Feel Good Friday - Centro Legal de la Raza

It's National Hispanic Heritage Month, a celebration through October 15 of the histories, cultures and contributions of Americans with roots in Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America. Today I'm spotlighting Centro Legal de la Raza, right here in the Bay Area.

Founded in 1969 and headquartered in the Fruitvale neighborhood of Oakland, California, Centro Legal de la Raza was started by Latino law students from UC Berkeley to provide legal aid to low-income Latino residents of Oakland. Since then, it has grown to serve thousands of people across Northern and Central California. Their mission is "to protect and advance the rights of low-income, immigrant, Latinx, Black, and communities of color." Their vision grounds the work in "three core pillars: leadership, empowerment, and equity."

Centro Legal's Immigrants' Rights practice represents families living in poverty, long-residing undocumented immigrants, asylum seekers, and people facing deportation, including those in detention. Through the Alameda County Immigration Legal and Education Partnership, Centro Legal also helps ensure people facing detention, deportation or immigration emergencies have access to legal services and community education. The Tenants' Rights team fights displacement through eviction defense, drop-in legal clinics and rent board hearings across Alameda and Contra Costa counties. The Workers' Rights program helps low-wage immigrant workers facing wage theft, unsafe conditions and retaliation, including immigration-related threats.

Two more programs round out the work. Impact Litigation has taken cases before the U.S. and California Supreme Courts, and the Youth Law Academy is a three-year program that gives Oakland high school students a clear pathway to college, part of Centro Legal's effort to mentor the next generation of attorneys and judges of color.

Centro Legal has had a big impact in the community. Its work helps protect the rights of more than 10,000 people every year!

Volunteering as an interpreter is one way you can support Centro Legal, and there are many others. Attorneys can explore pro bono opportunities and all of us can make a donation and amplify their message on social media. Follow Centro Legal on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn and share their work with your network.

Happy Hispanic Heritage Month!

Feel Good Friday - Australian Koala Foundation

Today is Save the Koala Day, a day to raise awareness about one of Australia's most beloved animals, and the perfect time to feature the Australian Koala Foundation.

Founded in 1986 and headquartered in Brisbane, Australia, the mission of the Australian Koala Foundation (AKF) is "to be a highly credible, respected and compassionate international scientific organisation which will diminish the threat to the survival of koalas and be an example so as to increase the consciousness of all global citizens and enable them to reverse the rapid degeneration of all the world's flora and fauna." This year marks their 40th anniversary, and Chair Deborah Tabart, known as the Koala Woman, has led the charge for nearly all of it.

According to AKF, more than 80% of the koala's natural habitat has been destroyed since colonial settlement, and almost none of what remains is protected. Much of it sits on private land, resulting in competition between koalas and development. Their motto sums up the solution: "No Tree, No Me."

AKF's flagship work is the Koala Habitat Atlas, a groundbreaking project completed in 2018 that maps the entire habitat range of a single species. It shows planners where koala habitat exists so they can make smarter development decisions. The Atlas now powers KoalaMap, where anyone can explore habitat and share koala sightings.

Building on that research, the Koala Kiss Project identifies "kiss points," places where patches of habitat nearly touch but are separated by cleared land. Replanting those gaps could reconnect forests across the koala's range. AKF is also championing the Koala Protection Act, proposed national legislation focused on protecting the trees koalas depend on, including habitat that is currently empty.

AKF has had a big impact over four decades. Since they began, they've directed more than $15 million to research and conservation projects!

You can support AKF from anywhere in the world. Make a donation, adopt a koala, plant a tree at Quinlans, their 100-acre nature reserve in Queensland, or pick up koala gear from their online shop. You can also amplify their message on social media. Follow AKF on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube and share their stories of hope for Australia's gum forests with your network.

Happy Save the Koala Day!

Feel Good Friday - Waterkeeper Alliance

Today is World Water Monitoring Day, a global call for everyday people to test the water in their own community and share what they find, making it the perfect day to spotlight Waterkeeper Alliance.

Founded in 1999 and headquartered in New York City, the mission of Waterkeeper Alliance is "to connect, support, and advocate with Waterkeeper groups to protect the right to clean water with communities worldwide." The Alliance grew out of an older fight: in 1966, a group of working class fishermen on New York's Hudson River began pushing back against industrial pollution, inspiring local Waterkeeper groups to form around the world.

