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Kairos Center for Religions, Rights & Social Justice

Website:

www.kairoscenter.org
Location:

New York City
Type:

Social Justice Advocacy
Formation:

2004
Executive Director:

Liz Theoharis

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The Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice is a left-of-center advocacy group that fights against “systemic poverty, racism, [and] ecological devastation…” 1 Its main program is the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, a movement to end poverty, increase the number of low-income voters, and support a broad set of left-of-center issues that affect “those most impacted by racism, poverty, and injustice.” 2

The Kairos Center is fiscally sponsored by the Tides Center 3  and supported by several left-of-center foundations including the Henry Luce Foundation, 4 the Ford Foundation, 5 and the Open Society Foundations. 6

Background

The Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice (Kairos Center) is a national network advocating left-of-center issues including “systemic poverty, racism, [and] ecological devastation.” 1 It was founded in 2004 as the Poverty Initiative at the Union Theological Seminary, a seminary located in New York City that espouses a “progressive theological education.” 7  8

Union Theological Seminary describes itself as “a beacon for social justice and progressive change.” It is “led by a diverse group of theologians and activist leaders” to address “critical issues like racial equity, criminal justice reform, income inequality, and protecting the environment.” 9  The Poverty Initiative was renamed the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice in 2013. 7

Organizations in the Kairos Center network include Veterans for Peace, the Border Network for Human Rights, the Aspen Institute, Repairers of the Breach, ESCR-Net, the Equal Justice Initiative, and the United Workers Association. 10

The organization’s executive director, Liz Theoharis, has claimed that the Republican Party is “anti-immigrant, anti-Black, and anti-poor” and that the second Trump administration is a “proto-fascistic and religiously regressive administration.” As a result, the poor must organize to “reorder the political and economic priorities of our country.” 11

Poor People’s Campaign

In 2017, Kairos Center executive director Liz Theoharis and Repairers of the Breach president William J. Barber II launched the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. It is a campaign focused on building a movement to end poverty and is a major part of the Kairos Center’s work. 12 13 In 2018, the campaign organized what it called the “largest and most expansive wave of nonviolent civil disobedience in the United States in the 21st century” across 40 states. It continues organizing protests and is also focused on voter mobilization for low-income people and “those most impacted by racism, poverty, and injustice.” 2

It supports a broad left-wing political agenda that includes expanding the right to vote, ending mass incarceration, ending border enforcement for illegal immigrants, forgiving student debt, establishing universal income, housing for all, health care for all, relieving all debt for those who cannot pay, and declaring climate change a national emergency. 14 Repairers of the Breach builds social movements that support “the poor, women, LGBTQ people, children, workers, immigrants, communities of color, and the sick.” 15 It has received over $5 million in funding from left-of-center billionaire philanthropist George Soros’s Open Society Foundations. 16

Other Projects

In 2020, the Kairos Center launched the Freedom Church of the Poor, “a spiritual and political home for movement leaders.” Liz Theoharis describes it as “putting out a liberative theology, confronting white Christian nationalism.” 17  2

The Labor-Religion Coalition was founded in 1980 and became a program of the Kairos Center in 2025. It is a “statewide movement for social, racial, and economic justice in New York.” 18

The Kairos Center is a partner of the No Kings movement which protests against what it calls authoritarianism that is “destroying our democracy.” 19 Other partners include Black Voters Matter, the Human Rights Campaign, Indivisible, the League of Conservation Voters, Move to Amend, NextGen America, Our Revolution, People for the American Way, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Progressive Democrats of America, Rise and Resist, Stand Up America, and Working Families Power. 20 At least 70 of the organizations involved in this movement are affiliates of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). 21

Funding

The Kairos Center is fiscally sponsored by the Tides Center. 3

In 2024, the Henry Luce Foundation awarded the Kairos Center $200,000, 4 and the Ford Foundation awarded it $712,500. 5

Other donors include the Open Society Foundations which was established by left-of-center billionaire philanthropist George Soros, 6 the NoVo Foundation, and the New World Foundation. 22

Leadership

Liz Theoharis is a theologian, a pastor, and an activist. She is a founder and the director of the Kairos Center and a co-founder and co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. She is an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church USA, co-pastor of the Freedom Church of the Poor, and a teacher at Union Theological Seminary. 23

