Today we’d like to introduce you to Alex Sands.
Alex, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Social Justice League was born in the days after the murder of George Floyd. I was at the protest in the Fairfax district where I ran into Max Taw, who I recognized from work but did not yet have a relationship with. The following Monday, we connected and began organizing a fundraiser through our firm. He also introduced me to our third co-founder, Michelle Condry, and we got to work. We started with a goal of $1,000, but in two days we had over $25,000. The firm then agreed to match employee donations for our effort. From there, we carried not only our fundraiser but a message for support of Black lives across our global firm. We closed our fundraiser with over $820,000 raised for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the National Urban League.
Following the close of our fundraiser, we turned our attention to Census 2020. Los Angeles is a historically undercounted city, and this leads to millions of dollars in community funding left on the table. Our friend Bobby Kobara was working on the Census 2020 team for the LA Mayor’s office and was setting up Census 2020 activations around the city. We saw an opportunity to add additional value to the community on top of this existing effort. This was the beginning of Just Us & Peace, SJL’s social uplift event series. For our South LA Event, we partnered with Joe Moses (music artist from South LA) and Keone Kela (MLB player from LA area) to provide direct services to the community. On September 29, we uplifted the South LA community with voter registration (sponsored by the LA Clippers), COVID Testing, free haircuts, PPE giveaways, as well as food, clothing, and school supply giveaways, specifically geared toward helping children succeed in a distanced learning environment. Much of the supplies we brought to the community were donated or funded by corporate entities. With Just Us & Peace – South LA, we combined a fun community event with direct service and civic engagement. It was beautiful to see the smiles on the faces of so many children and families.
Now, we are scaling this initiative nationwide alongside our nonprofit partners for Just Us & Peace x Hunger Relief. We will be providing food, clothing, PPE, and other resources to 10 cities around the country. Our partners include professional sports teams and music labels. Additionally, we are continuing to deepen our relationships with community organizations such as Peace 4 Kids and Watts Empowerment Center. Overall, SJL has unlocked over $2,000,000 in direct community value since our start in June 2020, and we are only going harder.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
There have definitely been growing pains. Our efforts began within the corporate space, where traditionally people are not comfortable with honest conversations about social justice. So in this “new normal” we had to lead the way on these conversations. While we received massive support, we also had to navigate some corporate red tape and contend with the interests of those who do not align with our message. Eventually, that led to us growing outside of the corporate space, which was an entirely different atmosphere with different challenges of its own. However, through it all, we remained steadfast with our message and our identity, and that has continued to pay off for us.
Please tell us about Social Justice League.
Social Justice League is a social enterprise specializing in social impact consulting. Our model is community multiplied by corporate – we leverage corporate resources to unlock and multiply value for communities. We do this by activating our network of community stakeholders, nonprofit partners, and corporate sponsors. We co-create with partners across this ecosystem to craft social impact initiatives. This includes direct activations like Just Us & Peace, as well as programming including job training and education.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
Going forward, we want to continue to develop new and existing partnerships with the goal of expanding programming to ultimately benefit more people. For example, we are working on piloting and internship pipeline program between youth programs and companies. Bottom line, we will continue to craft solutions that bridge the gap between corporate and community.
Contact Info:
- Website: socialjusticeleagueinc.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sjl4all/?hl=en
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company/social-justice-league/?viewAsMember=true
Image Credit:
@breleased photography
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