PLATINUM2023

JUST ASSOCIATES INC

Building Women's Collective Power for Justice

aka JASS   |   Washington, DC   |  www.justassociates.org

Mission

JASS is dedicated to strengthening the voice, visibility, and collective organizing power of women to create a just, sustainable world for all. Our feminist movement-building and popular education strategies combine innovative learning, organizing, communications and action that equip and energize activists, expand alliances and mobilize women’s movements for greater political influence and to ensure the safety of activists in an increasingly risky world.

Ruling year info

2001

Executive Director

Shereen Essof

Main address

1900 L Street NW 504

Washington, DC 20036 USA

Show more contact info

EIN

06-1597668

NTEE code info

Women's Rights (R24)

International Democracy & Civil Society Development (Q35)

Alliance/Advocacy Organizations (S01)

IRS filing requirement

This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ.

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Communication

Blog

Programs and results

What we aim to solve

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

We have a vision of social transformation: Addressing the big issues of our time – backlash against women’s rights, climate change, exploitative capitalism, violence against activists, growing inequalities, etc. – requires fundamental changes in social and political institutions and practices, as well as in the hearts and minds of both men and women. This cannot be achieved solely by tinkering at the edges of laws or policies or by getting a few more resources into women’s hands, or by gender mainstreaming or other instrumental ‘magic-bullet’ approaches now popular among many donors and governments. The social transformation we seek depends on deep personal and societal change strategies that shift the structures and dynamics of power, and is realized only when people everywhere enjoy individual and collective freedom, equality, justice, as well as social, economic, and personal security and wellbeing.

Our programs

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?

Equipping Activists

We recruit and equip activist leaders from all walks of life with the confidence, information, skills, and strategies they need to organize women and build alliances necessary to address problems of justice and discrimination. We do this through training, reflection, and learning processes - using and adapting a variety of JASS’ curricula, political tools, and concepts and applying popular education methods.

Population(s) Served
Women and girls
Activists

Where we work

Our results

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.

Number of grassroots organizations supported

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Women, LGBTQ people, Indigenous peoples, Multiracial people

Related Program

Equipping Activists

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Number of training workshops

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Indigenous peoples, Multiracial people, LGBTQ people, Women

Related Program

Equipping Activists

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

Training includes training of political facilitators, activist accompaniment and support, feminist popular education methodology development, and well-being and risk analysis.

Number of convenings hosted by the organization

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Women, Multiracial people, Indigenous peoples, LGBTQ people

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Holding steady

Number of meetings held with decision makers

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Women, Multiracial people, Indigenous peoples, LGBTQ people

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Our Sustainable Development Goals

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.

Goals & Strategy

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.

Charting impact

Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.

JASS is a feminist movement support organization dedicated to building the voice, visibility, and collective power of women for a just and sustainable world for all. JASS equips and strengthens the leadership and organizing capacity of women leaders and their organizations in Mesoamerica, Southeast Asia, and Southern Africa. JASS strengthens women’s movement strategies to transform the systems, structures and beliefs that perpetuate inequality and violence in four areas of their lives: bodies, voice, resources and safety.

Our 5 core overarching strategies seek to strengthen and amplify the voice, visibility, and collective power of women:

1. Bolster women’s leadership and organizing capacity through improved and expanded activist training, accompaniment and political development grounded in feminist popular education methodologies

2. Build and fortify cross-issue and cross-border movement alliances and links – both among our core constituencies of women/LBTQI: indigenous and rural, HIV+, young feminists, human rights defenders, workers, etc. and with other allied social movements within and across regions to create the conditions for greater political leverage, strategic collaboration, and safety.

3. Increase the understanding and support for collective and community-based approaches to safety and human rights protection in repressive contexts so that activists and movements have the resources they need to
continue their work with greater safety.

4. Strengthen and amplify the leadership of community-based women in bringing innovative solutions and bold demands to regional and global advocacy spaces on critical issues and agendas including women human rights defenders’ security, and environmental and economic justice.

5. Center community-based women’s knowledge and feminist contributions through more interactive and creative use of communications including social media, JASS’ Women Crossing the Line platform and the production of knowledge (e.g. articles, research, blogs, curated discussions) to influence the understanding and support for women perspectives and solutions.

Founded in 2002, JASS was built from the ground up by a community of practice with longstanding relationships of trust and a shared belief in feminist popular education as a key component of its movement-building work. Today, the work of JASS work is supported by a 43-person staff located in 6 international offices covering 9 countries and multiple projects, programs and initiatives. The organization has built a base of partnerships, networks, alliances and coalitions while maintaining a dynamic community of practice and close relationships with a wide range of social change efforts in the three regions in which it works.

How we listen

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.

done We shared information about our current feedback practices.
  • 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 strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals

  • 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 take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We share the feedback we received with the people we serve, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback

  • What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?

    We don’t have the right technology to collect and aggregate feedback efficiently, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection, Staff find it hard to prioritize feedback collection and review due to lack of time, finding the right balance between communities’ interest and needs and donor-driven requests

Financials

JUST ASSOCIATES INC
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Operations

The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.

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lock

Connect with nonprofit leaders

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Build 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.

JUST ASSOCIATES INC

Board of directors
as of 08/31/2023
SOURCE: Self-reported by organization
Board chair

Awino Okech

Centre for Gender Studies at School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)

Term: 2017 -

Natasha Barker

Allan Gray Orbis Foundation Endowment

Sangeeta Chowdhry

Global Fund for Women

Shereen Essof

Just Associates

Awino Okech

Centre for Gender Studies at School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)

Everjoice Win

Just Associates

Chann Sitha Mark

Worker's Information Center (WIC)

Raj Patel

LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin

Brandee Butler

Fund for Global Human Rights

Organizational demographics

SOURCE: Self-reported; last updated 8/22/2023

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
Decline to state
Sexual orientation
Decline to state
Disability status
Decline to state

Race & ethnicity

Gender identity

 

Sexual orientation

No data

Disability

No data

Equity strategies

Last updated: 08/01/2023

GuideStar 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

Data
  • We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
  • We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
  • We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
  • We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
  • We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
Policies and processes
  • We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
  • 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 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.