Feel Good Friday - Earthjustice

With Earth Day just around the corner on April 22nd, this week's Feel Good Friday highlights Earthjustice, the organization fighting to protect our planet in the courts.

Founded in 1971 and headquartered in San Francisco, the mission of Earthjustice, is "to wield the power of law and the strength of partnership to protect people's health, to preserve magnificent places and wildlife, to advance clean energy, and to combat climate change." Originally established as the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, the organization became fully independent and rebranded as Earthjustice in 1997 to better reflect its identity as a legal advocate for the broader environmental movement. They represent not just big national groups, but communities on the frontlines of pollution.

What makes Earthjustice unique is its core promise: they represent all clients completely free of charge! That's because they operate on the simple, powerful premise that the earth needs a good lawyer. With more than 220 attorneys working across 15 regional offices, Earthjustice takes on the biggest, most precedent-setting environmental cases in the country. Their clients range from big organizations like the Sierra Club and the World Wildlife Fund to small community groups fighting pollution in their own backyards.

The work of Earthjustice spans four major areas: clean air and healthy communities, climate and clean energy, healthy oceans and wildlife, and the preservation of wild places. In recent years, they’ve won landmark cases resulting in historic limits on industrial polluters, secured a settlement in Hawaii requiring the state to transition its transportation system to zero emissions, and fought back against efforts to reopen protected oceans to oil and gas drilling. 

Since January 2025 alone, they have filed more than 150 new pieces of litigation in direct response to sweeping attacks on environmental protections. The good news is they have an 85% win rate for their cases. Mother Earth has some good representation!

If you’d like to support Earthjustice you can do so by making a donation, shopping for sustainably sourced apparel and gear at their store, and amplifying their message on social media. Follow Earthjustice on Bluesky, Instagram, or LinkedIn and share their stories of legal victories for people and the planet.

Happy Earth Month! 🌎

Feel Good Friday - Academy of American Poets

April is National Poetry Month, and this year marks the 30th anniversary of the celebration, making it the perfect time to spotlight the Academy of American Poets, the organization that started it all.

Founded in 1934 and headquartered in New York City, the mission of Academy of American Poets  is "to support American poets at all stages of their careers and to foster the appreciation of contemporary poetry."

The Academy launched National Poetry Month in 1996, and it has grown into the largest literary celebration in the world, with schools, libraries, publishers, and poetry lovers across the country participating every April. But their work doesn't stop when the month ends.

Year-round, the Academy runs an impressive slate of programs. Poem-a-Day is their beloved daily series, publishing more than 200 new, previously unpublished poems each year alongside exclusive commentary from the poets themselves. Dear Poet  connects K–12 students directly with living poets through letter writing. This year, for the first time, the program includes poems in both English and Spanish! Teach This Poem  is a free weekly resource for educators, pairing a poem with discussion questions and classroom activities. And Poetry Near You is a searchable calendar of poetry events happening in communities nationwide.

The Academy also administers the American Poets Prizes and Fellowships, distributing more than $1,000,000 to two hundred poets each year, making it the largest funder of poets in the United States. This includes the Poet Laureate Fellowship, which awards $50,000 fellowships to state and local poets laureate, and the Wallace Stevens Award, a $100,000 prize for lifetime achievement.

Upcoming events include Poem in Your Pocket Day on April 30th. Everyone is encouraged to carry a poem and share it with someone on that day. And don't miss the Poetry & the Creative Mind virtual benefit reading on April 28th, featuring a star-studded lineup of celebrities reading their favorite poems. It's free and open to all!

You can support the Academy of American Poets in many ways. Become a member, make a donation, or simply share their work on social media. Follow them on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn and spread a little poetry love with your network.

Happy National Poetry Month! 🌸

Feel Good Friday - Innocence Project

Tomorrow marks the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, a day that invites reflection on the ongoing fight for racial justice in America. The Innocence Project  is doing that work every single day.

Founded in 1992 and headquartered in New York, the mission of the Innocence Project  is "to free the innocent, prevent wrongful convictions, and create fair, compassionate, and equitable systems of justice for everyone."

Attorneys Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld started the organization as a law clinic at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law after recognizing that if DNA technology could prove guilt, it could also prove innocence. It became an independent nonprofit in 2003 and has been at the forefront of criminal justice reform ever since.

The racial disparities in wrongful conviction cases are staggering. Nearly 70% of Innocence Project clients are people of color. Black innocent defendants spend 45% more time wrongfully imprisoned before exoneration than white defendants. Cases involving Black exonerees are 50% more likely to involve police misconduct, and intentionally suggestive witness identifications occur twice as frequently in cases involving Black and Latinx exonerees. These are not anomalies — they are patterns rooted in systemic bias.

The Innocence Project fights this injustice on multiple fronts. Their legal team takes on cases where DNA or other scientific evidence can establish innocence. Their policy work has led to the passage of more than 250 state and federal laws addressing issues like eyewitness identification reform, preservation of biological evidence, and compensation for exonerees. They also push to strengthen forensic science standards and limit the use of unreliable technologies like facial recognition in law enforcement. Since their founding, they have helped free or exonerate more than 250 people who collectively spent over 4,000 years behind bars for crimes they did not commit.

If you’d like to support the Innocence Project, there are many ways to do so. Volunteer your time, make a donation, and amplify their message on social media. Follow the Innocence Project on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn and share their stories of justice and freedom with your network.