Each May, Waterkeeper Alliance leads the International Plastic Pellet Count, a hands-on citizen science effort where volunteers search riverbanks, lakeshores, and beaches for the tiny plastic pellets used to make everyday products, then upload what they find to a shared, public database. This year, more than 1,000 volunteers surveyed 249 sites across six countries and found nearly 1.1 million pellets, data now used to push for stronger regulation of the facilities that make and ship them. 

That same hands-on approach runs through the rest of Waterkeeper Alliance's work. Local Waterkeeper groups patrol and test their own waterways year round, a dedicated PFAS testing project is tracking "forever chemicals" in communities facing the greatest exposure, and the policy team is pushing for stronger water protections at the state level and through the ongoing Global Plastics Treaty negotiations.

Waterkeeper Alliance has had a sweeping impact. There are 296 local Waterkeeper groups across six continents who now patrol and protect over six million square miles of rivers, lakes, and coastlines, supporting nearly 2.5 billion people!

Supporting Waterkeeper Alliance is easy, and there are several ways to pitch in. You can make a donation to fund their legal and advocacy work, shop for merch, or find your local Waterkeeper group to get involved close to home. Amplify their message on social media by following them on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or YouTube, and share their fight for clean water with your network.

Happy World Water Monitoring Day!

Feel Good Friday - 9/11 Day

Today is the 25th anniversary of 9/11, marked nationwide as the September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance, and it felt like the moment to finally spotlight 9/11 Day.

Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Irvine, California, the mission of 9/11 Day is "to inspire millions of Americans and others to rekindle the remarkable spirit of unity and compassion that arose in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, and to perform good deeds and other acts of service in tribute to the 9/11 victims, survivors, first responders, and members of our military who bravely rose in service in response to the attacks." Co-founders David Paine and Jay Winuk started the organization after Jay's brother Glenn, a volunteer firefighter, was killed at the World Trade Center.

A premier project is 9/11 Day's Meal Pack which mobilizes thousands of volunteers each September 11 to pack shelf-stable meals that are donated to local food banks for families facing hunger. Since 2016, volunteers have packed more than 20 million meals nationwide. The organization also provides free lesson plans to K-12 classrooms, helping teachers explain 9/11 in ways that emphasize the unity that followed, not just the history.

For this year's 25th anniversary, 9/11 Day awarded $3 million in grants to nearly 200 nonprofits, schools, and community groups across 40 states, with more than 70% going to youth organizations and K-12 schools. The anniversary also brought the UNIITE For Good campaign, an interactive pledge map where actor Pete Davidson, whose firefighter father was killed on 9/11, is helping rally one million pledged good deeds by today.

If you'd like to support 9/11 Day today, there are many ways to do so. You can pledge a good deed at 911day.org, sign up for a Meal Pack shift through their volunteer page, or make a donation. Just $25 funds 50 to 75 meals. You can also amplify their message on social media. Follow 9/11 Day on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or YouTube and share their stories of unity and healing with your network. Here's to turning today into something good.

Feel Good Friday - Ms. Foundation for Women

Oh no, I'm back with another post inspired by the passing of a prominent public figure. This time it's feminist trailblazer Gloria Steinem. Two weeks, two icons gone, which makes this a fitting day to talk about the organization she helped create more than 50 years ago, Ms. Foundation for Women.

Founded in 1973 by Gloria Steinem, Patricia Carbine, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, and Marlo Thomas, and headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, the mission of Ms. Foundation for Women is: “We build women's collective power in the U.S. by investing in, and strengthening, the capacity of women-led movements to advance meaningful social, cultural, and economic change.”

As the nation's oldest women's foundation, the Ms. Foundation doesn't run programs directly. Instead, they fund and strengthen grassroots, women-led organizations working on reproductive health and rights, economic justice, and safety from violence, with a particular focus on women and girls of color. Current grantmaking initiatives include the Birth Justice Initiative, which addresses maternal and infant health disparities, and the Girls of Color Initiative, which funds leadership development for adolescent girls and gender-expansive youth of color.

Their Take Our Daughters to Work Day, created in 1993, became a national institution that's now known to eight out of ten people across the country and involves 35 million participants each year. The Foundation also hosts the annual Women of Vision Awards, originally launched in 1988 as the Gloria Awards in Steinem's honor, celebrating women whose leadership is changing the world.

