Logo for InfluenceWatch InfluenceWatch

Donate
Other Group

New Jersey Ida Just Recovery Fund

Parent Organization: Amalgamated Charitable Foundation
Type:

Labor union-affiliated charitable fund
Parent Organization:

Amalgamated Charitable Foundation

Contact InfluenceWatch with suggested edits or tips for additional profiles.

The New Jersey Ida Just Recovery Fund is a donor-advised charitable fund operated by the left-of-center Amalgamated Charitable Foundation, a collection of donor-advised funds (DAFs) that was created as a spin-ff from the  Service Employees International Union-controlled Amalgamated Bank in 2017. Amalgamated Charitable funds a number of left-of-center advocacy organizations and has sponsored a campaign targeting social-conservative and immigration-restrictionist organizations identified as “hate groups” by the controversial Southern Poverty Law Center. The recovery fund is one of several hurricane recovery funds created by the foundation and focuses on funding community organizing and rebuilding efforts following the 2021 Hurricane Ida in New Jersey. 1 2

The recovery fund was created as a joint project of left-of-center organizations Make the Road New Jersey, Ironbound Community Corporation, and New Jersey Organizing Project. 3

Background

The New Jersey Ida Just Recovery Fund was founded by the Amalgamated Charitable Foundation (also known as Amalgamated Charitable), a left-of-center grantmaking organization and donor-advised fund provider that fund a variety of left-of-center projects and operates several campaigns and is closely affiliated with the U.S. labor movement, being a spin-off of the labor union-backed Amalgamated Bank, which is a bank affiliated with and formerly owned by a division of the Service Employees International Union. Notable fund recipients of the Amalgamated Foundation include the Tides Foundation, Hopewell Fund, and Proteus Fund and notable funders of the foundation include the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Ford Foundation. 4 5

Activities

The New Jersey Ida Just Recovery Fund claims that the 2021 Hurricane Ida was a result of a “climate crisis,” claiming that “while no one is safe from the climate crisis, some are more at risk than others. Frontline communities–communities of color and working families that face the ‘first and worst’ of climate change–have an unfortunate wealth of knowledge about coping with weather-related disasters.” 6

The fund aims to provide funding to “frontline community organizations” to provide disaster relief stemming from Hurricane Ida and focuses on providing “equitable” relief according to left-of-center ideology concerning diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The fund is a joint project of multiple left-of center New Jersey-based organizations: Ironbound Community Corporation, Make the Road New Jersey, and the New Jersey Organizing Project. 7  

The funds distributed by the fund are intended to fund both disaster relief and left-of-center community organizing efforts. 8

Affiliated Organizations

The New Jersey Ida Just Recovery Fund is operated by the Amalgamated Charitable Foundation and is funded as a join project by three New Jersey-based left-of-center organizations: the Ironbound Community Corporation, Make the Road New Jersey, and the New Jersey Organizing Project. Make the Road New Jersey is a left-of-center group that focuses on immigration issues and organizes protests, community services, and political advocacy efforts among immigrants in New Jersey and is a project of Make the Road States, which operates several groups modeled after Make the Road New York. Make the Road New Jersey and similar Make the Road groups are all fiscally sponsored by and affiliated with the Center for Popular Democracy. 9 10 11

Amalgamated Charitable created a similar fund, the Hurricane Ida Community-Led Recovery Fund, as a collective of four Louisiana-based organizations to conduct similar organizing activities and Hurricane Ida relief in Louisiana. The Amalgamated Foundation’s Organizing Resilience Network, which operates such funds, is funded by the Ford Foundation, Open Society Foundations, and Way to Rise, the 501(c)(3) sister to Way to Win. 12

References

  1. “New Jersey Ida Just Recovery Fund.” Amalgamated Foundation. Accessed September 11, 2023. https://www.amalgamatedfoundation.org/new-jersey-ida-just-recovery-fund
  2. “Vision” Amalgamated Foundation. Accessed September 11, 2023. https://www.amalgamatedfoundation.org/vision
  3. “New Jersey Ida Just Recovery Fund.” Amalgamated Foundation. Accessed September 11, 2023. https://www.amalgamatedfoundation.org/new-jersey-ida-just-recovery-fund
  4. Data provided by FoundationSearch. www.FoundationSearch.com
  5. “New Jersey Ida Just Recovery Fund.” Amalgamated Foundation. Accessed September 11, 2023. https://www.amalgamatedfoundation.org/new-jersey-ida-just-recovery-fund
  6. “New Jersey Ida Just Recovery Fund.” Amalgamated Foundation. Accessed September 11, 2023. https://www.amalgamatedfoundation.org/new-jersey-ida-just-recovery-fund
  7. “New Jersey Ida Just Recovery Fund.” Amalgamated Foundation. Accessed September 11, 2023. https://www.amalgamatedfoundation.org/new-jersey-ida-just-recovery-fund
  8. “New Jersey Ida Just Recovery Fund.” Amalgamated Foundation. Accessed September 11, 2023. https://www.amalgamatedfoundation.org/new-jersey-ida-just-recovery-fund
  9. “New Jersey Ida Just Recovery Fund.” Amalgamated Foundation. Accessed September 11, 2023. https://www.amalgamatedfoundation.org/new-jersey-ida-just-recovery-fund
  10. “Home.” Make the Road New York. Accessed April 21, 2022. https://maketheroadny.org/
  11. “About.” Make the Road New Jersey. Accessed April 21, 2022. https://maketheroadnj.org/about-us-2/
  12. “New Jersey Ida Just Recovery Fund.” Amalgamated Foundation. Accessed September 11, 2023. https://www.amalgamatedfoundation.org/new-jersey-ida-just-recovery-fund
  See an error? Let us know!