Theoharis earned a bachelor’s degree in urban studies from the University of Pennsylvania, and a masters of divinity and a PhD from the Union Theological Seminary. 24  During college she became involved in organizing with the National Union of the Homeless and the National Welfare Rights Union. During her studies at the Union Theological Seminary she joined with faculty, administrators, and other classmates to start the Poverty Initiative which later became the Kairos Center. 2 Theoharis has been recognized as one of 15 Faith Leaders to Watch by the Center for American Progress, one of 11 Women Shaping the Church by Sojourners, and she received the Women of Faith Award from the Presbyterian Church USA. 24

William J. Barber II is co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. He is also the founder and president of Repairers of the Breach,  a founding director and professor at the Yale Divinity School, and a bishop with the Fellowship of Affirming Ministries. Previously, Barber was a pastor and president of the North Carolina NAACP. He earned his Master of Divinity from Duke University and a Ph.D. from Drew University. 25

References

  1. “Donate.” Kairos Center. Accessed June 29, 2025. https://kairoscenter.org/donate/
  2. “A Conversation with Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis.” Union. Accessed June 29, 2025. https://utsnyc.edu/blog/2022/10/17/spotlight-liz-theoharis/
  3. Kairos Center homepage. Accessed June 28, 2025. https://kairoscenter.org/
  4. “Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice.” Henry Luce Foundation – Our Grants. Accessed June 29, 2025. https://hluce.org/grants/kairos-center-for-religions-rights-and-social-justice-a-center-for-leadership-development-narrative-change-and-power/
  5. “Core support for the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice.” Ford Foundation – Grants Database. Accessed June 29, 2025. https://www.fordfoundation.org/work/our-grants/awarded-grants/grants-database/tides-center-151660/
  6. “Union Theological Seminary.” Open Society Foundations – Awarded Grants. Accessed June 29, 2025. https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/grants/past?filter_keyword=kairos+center&grant_id=OR2021-83183
  7. “About Us.” Kairos Center. Accessed June 28, 2025. https://kairoscenter.org/about-us/

  8. “Union at a Glance.” Union. Accessed June 28, 2025. https://utsnyc.edu/about/union-glance/
  9. “Mission & Vision.” Union – About. Accessed June 28, 2025. https://utsnyc.edu/about/mission-vision/
  10. “Our Network.” Kairos Center. Accessed June 29, 2025. https://kairoscenter.org/network/
  11. Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis and Noam Sandweiss-Back. “Trump is Waging War on the Poor.” The Nation. April 25, 2025. Accessed June 29, 2025. https://www.thenation.com/article/society/trump-welfare-poverty-kairos-center/
  12. “History.” Kairos Center – About Us. Accessed June 28, 2025. https://kairoscenter.org/about-us/
  13. “Poor People’s Campaign.” Kairo Center – Projects. Accessed June 29, 2025. https://kairoscenter.org/projects/poor-peoples-campaign/
  14. “A Moral Policy Agenda to Heal and Transform America: The Poor People’s Jubilee Platform.” Poor People’s Campaign. July 2020. Accessed June 29, 2025. https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/PPC-Policy-Platform_8-28.pdf
  15. “Repairers of the Breach.” Poor People’s Campaign – Anchor Organizations. Accessed June 29, 2025. https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/about/anchor-organizations/
  16. “Repairers of the Breach.” Open Society Foundations – Awarded Grants. Accessed June 29, 2025. https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/grants/past?filter_keyword=Repairers+of+the+Breach&grant_id=OR2020-72082
  17. “Freedom Church of the Poor.” Kairo Center – Projects. Accessed June 29, 2025. https://kairoscenter.org/freedomchurch/
  18. “Labor-Religion Coalition.” Kairo Center – Projects. Accessed June 29, 2025. https://kairoscenter.org/labor-religion-coalition/
  19. “About.” No Kings. Accessed June 28, 2025. https://www.nokings.org/#about
  20. “Partners.” No Kings. Accessed June 28, 2025. https://www.nokings.org/partners
  21. Asra Q. Nomani. “ASRA NOMANI: The familiar hidden hand behind today’s #NoKings protests.” Fox News. June 14, 2025. Accessed June 28, 2025. https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/asra-nomani-familiar-hidden-hand-behind-todays-nokings-protests
  22. “Institutional Supporters.” Kairos Center. Accessed June 29, 2025. https://kairoscenter.org/institutional-supporters/
  23. “Bio.” Liz Theoharis. Accessed June 29, 2025. https://liztheoharis.org/about/  
  24. “Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis.” Kairo Center – Staff. Accessed June 29, 2025. https://kairoscenter.org/staff/liz-theoharis/
  25. “Our Founder.” Repairers of the Breach. Accessed June 29, 2025. https://breachrepairers.org/about-us/our-founder/
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