In the fiscal year ending June 2025, the Ms. Foundation distributed more than $7.6 million in direct grants to 194 grantee partners across 108 cities and towns in 38 states and territories! Over 98 percent of that portfolio is led by women and gender-expansive people of color.

If you'd like to honor and celebrate Gloria Steinem, you can do that by supporting Ms. Foundation for Women. Make a monetary donation, become a monthly giver, or shop their store, with proceeds going toward their grantmaking and advocacy work. You can also amplify their message on social media. Follow the Foundation on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or subscribe to their YouTube channel, and share their fight for equity and justice with your network.

Rest in power, Gloria. ✊ 

Feel Good Friday - Dolly Parton's Imagination Library

As you’ve likely seen by now, Dolly Parton passed away this past Tuesday at age 80, so we’re going to revisit a Feel Good Friday post I wrote in September 2021 about Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.

Founded in 1995 and headquartered in Sevierville, Tennessee,  Dolly Parton's Imagination Library is "a book gifting program that mails free, high-quality books to children from birth to age five, no matter their family's income." 

The idea was deeply personal. Dolly's father never learned to read or write, and she often said she wanted every child to have the chance he didn't. The Imagination Library became the flagship program of the Dollywood Foundation, the nonprofit Dolly started in 1988 to keep kids in her home county in school, and it's since grown from one Tennessee county into a global movement supported by local partners everywhere it operates.

Here's how it works if you haven't come across it before: once a child is registered, they receive one specially selected, age-appropriate book every month, personally addressed to them, all the way until their fifth birthday. The titles are chosen by a Blue Ribbon Selection Committee of early childhood literacy experts, and the whole thing is free to families, funded through Dolly herself and local community partners in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Republic of Ireland.

When I first wrote about this program, it had mailed just over 172 million books. By the end of 2025, that number had grown to more than 304 million books, with over 40 million going out in 2025 alone, a rate of roughly one book mailed every 0.78 seconds. The program is now celebrating 31 years of getting kids excited about reading, one mailbox at a time.

If you'd like to honor Dolly's memory, her family asked that donations be made to the Imagination Library to keep her promise of free books going to children who need them most. You can also check availability in your community to participate in the program. And while tributes are still coming in, take a moment to amplify this work on social media. Follow Imagination Library on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Rest in peace, Dolly. 

Feel Good Friday - Shot@Life

August is National Immunization Awareness Month, a nationwide observance dedicated to the vaccines that protect people at every stage of life, and there's no better week to spotlight Shot@Life.

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., Shot@Life is a United Nations Foundation campaign working to ensure everyone in the world has access to lifesaving vaccines and all children have a shot at life. Despite decades of medical progress, one in five children worldwide still lacks access to routine immunizations, and pneumonia alone kills more than 800,000 kids every year, a death toll that's almost entirely preventable with a vaccine that costs just a few dollars.

Shot@Life tackles this gap through education, advocacy, and partnership. Its flagship program trains everyday Americans to become Shot@Life Champions, volunteer advocates who meet with their members of Congress to push for continued U.S. investment in global immunization programs. Champions come from every state and every walk of life, and this February nearly 100 of them gathered in Washington for the campaign's first-ever National Advocacy Summit, held jointly with its sister campaign, United to Beat Malaria, for a day of meetings on Capitol Hill. Shot@Life also partners directly with UNICEF, the World Health Organization, and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, channeling private funding and public pressure toward the on-the-ground work of vaccinating children in the hardest-to-reach communities.

Since launching in 2012, Shot@Life has had a big impact. They’ve helped secure more than $5.7 billion in U.S. government funding for global vaccine programs and supported the delivery of over 120 million vaccines to children through private partners and donors, all while training more than 4,000 Americans to become vaccine equity advocates.

If you believe that people should have access to vaccines, there are several ways to support Shot@Life and their push for #VaccinesForAll. Become a Shot@Life Champion! It’s a meaningful way to get hands-on with advocacy if you're curious about meeting with your own representatives. You can also amplify their message on social media. Follow Shot@Life on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.

Happy National Immunization Awareness Month! 

