Choice USA
48
19
"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, D.C.
Founded: 1992
Mission: Choice USA mobilizes and provides ongoing support to the diverse, upcoming generation of leaders who promote and protect reproductive choice both now and in the future.
Tags:
national, women's reproductive health, reproductive justice, public education, information services, fellowships, community organizing, sex education, health reform
Summary
Stories
Expert Reviews
Leadership
From the Nonprofit
Leadership
Kierra Johnson.
Kierra Johnson, Executive Director of Choice USA, heads the leading pro-choice organization working to mobilize and provide support for the diverse, upcoming generation of leaders. Through her leadership, she promotes the organization’s values of shared power and authority; youth-controlled agendas; collaboration and partnership; constituent-specific strategies; learning; and diversity and inclusion. Kierra speaks clearly and powerfully about the need to engage…
See full bio.
Financial Data
Overhead Ratio:
n/a
Total Revenue:
$1,038,486
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.
Contact Info
Address:
1317 F St NW
Washington, D.C. 20004, USA
Twitter:
Story:
Read Elena's story, a 19 year old girl who is ready to have a child:
Once when I was 16, I used emergency contraception. At the time, I didn't have a partner who I could rely on. I didn't feel healthy or stable in my life. I used emergency contraception because I had sex with someone who could have impregnated me and I was very concerned about it. I didn't use condoms or oral contraception enough to prevent becoming pregnant. I had heard about emergency contraception from my friends so I knew that it was an option.
I went to see my family doctor and she quickly prescribed emergency contraception to me. I don't remember the name of the drug that I took. My doctor said I might experience some cramping or nausea and that I could call her if I got really sick. She immediately called in the prescription and I picked it up at the pharmacy within an hour. I didn't want the record of it to go on my parents insurance, so I paid for it myself. The pills cost less than $10.
The first day that I took the pills, I didn't notice anything unusual. The second day I felt nauseous, but it wasn't severe. After that, I didn't really think about it. I was relieved that I didn't have to worry about being pregnant. Within two weeks, I got my period. I know that I made the right choice for me at the time, because I was really not ready to deal with pregnancy, even though I knew that abortion was an option for me as well.
Now I'm 19, and I am pregnant. My due date is June 7. I live with my girlfriend Katie in Portland, Oregon. Katie and I have chosen to start a family, even though we are young and still in college. We trust each other to be supportive and reliable for many years. We are aware that motherhood will be amazing, unpredictable and challenging, and we are very excited to be moms together.
My life is different from when I was 16. I'm ready to have a child. I have goals and plans that I am accomplishing. I realize that having a child will take a lot of time and energy, but I plan to stay in school until I can get my nursing degree.
I know that many parents wait until they are in their 20s, 30s, or 40s to have children, and that is the right time for them. But for me, I think the right time is now. I have always known that I have options. I also know that the decision to have children is a choice that only I can make.
(Read more stories at: http://www.choiceusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=146&Itemid=86)
Expert Reviews of Choice USA
Evidence of Impact Summary:
Beyond what Choice USA does, experts praise who they mobilize to take action: youth. They are repeatedly credited as driving movements among kids within this space.See expert comments.
Organization Strengths Summary:
Experts generally praise the program leadership, on the ground staff, and program design.See expert comments.
Areas for Improvement Summary:
Areas for improvement vary by expert. Generally strengthening advocacy efforts and increasing their public profile were cited as frequently areas of improvement.See expert comments.
Expert Comments: Evidence of Impact
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Foundation Professionals (F)
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Nonprofit Senior Staff (N)
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Other (consultants, journalists, policy makers) (O)
Impact |
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Choice USA is the only organization of its kind solely dedicated to building the next generation of reproductive health, rights and justice leaders, voters, and advocates. They have been successful in reaching and engaging young people who would not have otherwise been tapped. They help create chapters led by and for young people across the country that advocate on issues such as sex ed, LGBT rights, and health care. These chapters prove to be bases of power as Choice USA calls on them for letter writing, congressional calls and other actions when needed. | ||
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Choice USA has for about 15 years been developing and supporting young women leadership in reproductive rights. It has been an important space for ensuring that new generations of women have the knowledge and skills to advocate for reproductive rights. | ||
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This is the largest network of young people of color doing reproductive justice work in a number of states around the country. They are developing a new and diverse pipeline of leaders that worked to make sure health care reform included the needs of young people. | ||
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Their consistent, meaningful engagement of young people in the movement, and providing training, education, tools, skills and support to the next generation of leaders. | ||
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Choice USA is a national organization with campus groups across the country. They have done a tremendous job developing the leadership skills of young people, and people of color and engaging them in reproductive health and rights advocacy. | ||
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Building leadership of young women and men in the US to be advocates for sexual and reproductive health and rights. Choice USA also addresses the SRHR issues that young people face in communities of color, LGBT youth, and other marginalized populations. | ||
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Choice USA has been successful at expanding the range of youth activists engaged in advocacy around reproductive health and right. They have collaborated with Advocates for Youth and other national organizations to promote contraceptive access, comprehensive sex education, and access to abortion, bringing a new generation of activists to these issues. | ||
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Because of their partnerships, messaging and programming, organizations within our movement are thinking more critically about how to engage young people, and organizations in the broader progressive movement have begun to include our issues in their work and align themselves with prochoice messages and organizations. | ||
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Choice USA engages young people in civic and political action around reproductive health issues, building our community for the future. | ||
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Their organizing and leadership development model is authentically young adult led and truly gives voice to the experience of young people in today's world. They meet young people where they are at and give them the tools and knowledge to organize and lead. | ||
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Choice USA works with high school and college-aged young women, men, and LGBTQs. They are one of the only national groups moving beyond the historically white feminist 'repro rights' framework to a reproductive just and health framework that is more inclusive. They are successfully rallying the next generation in a way I haven't seen elsewhere. They work respectfully in collaboration with (and are highly praised with) local NGOs on the ground, as well as connect their young people to other social justice NGOs in other sectors. | ||
