AJWS was born in 1985 out of a grassroots vision of tikkun olam: our duty to repair our deeply fractured world.
AJWS’s founders understood that charity only goes so far, and that for change to be real and lasting in the world’s poorest communities, it must be driven by the people who need it. AJWS began by funding a handful of community-based organizations that were implementing their own visions for fighting poverty and responding to crises—and achieving extraordinary results.
Today, AJWS supports 458 organizations working in marginalized communities in 34 countries. In remote rural areas, urban slums and regions of wrenching conflict, our grantees’ work spans the broad spectrum of civil-society building and human rights advocacy—from education and women’s empowerment, to food security and health, to recovery from natural disasters and genocide. AJWS supported many of these organizations in their nascent stages and has stood by them as they have grown.
To date, AJWS has granted more than $100 million to grassroots organizations. Our grantees’ dramatic success in alleviating poverty and empowering people to make lasting change in their communities demonstrates how far we’ve come—and what is yet to be achieved.
AJWS’s grantmaking model echoes the belief that empowerment is the highest level of tzedekah. our goal is to help our grantees succeed on their own, enabling them to develop, support and sustain their
own strategies for transformation.
Poor health causes millions of deaths in developing countries each year. AJWS helps increase access to prevention and treatment around the world by funding local efforts to provide basic health services, improve child and maternal nutrition and prevent and treat diseases like malaria, dysentery and HIV/AIDS. With AJWS’s support, communities build clinics, fund preventative education and gain access to antiretroviral drugs and basic medicines that save lives.
Lack of access to education is one of the most critical roadblocks to change in the developing world. AJWS grants help communities provide traditional schooling as well as vocational training and informal opportunities for learning and skills building. Our grantees advocate for government provision of affordable, high-quality education to all people, especially frequently excluded populations like indigenous groups, women and girls.
AJWS supports marginalized communities to take a stand against injustice, expanding their political, economic and social rights. Civic empowerment grants help communities hold local governments accountable to the people. They also amplify the voices of women, children and youth; indigenous groups; sexual and ethnic minorities; refugees and people living with HIV/AIDS.
AJWS has supported people who have suffered some of the worst catastrophes and violent conflicts of the past 25 years. When a tsunami, earthquake or conflict claims lives, our grantees are often among the first responders. With AJWS funding, they provide emergency aid, assist refugees, prevent gender-based violence, fill gaps in education, address profound psychosocial trauma and work with communities throughout the years that it takes to heal, rebuild and move toward peace and long-term development.
AJWS leverages our grantees’ work by creating opportunities for collaboration. We frequently bring grantees together for local and regional peer-exchange conferences, enabling them to network, share best practices and problem-solve. AJWS also funds “collegial partners”—international and regional NGOs that provide valuable training, advocacy and support to grassroots organizations, bolstering movements for global change.
