All Due Respect is a labor advocacy group that advocates for improving the treatment of activist workers employed by left-leaning groups. It is a fiscally sponsored project of the Hopewell Fund, a 501(c)(3) left-of-center funding nonprofit managed by Arabella Advisors. ¹

All Due Respect’s “research review board” includes representatives from left-leaning groups such as Democracy Alliance, the Movement Strategy Center, and the Ford Foundation. ²

Background

The group purports to support activists, “especially organizers of color, women, LGBTQ+, those with disabilities, rural, and/or undocumented organizers,” in their fight for higher wages, more generous benefits, and better work environments, objecting that “organizers shouldn’t be burning out after a few years.” The group also claims that such workers “have to make impossible choices about their futures” due to how little their employers provide to support their livelihoods. ³

Activity

All Due Respect claims to work with donors, managers, and organizers in the left-progressive movement to set new standards for employee compensation. ⁴

In order to assess how it can help improve activists’ workplaces and compensation, All Due Respect has a survey on its website for community organizers to take. ⁵ Before it begins, the survey form calls it an “opportunity to share your experiences and ideas for change” and promises not to share the information outside of its research team. It then proceeds to ask the participant for their name, job description, their organization’s name, size, and website, their city, state, email, phone number, race, gender identity, pronouns, and work experience. ⁶

Additionally, it asks participants to rank areas of job satisfaction by importance, with topics ranging from fair wages and paid leave to mentorship opportunities and professional development. Dozens of questions on working conditions and requests for explanations of personal experience follow, including questions concerning the equity and transparency of the organization’s pay scale. It explicitly asks if the participant and their coworkers have considered forming a union and if so, at what point in the process they are. It provides a form at the end of the survey for any additional comments not covered by its questionnaire. ⁷

Leadership

All Due Respect is run by two leaders: Alicia Jay and Kevin Simowitz.

Alicia Jay is a consultant for various left-of-center foundations and nonprofit organizations. Jay has worked in Democratic Party-aligned movements for more than fifteen years, particularly with groups concerned with “gender justice.” She helped launched The League in 2018, a firm that aims to improve the cultural outreach and communications of traditional civic engagement and activist organizations. She co-founded and served as the managing director of Make It Work, an advocacy campaign for feminist issues and left-of-center economic policies. She worked in various feminist campaigns such as We Won’t Wait, the United State of Women Summit, and the Survivors’ Agenda. Jay previously worked as a grantmaker for Atlantic Philanthropies, later becoming a consultant for the group. She also volunteered to coach young activists through groups like Young People For and the Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program. ⁸

Kevin Simowitz is a consultant for political and advocacy organizations, advising on campaign strategies for legislative issues and on grantmaking approaches for philanthropic donors. He previously worked as the political director at Caring Across Generations, a healthcare advocacy group. During that time, he championed its effort to campaign for the Kupuna Caregivers Act, legislation concerned with the benefits of caregivers, as well as the 2018 Homecare for All ballot initiative. He also worked for Maine People’s Alliance as an organizing director as well as the director of its Small Business Coalition. He serves on the board of Renew New England and on the advisory committee of Alpha Legal Foundation. ⁹

All Due Respect has a sizeable “research review board” to draw conclusions from the groups’ research and surveys. Members of the review board include Sarita Gupta of the Ford Foundation, Arisha Hatch of Color of Change, Kalpana Krishnamurthy of Forward Together, Gara LaMarche of Democracy Alliance, Judith LeBlanc of Native Organizers Alliance, Art Reyes of We the People Michigan, Andrea Mercado of Florida New Majority, Nse Ufot of New Georgia Project, Michelle Miller of Coworker.org, Calvin Williams of Movement Strategy Center, and Supriya Lopez Pillai of Hidden Leaf Foundation. ¹⁰

1. “Our Mission.” All Due Respect. Accessed November 2, 2021. https://www.allduerespectproject.org/about.
2. “Our Team.” All Due Respect. Accessed November 3, 2021. https://www.allduerespectproject.org/our-team.
3. “Our Mission.” All Due Respect. Accessed November 2, 2021. https://www.allduerespectproject.org/about.
4. “Our Mission.” All Due Respect. Accessed November 2, 2021. https://www.allduerespectproject.org/about.
5. “Take the Survey.” All Due Respect. Accessed November 3, 2021. https://www.allduerespectproject.org/take-the-survey.
6. “Take the Survey.” All Due Respect. Accessed November 3, 2021. https://www.allduerespectproject.org/take-the-survey.
7. “Take the Survey.” All Due Respect. Accessed November 3, 2021. https://www.allduerespectproject.org/take-the-survey.
8. “Our Team.” All Due Respect. Accessed November 3, 2021. https://www.allduerespectproject.org/our-team
9. “Our Team.” All Due Respect. Accessed November 3, 2021. https://www.allduerespectproject.org/our-team
10. “Our Team.” All Due Respect. Accessed November 3, 2021. https://www.allduerespectproject.org/our-team