American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD)
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"Up" is the number of experts who agree that the nonprofit has had the most impact in the
field. "Down" is the number of experts who disagree that the nonprofit has had the most impact in field.
Headquarters Location: Washington, DC
Founded: 1996
Mission: The American Association of People with Disabilities has been organized to further the independence, productivity, full citizenship and total integration of people with disabilities into society and the natural environment.
Summary
Stories
Expert Reviews
Leadership
From the Nonprofit
Leadership
Mark Perriello.
Mark Perriello is the President and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), the nation’s largest cross-disability membership organization. Perriello, who has had a visual disability since childhood, has a proven track record of increasing organizational standing with decision makers through creative and high-impact grassroots and grass-tops programs across America. As a political strategist, he oversaw highly…
See full bio.
Financial Data
Overhead Ratio:
19.95%
Total Revenue:
$2,502,704
From the Nonprofit
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Contact Info
Address:
1629 K St Nw Ste 950
Washington, DC 20006, USA
Twitter:
Story:
The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), the country's largest cross-disability membership organization, organizes the disability community to be a powerful voice for change – politically, economically, and socially. AAPD was founded in 1995 to help unite the diverse community of people with disabilities, including their family, friends and supporters, and to be a national voice for change in implementing the goals of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
AAPD was launched on July 25, 1995, and has received its 501(c)(3) designation. Key subcommittees of AAPD were developed to focus on three targeted agendas: Membership and Benefits, Policy and Operations.
As founding member Justin Dart said, "AAPD gives us the opportunity for harmonious unity and will help create the strong voice needed to overcome thousands of years of attitudinal and physical barriers."
Expert Reviews of American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD)
Evidence of Impact Summary:
The American Association of People with Disabilities is on the forefront of disability rights issues. The organization has made tremendous impact on legislation and social awareness for people with disabilities.See expert comments.
Organization Strengths Summary:
According to experts in the field, the American Association of People with Disabilities stands out for its leadership in the fight for civil rights, especially regarding the Americans with Disabilities Act.See expert comments.
Areas for Improvement Summary:
The American Association of People with Disabilities would benefit from continued outreach to increase membership and information to membership. Additionally, as the American Association of People with Disabilities has just experienced a leadership change, the new president must continue to be a strong leader and advocate for people with disabilities.See expert comments.
Expert Comments: Evidence of Impact
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Strong Advocacy |
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In just 15 years, the American Association of People with Disabilities has emerged as THE organization representing the broad disability community. AAPD and its members have made a huge impact in the areas of disability policy advocacy and the development of young leaders with disabilities. | ||
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The American Association of People with Disabilities is a strong advocacy group for people with disabilities. | ||
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The American Association of People with Disabilities is a strong and effective voice, at the national level, regarding the rights and needs of people with disabilities. | ||
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The American Association of People with Disabilities has tremendous impact on legislation and social awareness for people with disabilities. | ||
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The American Association of People with Disabilities is on the forefront of disability rights issues. The organization was co-founded by a VIP (Justin Dart) with much influence in the areas of civil rights, independent living and use of all tools (e.g., assistive technology) to allow a person with disabilities to function as independently as possible. | ||
Raising Awareness |
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They seem to be opening the public discussion on people with disabilities. | ||
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Instrumental in the passage of the ADA Amendments Act; galvanized national attention on disability issues regarding voting rights, employment of people with disabilities, and in general, raising the profile of disability civil and human rights. | ||
Accessible Voting |
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I am personally aware of the impact they had on implementing Help America Vote Act. This is a cornerstone right for Americans and they have and continue to press for accessible voting through policy analysis, education, community organizing and lawsuits if necessary. Another example I am personally aware of is their work on making sure communication and other technology is accessible or developed with universal design in mind. This ensures that people with disabilities can work with informational technology and participate in communicating with others using the latest technology that everyone else uses. The organization also has a dynamite mentorship/internship program each summer for young people with disabilities who come to DC and work in the policy arena. | ||
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They have made great headway in the area of voting, both in legislation and in making polling places accessible. | ||
Cross-disability Focus |
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They represent cross disability interests and are an agent for economic, social and political change. | ||
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The American Association of People with Disabilities provides advocacy for all people with disabilities and has cross-disability awareness. Additionally, they provide weekly, if not more, communication keeping membership aware of legislation, concerns and general information that impacts individuals with disabilities as well as the services that they rely upon. | ||
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This is the largest and most effective cross-disability membership group in the nation. It serves as an advocate for people with disabilities with the government, the media, and the business community. | ||
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This organization has a strong grassroots network giving people with disabilities of all types a voice in Washington. It also effectively uses opinion leaders to support its work. The cross-disability approach means its actions positively affect people with disabilities in the broader community. | ||
Large Membership |
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The American Association of People with Disabilities is one of the few organizations working nationally in the cross disability field that is a membership driven organization. | ||
Strong Advocates |
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They have a strong advocacy agenda, and is ramping up for Medicaid discussions at the federal level. They are very diverse and have flexible funding streams. They have high level board members, but perhaps too many members to manage well. They have some degree of board giving, but could be more. They have good transparency via the website. | ||
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Very assertive advocates! They seem to be in the forefront of current issues and problems facing persons with disabilities. | ||
Expert Comments: Organization Strengths
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Discussion Leader |
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The American Association of People with Disabilities is nonpartisan in nature, which has allowed it to maintain success through changes in administration. While small and nimble, AAPD has developed the capacity to lead the discussion on a number of disability policy issues. | ||
Great Marketing |
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The American Association of People with Disabilities has effective marketing and staff. | ||
Leader in its Field |
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The American Association of People with Disabilities is the voice of people with disabilities in making it a human rights matter. | ||
