters around the world.
This funder works proactively to identify its grantees via a network of volunteers and experts on the front lines of the issues and areas it supports. It does not accept unsolicited applications. Prospective grantees should network with past partners and keep up with the organization’s Get Involved page, which offers information about how to advocate for and participate in current initiatives.
PROFILE: The American Jewish World Service (AJWS) was established “in 1985 by American Jews who wanted to join together as global citizens to help some of the poorest and most oppressed people around the globe.” The organization’s mission is “to realize human rights and end poverty in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.” In addition to making “more than half a billion dollars” in grants since its founding, AJWS maintains a network of “experts in each country [who] work closely with our grantees to help them build skills and grow.”
A major player in humanitarian aid over the past three decades, AJWS has launched and collaborated on major humanitarian campaigns addressing crises including the genocide in Darfur, the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill, the Haiti Earthquake of 2011, the Philippine Typhoon of 2012, the African Ebola outbreak of the mid 2010s and the global COVID-19 crisis. A GUTC signatory, this funder is a member of Funders of LGBTQ Issues and InterAction, a “U.S.-based alliance of international NGOs and partners.”
AJWS’s current areas of engagement are:
Grants for Disaster Relief and Humanitarian Aid
AJWS’s Humanitarian and Disaster Response focus area conducts the kind of work for which the organization is best known. Response to natural and manmade disasters involves “immediate humanitarian relief to activists on the front lines,” as well as “long-term support—so the hardest hit communities can recover while building more just and equitable societies.” Because so many current crises are caused by climate change, a component of AJWS’s humanitarian response involves helping marginalized and most-affected communities build climate equity and resilience.
In Indonesia, AJWS has supported Sulteng Bergerak, an organization that helps women advocate for government support for ongoing recovery efforts from an earthquake and tsunami that struck in 2018. Meanwhile, a grantee in Haiti, Tèt Kole Ti Peyizan Ayisyen, “mobilizes and fights for the rights of thousands of small-scale peasant farmers in Haiti” in the wake of the 2021 earthquake and contemporaneous political strife.
Grants for Democracy, Human Rights and Violence Prevention
In the areas of Civil and Political Rights, AJWS’s work focuses on “communities and movements that speak out against injustice, hold governments accountable to respect the rights of all people, and work to recover from civil wars and other conflicts.”
Grants and engagements work to counter corruption and authoritarianism around the globe through “courageous social change organizations building movements fighting for democracy and human rights”at “local, national and global levels.”
Grants support activities including but not limited to advocacy, activism, elections, peace negotiations and protests.
In Casamance, Senegal, AJWS has supported COSCPAC, a “peacebuilding coalition” that helped to negotiate the conditions for negotiations between a rebel group, the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance, and the Senegalese government.
And in Mexico, AJWS helped families of “the disappeared” form Fuerzas Unidas por Nuestros Desaparecidos en Nuevo León, a grassroots group that helps people locate kidnapped loved ones, or their remains, using legal, forensic and archeological means.
Grants for Environment, Climate Change and Indigenous Rights
AJWS’s grantmaking for Land, Water and Climate Justice focuses on “rural and Indigenous communities are fighting for their rights to live with safety, justice and dignity—and often their very survival—in a rapidly changing world.”
Areas of specific interest include projects and organizations working to “rural and Indigenous communities are fighting for their rights to live with safety, justice and dignity—and often their very survival—in a rapidly changing world.”
A climate justice grantee in Kenya, Ogiek Peoples’ Development Project, received support for a legal battle in the African Court of Human and People’s Rights that “secured the community’s legal claim to the land they’ve called home for generations upon generations,'' preventing Kenyan government’s sale of land to lumber companies.
Another AJWS project involves support for Salvadorian organizations including Unidad Ecológica Salvadoreña and Unidad Ecológica Salvadoreña in activism and advocacy to protect El Salvador’s General Water Law, which “define[s] and protect[s] water as a human right and a common good that has to be managed by public (state) actors.”
Grants for Women, Reproductive Health, and LGBTQ
Women’s, girls’ and LGBTQ causes have been of increasing interest to AJWS in recent years. The organization names Sexual Health and Rights and Ending Child Marriage as major areas of engagement.
Through its Sexual Health and Rights focus area, AJWS supports “social change organizations in Asia, Africa, Latin America & the Caribbean working to advance the sexual health and rights of women, girls and LGBTQI+ people, and end discrimination, stop violence and combat hate crimes.”
Giving prioritizes organizations and movements that are led by “activists within these communities [who] understand their needs and challenges best.”
Grantees of this program include Kenya’s National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, the reproductive rights group Red Salvadoreña de Defensoras de DDHH and Positive Young Women Voices, a support group for young women experiencing gender-based violence and injustice in India.
AJWS also names Ending Child Marriage as an area of specific focus and supports initiatives in Kenya, the Dominican Republic and India, where AJWS launchned a $30 million initiative “to end child, early and forced marriages and unions” in 2014. Grantmaking to end child marriage involves support for “the four As”:
Nurturing and encouraging girls’ aspirations;
“Increasing girls’ agency over their bodies and life choices”;
Expanding access to vital services, including health care, education and counseling; and
“Expanding the availability of institutions and structures that empower adolescent girls to fight for their rights.”
In India, AJWS has supported community-based organizations including the Azad Foundation's Women on Wheels Project, which “trains low-income young women to become taxi drivers” in Delhi, and Mahila Sarvangeen Utkarsh Mandal, which teaches young people from the “untouchable caste” about sexuality, health and advocating for one’s rights.
Other Grantmaking Opportunities
At home in the U.S., AJWS supports and engages in advocacy to support causes related to its areas of interest. Efforts include:
Bringing AJWS grantees from around the world to Washington, D.C. to meet with U.S. policymakers;
Mobilizing American Jews and Jewish leaders to “to get in touch with their elected officials [...] on human rights issues”;
Launching initiatives, communication campaigns and petitions online; and
Working with other faith-based and secular groups concerned with global human rights to form coalitions for action.
For current activities and initiatives, see the organization’s U.S. Advocacy page.
Important Grant Details:
Because a significant portion of this funder’s giving is conducted abroad, it is difficult to ascertain its grant amounts or ranges.
Grantmaking focuses on front-line, community based organizations led by people most affected by human rights, gender, climate or political injustices.
In addition to funding, AJWS provides strategic support to its grantees via its many “in-country staff and consultants.”
This is a collaborative funder that likes to “join forces” with like-minded organizations both at home in the U.S. and abroad.
AJWS does not accept applications for funding; the organization works proactively to identify the organization it supports.
See additional information about past giving at AJWS’s program pages, collections and blog pages.
Submit general questions to AJWS via email at ajws@ajws.org or by telephone at 212-792-2930. The organization’s social media information is linked to the bottom of its website.
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