Generous Donation of $2 Million Supports Alaska Institute for Justice in Providing Legal Aid for Human Rights Cases

Alaska Institute for Justice Receives $2 Million Gift from Yield Giving

The Alaska Institute for Justice (AIJ) has received a significant boost in its mission to protect human rights and promote equity in Alaska. The institute, which is now in its nineteenth year, was selected as one of the recipients of a $2 million gift from Yield Giving, a philanthropic organisation founded by MacKenzie Scott, the former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

The funding, which comes with no time requirement or reporting requirements, will be used to assist the people and communities AIJ serves in Alaska. AIJ's Executive Director, Robin Bronen, made the announcement, expressing gratitude for the generous donation.

Yield Giving, which has "yielded" more than $17.3 billion to over 2,300 nonprofits to use as they see fit for the benefit of others, initially planned for 250 awards of $1 million each. However, the donor team decided to expand the awardee pool and the award amount due to the incredible work of the organisations.

AIJ's work includes language access and justice work with Alaska Native communities threatened by climate change. The institute is the only nonprofit in Alaska which provides immigration legal services and also trains bilingual Alaskans to work as interpreters and translators. Its community-led work advances human rights and equity through legal services for immigrant and limited-English-proficient survivors of human trafficking, domestic violence, and sexual assault.

The exact use of the funding will be discussed at an upcoming AIJ board meeting. The funding received by AIJ has no time requirement or reporting requirements, providing the institute with the flexibility to allocate the funds where they are needed most.

The open call for funding by Yield Giving received 6,353 applications. AIJ was one of the highest scoring organisations that applied for the Yield Giving open call, and it advanced to the second round of review after being selected as an awardee. The organisations appointed for the second round of evaluation by an external assessment team for the selection of Yield Giving awardees were not specified in the provided information.

MacKenzie Scott's Yield Giving described AIJ as one of the awardees working with people and in places experiencing the greatest need in the United States. The funding from Yield Giving will help AIJ protect human rights and work towards equity for Indigenous and underserved remote communities in Alaska.

This generous donation comes at a crucial time for AIJ, as it aims to increase its capacity to serve Alaskans experiencing the greatest needs from climate change, domestic violence, and sexual assault. The Alaska Institute for Justice looks forward to using this funding to make a meaningful impact in the lives of those it serves.

Generous Donation of $2 Million Supports Alaska Institute for Justice in Providing Legal Aid for Human Rights Cases