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Choice USA is the pro-choice youth voice. They literally give youth and young adults a place at the table to make decisions, drive this movement, and impact significant change in the reproductive justice arena. | ||
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They are empowering the next generation of pro-choice advocates is an absolute need and Choice USA has done a great job doing that. They have a high profile Board and have empowered their leadership within. | ||
Expert Comments: Organization Strengths
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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)
Leadership |
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Their leadership is genuine. The current Executive Director has worked there for many years and was engaged in a model leadership transition a few years back. She took over the lead from the outgoing director who worked closely with her over a good number of years. It is a great case study of good leadership, power sharing, professional development, and smooth transition. | ||
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Their leadership is strong and represents the diversity of a younger reproductive justice movement. Their leadership is visionary and has an incredible ability to train young folks on a variety of reproductive justice issues. | ||
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Their leadership, in particular Kierra Johnson, is dynamic, insightful, engaging, and down-to-earth. The leaders are diverse, young, and have moved up organically through the organization and the movement. This is an organization that walks the talk - they invest in young people and model real leadership development. | ||
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Choice USA's executive director Kierra Johnson is a well-respected and collaborative colleague who makes herself available to other executive directors for joint strategic planning and efforts. | ||
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They have dynamic and thoughtful leadership as well as a strong organizing model. | ||
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Their leadership is among the next generation of activists. | ||
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The leadership and staff are definite assets of this organization. They hire from their members; the staff is diverse; and they use a highly intentional and successful leadership pipeline model that identifies young leaders of all sorts and works with them to develop their skills. They have done fabulous internal anti-racism work to build a collaborative team that is aware of and respectful of their differences (and different privileges) and works the better for it. | ||
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Kierra Johnson is a great face of the organization. They have unique marketing awareness campaigns and are training a new generation. | ||
Program Design |
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It is a youth led and run organization. They make effective use of new media tools to get their message out. | ||
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They have excellent organizing models and leadership development. | ||
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The organization is not only youth focused but also youth lead. This provides a unique perspective to their campaigns and provides an authenticity that few other organizations have. Additionally, they offer strong training programs for young activists and are focused on collaboration with other organizations. | ||
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As a "youth" led organization, it demonstrates young peoples' leadership in a real way, which is important to make visible that the reproductive rights/reproductive justice movement is inter-generational and represents women and men of different races, sexualities, ethnicities, etc. | ||
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They provide very active and productive engagement of young people. | ||
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Their great staff provides leadership opportunities to younger women to prevent the graying of the movement. | ||
Mission |
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Led by and focused on young people in the movement, they have a finger on the pulse of a generation that other organizations aren't harnessing. | ||
Staff |
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Their staff is able to develop curricula and conduct trainings to prepare diverse young people to engage in organizing and advocacy. They have effectively developed diverse young people as leaders and helped build a new base of prochoice support. | ||
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They treat their staff and youth activists so well. They walk the walk when it comes to engaging youth, implementing their suggestions, and employing young leaders in the movement so they can take professional positions within healthy organizations. Their CEO, Kierra Johnson, is the only young CEO I have ever met who makes me feel like one day I will be able to lead an organization in this movement. She is and forever will be such an inspiration. | ||
Expert Comments: Areas for Improvement
Select the boxes to display the results according to expert type.
Show:
Show:
X
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)
Operations |
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This group could benefit from a deep strategic planning process to be even more focused on what their core competencies are, what they should do, and what they shouldn't. I do know they are engaging in such a process at the moment which is great. | ||
Evaluation |
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CHOICE USA needs to move from adolescence to maturity as an organization; they need better systems for tracking trainees and evaluating impact in order to sustain funding. | ||
Advocacy |
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They should develop a policy arm and gain stronger visibility among other national reproductive justice organizations. | ||
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They could improve with more targeted state advocacy to advance the reproductive health concerns of young women. | ||
Program Design |
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The organization sometimes lacks focus as it tries to spread itself too thin in working on multiple campaigns. Its staff is very young which can be an asset but also a liability because they lack the perspective which would allow them to prioritize effectively among competing interests. | ||
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I wish Choice USA paid their employees more. I also wish their programming was more focused and politically informed. | ||
Raise Profile |
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They need to be more visible--to promote themselves more on the national stage. In addition, they should make more linkages across US state, national policies, and US foreign policies. | ||
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I think Choice USA could do more to tell colleague organizations about its work and raise its profile in our movement. | ||
Scalability |
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As a small organization with limited resources, they often lack the capacity to capitalize on opportunities and fill gaps that exist for a youth centered policy approach. | ||
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They need to figure out how to sustain and grow their young leadership and stabilize the organization. | ||
Target Audience |
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They should expand their reach into mainstream, next generation audiences. | ||
Impact |
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They have a program array and mission that is similar to several other organizations. I have not seen that they are better or worse than the others that do similar work. | ||
Funding |
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Again, funding and a higher profile would make the group more impactful. I'm not that familiar with their operations or finances although I suspect they would be appealing from a funding perspective. | ||
Leadership
Kierra Johnson
Executive Director
Executive Director
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
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