Alliance for a Just Society

What it reported doing in 2024

Alliance for a just society - the national campaign for transit justice continued outreach & education around the need for investment in transit infrastructure. This included a weekly meeting with 60 community-based organizations. We continued to educate the public about the importance of federal funding for transit operations. We worked with local, state, and national groups to identify shared policy goals that will improve transit, biking, and walking. These include: 1. Great transit service requires federal operating funds. 2. Communities should be transit-ready. Frequent transit requires roads to incorporate transit lanes, traffic signal priority, and safe access for all road users between transit stops and key destinations, among other features. Road design must prioritize safety over speed to protect transit riders and reduce roadway deaths and injuries. Any reauthorization needs to update roadway design standards to require transit-supportive elements, fund transit-supportive activities, and support updating planning and zoning codes. Small and rural communities deserve great transit. Remove barriers and improve the federal transit program to increase access to quality transit in small towns and rural areas. This means: authorizing additional funding for rural transit programs. Raising the federal share of rural transit operating funding from 50% to 80%. Incentivizing coordination across jurisdictional boundaries and multiple funding sources. To enable long-term planning, states must provide multi-year funding estimates to rural transit agencies. Incentivizing innovative solutions with competitive grant funding. Create a federal procurement clearinghouse to help small and rural transit agencies right-size their purchases, increase efficiency, and facilitate lower capital costs. 4. Fix it first: the federal transportation program should prioritize maintenance on existing roads, bridges, and highways ahead of roadway capacity expansion that requires decades of additional repair costs. 5. Transit should have a level playing field with highways. We released 5 reports including: "earth day: it's time to make better transportation decisions", " 3 ways to make bus driving a better job", "good transit requires well paid union workers", "investing in the transit workforce for stronger communities and "state by state: impact of the stronger communities through better transportation act" we developed and shared five toolkits geared to helping groups organize constituencies, build effective townhalls, and other events. Working with the network organizations to build online lists, write effective emails, do non-partisan voter education, and strengthen the involvement of transit riders, disability groups, and labor unions.expanded the public dialog about the importance of transit and particularly the need for operations funding- by publishing op-eds and speaking to the press. We published two national and over 35 op-eds in 15 states to urge greater federal action to fund transit. In addition, ajs, plus partner organizations, were quoted in national outlets like politico, street smarts, the hill and the streets.ajs invested in training college students and community leaders. Weekly training sessions to educate 60 partner organizations about transit policy and best practices. A summer training series on organizing and strategy for the coalition of transit groups. The series included an introduction to organizing, racial justice for organizers (parts 1 and 2), and three workshops on campaign development and strategy. Hosted 12 meetings of rural community and transit groups to learn about transit best practices in small towns and rural communities. Hosted 28 student fellows who learned receiving training & field experience to explore organizing as a career. Ajs staff conducted year-round coaching of organizers with 3 community organizations, amounting to 20 staff. Ajs also conducted dozens of remote & in-person educational sessions & wor

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 63.3%; rating input score 63
• Program expense ratio: 83.5%; rating input score 84
• Fundraising efficiency: $14.05 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 93.8%; rating input score 94; 20th percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
  • Compensation committee: Missing
  • Independent consultant: Missing
  • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
  • Written employment contract: Missing
  • Compensation survey or study: Missing
  • Board or committee approval: Pass
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: 96.9%; rating input score 97; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: Pass
  • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 25.3%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.95; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.08; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 8.7%; rating input score 34; 34th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 4.9% per year; rating input score 100; 39th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: -16.9% per year; rating input score 0; 1st percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 22.6% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings