[Peace-discuss] Jobs With Justice

Tue Dec 30 21:28:58 CST 2008

Don Wildmon is a cousin of mine and a known nut job.  Presumably his group and JWJ are "similar" in that they are both advocacy-type organizations, not service providers.  I can't imagine how else they'd be "similar".  He certainly opposes much of what we stand for.

Without knowing much about the methodology behind these evaluations like "drowning in admin costs" or whatever, it's hard to comment on it except to point out that they appear to be talking about the national organization, which is misleading in the case of a loose coalition like Jobs With Justice.

Our local coalition, for example, pays exactly nothing to the national organization for the use of its name, bundles of info on various campaigns, big stacks of well-made signs whenever we ask for them, printed postcards, etc.  All the money we collect locally stays here.  All of it.  All approx. $500 we have in the bank at the moment is ours to shower our executive with luxuries, should we ever decide to select one.  Most often we spend it on, e.g. renting the civic center for that People's Thanksgiving event, donating to locked out workers in Effingham this Xmas, ... "administrative costs" like that.

The vast majority of our activities, and those of other JWJ chapters around the US, is the same kind of volunteer efforts that keep AWARE, CU Citizens for Peace & Justice, CCHCC, the Greens and others going.  Most of what our chapter and others use (supplies, space, etc) is donated by unions and community groups who belong to JWJ.  All that goes uncounted in this type of reckoning, I'll wager, and therefore the only money that is needed - at the national level, because local chapters give no accounting to anyone by which they could judge - is probably what one might refer to as "administrative".

JWJ is about organizing people and groups to work for economic justice.  That work is different from other "charity" work: we do not give out food or medical care or housing to people in need, which presumably weighs on the other side of the balance for other types of charities.  Groups that organize and promote struggle for justice will never measure up against groups that give away stuff to needy people in such an accounting, I'd guess.  That is truly apples and oranges.

I'll pass along anything else I find out.
Ricky

"Speak your mind even if your voice shakes." - Maggie Kuhn

________________________________
From: Marti Wilkinson <martiwilki at gmail.com>
To: John W. <jbw292002 at gmail.com>
Cc: Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at anti-war.net>
Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2008 9:00:09 PM
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Jobs With Justice

I've taken a look at the site and the website lists the "American Family Association" as a charity that performs 'similar types of work'. Out of curiosity I clicked on the link and this is the description given. 

Founded
in 1977 by Don Wildmon, the American Family Association (AFA)
represents and stands for traditional family values, focusing primarily
on the influence of television and other media - including pornography
- on our society. AFA believes that the entertainment industry, through
its various products, has played a major role in the decline of those
values on which our country was founded and which keep a society and
its families strong and healthy. We believe in holding accountable the
companies which sponsor programs attacking traditional family values.
We also believe in commending those companies which act responsibly
regarding programs they support. The American Family Association exists
to motivate and equip citizens to change the culture to reflect
Biblical truth.Revenue for American Family Association $22,547,087
Leadership Compensation: Ranges from 88,0000 to over 104,000

For JWJ this is the description given:
Jobs with Justice (JwJ) engages workers and allies in campaigns to win
justice in workplaces and in communities where working families live.
JwJ was founded in 1987 with the vision of lifting up workers' rights
struggles as part of a larger campaign for economic and social justice.
We believe in long-term multi-issue coalition building, grassroots
base-building and organizing and strategic militant action as the
foundation for building a grassroots movement, and we believe that by
engaging a broad community of allies, we can win bigger victories. We
reach working people through the organizations that represent them -
unions, congregations, community organizations - and directly as JwJ
activists. Nearly 100,000 people have signed the JwJ pledge to "be
there at least five times a year for someone else's struggle as well as
their own.

Revenue Report for JWJ: $2,096,925

Leadership Compensation: $74,252
It seems to be that the two organizations are like apples and oranges yet this Charity Navigator lists them as 'similar' organizations.  The overall revenue for both groups is also very different and there may be other factors at play here. 

What is also interesting is that in reporting their own finances the form they posted is dated back to 2006.

http://www.charitynavigator.org/__asset__/_etc_/CN_990_FYE2007.pdf

Of course my own response to this is biased due to my current involvement with Central Illinois Jobs with Justice and it's only fair that I acknowledge my leanings here. While the site does make for some interesting reading I would think that people need to look at more than one resource in order to evaluate the responsibility of an organization. Since JWJ involves working with different organizations and networks (each of whom have their own financial resources) I wouldn't be surprised if the methodology used by charity navigator turns out to be a poor fit in this situation. 

Just my not so humble and biased opinion....Marti :)

On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 4:11 PM, John W. <jbw292002 at gmail.com> wrote:

I'll bet you didn't know that Jobs With Justice ranks as the very worst of "Charities Drowning in Administrative Costs", according to Charity Navigator.  77.5% of its budget goes toward administrative costs.

http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=topten.detail&listid=20

Charity Navigator, America's premier independent charity evaluator, works to advance a more efficient and responsive philanthropic marketplace by evaluating the financial health of over 5,300 of America's largest charities.Here's the home page:  http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm    Makes for some interesting reading.

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