Feel Good Friday - Partnership with Native Americans

Today is National Navajo Code Talkers Day, honoring the nearly 400 Navajo Marines whose unbreakable WWII code helped win the war in the Pacific, making this a great day to spotlight Partnership With Native Americans, an organization that serves Navajo Nation communities year-round.

Founded in 1990 and headquartered in Addison, Texas, the mission of Partnership With Native Americans (PWNA) is "serving immediate needs and supporting long-term solutions” so they can achieve their vision of “strong, self-sufficient Native American communities." PWNA is Native-led and Native-serving, with a Native-majority board and Native CEO, and it works with hundreds of reservation-based Program Partners across nine priority states in the Southwest and Northern Plains.

One of PWNA's most active efforts is the Navajo Relief Fund (NRF), which addresses food insecurity across the Navajo Nation, the largest reservation in the country at 27,000 square miles but served by only 13 grocery stores. Through NRF's Food Pantry Service, PWNA supplies staple foods to dozens of food bank partners, while Elder Nutrition Centers receive emergency food boxes that help Elders get through winter months when travel becomes difficult and heating costs climb. Recently, 60 Elders in the Navajo Mountain Chapter received emergency boxes filled with shelf-stable food, water, and cleaning supplies. "It's good that you are helping us," one Elder shared, noting how much the support eases the cost of groceries that require a 30- to 90-mile drive to reach.

Beyond the Navajo Relief Fund, PWNA runs the American Indian Education Fund, providing school supplies, scholarships, and literacy support to Native students, along with emergency services like home weatherization and wheelchair ramps for Elders, and disaster relief when Tribal communities are displaced. Since they began, PWNA has helped provide consistent aid to as many as 200,000 Native Americans every year.

If you'd like to support PWNA, there are many ways to do so. You can make a monetary donation, sign up to volunteer, shop for merch, and amplify their message on social media. Follow PWNA on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn, and help your network become NativeAware.

Happy National Navajo Code Talkers Day!

Feel Good Friday - Assistance Dogs International

We’re coming to the end of International Assistance Dog Week, which honors the dogs, trainers and puppy raisers who make daily independence possible for people with disabilities. What a perfect day to highlight an organization that’s worked in this space for 40 years, Assistance Dogs International.

Founded in 1986 and headquartered in Maumee, Ohio, Assistance Dogs International (ADI) started as a coalition of just seven small programs working toward a vision of “creating a world without barriers through exceptional human-dog partnerships and a supporting global network.”

ADI doesn't train or place dogs itself. Instead, it accredits more than 160 member organizations across five continents, all training guide dogs, hearing dogs and service dogs for people with a wide range of disabilities.

Members must be reassessed every five years to prove their training, breeding and placement practices stay ethical and consistent from start to finish. That rigor is what lets an ADI-accredited dog fly internationally with the right documentation, or lets a U.S. veteran's assistance dog qualify for VA benefits. ADI also publishes the Paws for Access report, which surveyed more than 1,200 handlers across 24 countries and documented ongoing access discrimination in transit, restaurants and medical settings. This year's #BetterTogether campaign has already secured commitments from major travel brands, including Qantas, easyJet and Eurostar, to welcome ADI-accredited teams on board free of charge.

ADI has had a big impact worldwide. In 2024 alone, its accredited programs placed 4,498 new assistance dogs and now support more than 28,000 active assistance dog teams, backed by over 54,000 volunteers! Demand still outpaces supply, though, with nearly 11,000 puppies and dogs currently in training and a waitlist of almost 9,000 people hoping to be matched with one.

Backing ADI's global network is easy, even if you don't have room in your home for a dog in training. You can make a donation, search for an accredited program near you if puppy raising or volunteering interests you, and amplify their message on social media. Follow ADI on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn and share the stories of the assistance dog teams changing lives every day.

Happy International Assistance Dog Week!

Feel Good Friday - Game Rangers International

Today is World Ranger Day, a global tribute to the men and women who risk their lives every day protecting wildlife and wild places, which makes this the perfect moment to spotlight Game Rangers International.

Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Lusaka, Zambia, the mission of Game Rangers International (GRI) is "empowering Rangers and local communities to conserve nature." What began as a small effort to support rangers in Kafue National Park has grown into a holistic conservation model spanning three landscapes across the country.