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The American Association of People with Disabilities stands out for its leadership in the fight for civil rights, especially regarding the Americans with Disabilities Act. | ||
Outstanding Leadership |
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One strength is their ability to educate people with disabilities across the country through their Justice for All Blog. It is a trusted source of information for the national disability community. It helps to build a community. Their previous executive director, Andrew Imparato, tirelessly traveled around the country to gather perspectives outside "the beltway." He has been a force for thoughtful change and managed a diverse staff of change-makers very well. They have a new director and I am hopeful he will continue to be so accessible and a part of the disability community on local levels. | ||
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Until recently, Andy Imparato, was the executive director, so their leadership was outstanding. He created bridges to and from the disability community to the broader civil rights community. Their fundraising and sponsorship capability is outstanding; they created disability mentoring day and receive funding for it, whereas local folks are not as successful. | ||
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The American Association of People with Disabilities' leadership with the new addition of Mark Perriello, has a political savvy to inform members of issues and to advocate for change. AAPD also provides very good marketing through its website and its Justice for All email newsletter that shares disability news (legislation and policy, popular culture, etc.) and issues calls to action. | ||
Broad Focus |
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The American Association of People with Disabilities is a cross-disability membership organization, addressing a broad spectrum of issues essential to participation of people with disabilities in society. | ||
Strong Staff |
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Staff and leadership are on top of the most important issues to people with disabilities and lead advocacy work on these issues on the Hill and nationally. | ||
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The American Association of People with Disabilities writes great publications and has great presence in Washington, DC. Their leadership has recently changed, so waiting to see how that takes shape, but they seem to have very strong staff so the transition should be smooth | ||
Policy Influence |
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The American Association of People with Disabilities is powerfully connected with legislators and does its utmost to influence policies and laws to favorably support the needs of people with disabilities. | ||
Raising Awareness |
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The American Association of People with Disabilities has flourished under the leadership of Andy Imparato, now serving as Chief Disability advisor to Sen. Tom Harkin. AAPD was founded by Justin Dart, Father of the ADA, a legislative landmark in the history of disability. This legislation has increased awareness and met the objectives of the Act, to provide increased access for people with disabilities to community resources (transportation and public buildings) and employment. | ||
Financial Stability |
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Strengths are organization, vision, staff, leadership, financial stability, and credibility. | ||
Political and Social Networking |
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Political networking, leadership and social networking are their strengths. | ||
Expert Comments: Areas for Improvement
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Foundation Professionals (F)
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Researchers and Faculty (R)
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Nonprofit Senior Staff (N)
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Other (consultants, journalists, policy makers) (O)
New Leadership |
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As the American Association of People with Disabilities has just experienced a leadership change, the new president must continue to be a strong leader and advocate for people with disabilities. | ||
Support for Other Organizations |
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The American Association of People with Disabilities needs more cooperation with other entities. | ||
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The American Association of People with Disabilities could reach out more to other non-profits in the disability field. | ||
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The American Association of People with Disabilities could do more to empower its sister organizations that promote the needs of people with disabilities. | ||
Expansion |
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The American Association of People with Disabilities needs to use funding to expand its leverage in the field. | ||
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I would love to see them create chapters out in the rest of the country. This will give them some balance from the beltway view of things and harness our creativity to bring solutions to Congress for issues affecting people with disabilities. I would love to see them take on more large issues such as access to affordable broad band services or expand their work on making Social Security less an early retirement program and more a program that supports employment at any level with out losing health benefits. AAPD could do more work on the implementation of the national health care program. This has the potential of creating such change for the disability community. Access to health care is the reason for getting on Medicaid. | ||
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The American Association of People with Disabilities would benefit from continued outreach to increase membership and information to membership. | ||
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The organization needs to expand its membership base and diversify its fundraising. | ||
Narrow Focus |
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I am curious about the transition of new leadership, i.e. whether this will make the organization more inclusive rather than just leader driven. The don't have a focus on underserved communities, or at least that is my impression. It seems that it has a middle or higher income focus. I'd like them to branch out to lower income and a wider range of people with disabilities. | ||
Research |
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I have not been able to establish a research link with this group. | ||
Political Bias |
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The American Association of People with Disabilities needs to collaborate more with other disability organizations that may represent a different point of view from their own. | ||
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The Moderators of the "Justice for All" newsletter that the American Association of People with Disabilities publishes at least weekly demonstrate a political bias, that I feel is counter-productive. Their impact could be greater, I believe, if their political views were not so heavily one-sided [i.e., not all Republicans are against disability rights!]. | ||
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I do, however, wish they would be less politically biased -- Not all Republicans and other conservatives are bad! AAPD gives the impression that conservatives are trying to "stick it to" PEDs. In my experience, many people in all walks of life and from various political bases care about PWDs and want to support their causes. | ||
Limited Practical Impact |
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While it may make a lot of noise and as a result of that is mentioned frequently, AAPD is a very small organization that has extremely limited practical impact inside the Washington DC beltway and less so outside the beltway. | ||
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AAPD does very little other than being visible. | ||
Little to No Direct Services |
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Provides little to no direct services to individuals with disabilities | ||
Hire and Promote More Diverse Disabled People |
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Needs to hire and promote more diverse disabled people in all levels of govt and private sectors. | ||
Leadership
Mark Perriello
President & CEO
President & CEO
From the Nonprofit
The nonprofit has not added any comments yet. If you are a representative of this nonprofit and would like to leave a comment, please email us at
feedback@myphilanthropedia.org
with your request.