Zambia's wildlife faces relentless pressure from poaching and human-wildlife conflict, and rangers stand on the front line to protect it, despite being chronically underfunded and under-resourced. Rangers are often asked to work long, dangerous hours with limited pay, equipment, and support, which are exactly the conditions World Ranger Day was created to spotlight. GRI starts by providing rangers with welfare, training, and operational support so that they are empowered to safeguard our natural heritage.

GRI's Elephant Orphanage Project rescues calves orphaned by poaching and conflict, then guides them through a rehabilitation journey that can take more than a decade before they're ready to rejoin a wild herd. Other programs include the Zambia Primate Project, rescuing and releasing monkeys and baboons victimized by the illegal wildlife trade, a Resource Protection Programme that trains and equips anti-poaching rangers with rapid response capabilities, and a Community Outreach Programme that has engaged more than 25,000 children in conservation education.

Since they began, GRI has helped apprehend more than 1,850 poachers and traffickers, released 19 orphaned elephants back into the wild, and released over 800 rescued primates with an exceptional 85 to 100 percent survival rate! Their goal is to empower 500 Rangers by 2030 and safeguard 5 million hectares of wild space.

GRI is also taking part in this year's Wildlife Ranger Challenge, an annual event uniting ranger teams across Africa to raise funds and recognition for their work, with donations matched dollar for dollar.

If you’re inspired to support GRI, you have many options. Adopt an orphaned elephant or primate, volunteer with their conservation programs, shop for merch, make a donation, or amplify their message on social media. Follow GRI on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or YouTube.

Happy World Ranger Day! 

Feel Good Friday - The Ninety-Nines

Today is Amelia Earhart Day, honoring the pioneering aviator born on this day in 1897. That makes it a great day to talk about an organization that carries her legacy forward, The Ninety-Nines.

Founded in 1929 and headquartered in Oklahoma City, the mission of The Ninety-Nines is "to promote the advancement of aviation through education, scholarships and mutual support while honoring our unique history and sharing our passion for flight." Earhart herself helped bring the group together, meeting with 25 other licensed women pilots at Curtiss Field on Long Island in 1929. The organization took its quirky name from the number of charter members who ultimately signed on and she went on to serve as its first president. Nearly a century later, the group has grown into a worldwide network of chapters spanning the U.S., Canada, and beyond.

The Ninety-Nines still centers mentorship and access today. Their Professional Pilot Leadership Initiative pairs women pursuing aviation careers with experienced mentors, helping them build the skills and confidence needed to succeed in a field where they remain a small minority. For people who've never set foot in a cockpit, the Let's Fly Now! First Flight Program offers an introduction to flying, often the spark that turns curiosity into a career. 

The organization also awards Amelia Earhart Memorial Scholarships and Section and Chapter Scholarships to help cover the steep cost of flight training, while its long-running Airmarking program paints identifying markers on rooftops and water towers to help pilots navigate. The Ninety-Nines’ Museum of Women Pilots preserves the stories of the women who paved the way. This month, the group is mourning longtime member Wally Funk, one of the celebrated Mercury 13 women and later a Blue Origin astronaut, a reminder of just how far its members have flown.

If you’re feeling inspired, there are several ways you can support The Ninety-Nines and the future of women in aviation. Make a donation or become a Friend of the 99s if you're not a pilot yourself but want to back their mission. You can also amplify their message on social media by following The Ninety-Nines on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn, and help keep Earhart's legacy airborne.

Happy Amelia Earhart Day! 

Feel Good Friday - American Association of People with Disabilities

July is Disability Pride Month, which traces its roots to the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, making this a fitting moment to spotlight American Association of People with Disabilities.

Founded in 1995 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., the mission of American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) is "to increase the political and economic power of people with disabilities." AAPD was founded by a coalition of disability rights leaders, including Justin Dart, often called the father of the ADA. The organization remains disability-led today and advocates for the civil rights of more than 70 million Americans with disabilities. AAPD has been especially vocal this year about federal funding cuts threatening Medicaid and other disability protections, a reminder that the full inclusion the ADA promised is still very much a work in progress.

AAPD's Summer Internship Program is one of its most compelling initiatives. Since 2002, the program has placed college students, graduate students, and recent graduates with disabilities in paid ten-week internships with Congressional offices, federal agencies, and nonprofit and for-profit organizations in Washington, D.C. Interns receive a stipend of at least $20 an hour, transportation, and fully accessible housing, removing many of the financial barriers that keep disabled students out of competitive internships, while a career mentor helps guide their next steps. 

The REV UP Voting Campaign builds the power of the disability vote by increasing civic engagement and election accessibility through coalitions in twenty states. AAPD also invests in the next generation of disabled leaders alongside their ongoing policy advocacy on healthcare, housing, education, and employment.

If you're in the D.C. area, AAPD is hosting its 2026 ADA Anniversary Celebration on July 22, marking the 36th anniversary of the ADA. This year's event will recognize the progress made since 1990 and honor the leaders whose advocacy made the ADA possible. 

No matter where you live, you can support AAPD's work by making a donation that helps fund their advocacy directly, and amplify their message on social media. Follow them on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn and help build the political and economic power of the disability community.

Happy Disability Pride Month!

Feel Good Friday - Rising Sun Center for Opportunity

Today's Feel Good Friday is personal. I got a Green House Call from Rising Sun Center for Opportunity last week, and I still can't get over the fact that the whole thing was free!

Founded in 1994 as Rising Sun Energy Center in Santa Cruz and now headquartered in Oakland, California, the mission of Rising Sun Center for Opportunity is "building career pathways for economic equity and climate resilience."

Rising Sun's Climate Careers program hires and trains Bay Area youth ages 15 to 24 as paid Energy Specialists, sending them out to deliver free in-home Green House Calls while they build real-world experience for green careers.

Here's what that looked like at my house. Two Energy Specialists came at the appointed time and evaluated my appliances, replaced some old lightbulbs with LEDs, and measured the water flow from every faucet. After walking me through their recommendations and answering all my questions, they left me with a bag of gifts, including a smart power strip, a phone-controlled lightbulb, a portable induction burner with a compatible pan, and a few other energy-saving extras. All free!

Rising Sun's other core program, Opportunity Build, is a pre-apprenticeship that prepares adults for union careers in the building trades. This includes Women Building the Bay, one of the few all-women cohorts in the country. 

Rising Sun has had a big impact on the region. Since they began, they've delivered no-cost Green House Calls to more than 66,000 households and trained over 3,450 youth and adults for careers in the green economy.

This summer's Green House Call season is happening right now across the Bay Area and Central California, so if my experience has you curious, there's no better time to sign up.

If you'd like to support the work of Rising Sun Center for Opportunity, you can make a donation or amplify their message on social media. Follow them on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or YouTube, and help spread the word about the program that's quietly saving Bay Area households money and energy, one house call at a time.

 

Feel Good Friday - Brennan Center for Justice

Tomorrow, America turns 250, and it felt like the right week to spotlight an organization working to make sure that milestone still stands for something: the Brennan Center for Justice.

Founded in 1995 and headquartered in New York City, the mission of the Brennan Center for Justice is "to hold our political institutions and laws accountable to the twin American ideals of democracy and equal justice for all." The nonpartisan law and policy institute marked its own 30th anniversary in 2025, and in its latest annual report, it ties that milestone direction to this year's 250th anniversary, writing that America still has it in its power to begin the world over again.

The Brennan Center's Democracy Program fights for free and fair elections through research, litigation, and advocacy that reaches every level of government. Earlier this year, their attorneys represented the League of Women Voters and other allies in a lawsuit challenging an executive order that would have required documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote, something research shows millions of eligible Americans don't have on hand. A federal judge agreed, ruling that the Constitution puts states and Congress, not the president, in charge of election rules. They've also worked with allies across the political spectrum on dozens of friend-of-the-court briefs that helped lead to a landmark ruling blocking the administration's worldwide tariffs. That's the kind of quiet, unglamorous work that keeps a 250 year old system of self government functioning.

Beyond elections, the Justice Program pushes for a fairer, more effective criminal justice system, and the Government Power Program works to balance safety with constitutional rights. 

If you'd like to celebrate Independence Day by supporting an organization fighting for  the democracy and equal justice this country was founded on, there are many ways to do so. A monetary donation to the Brennan Center helps fund the litigation and research that keeps these fights moving, and you can also explore their Take Action page to weigh in on live legislation. As always, you can amplify their message on social media too. Follow the Brennan Center on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or YouTube, and help carry their case for democracy forward.

Here's to the next 250 years.