• AJ Muste Institute Calls for Immediate Ceasefire in Gaza and End to Ethnic Cleansing

    The A. J. Muste Memorial Institute calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the safe passage of humanitarian aid, appropriate to the magnitude of the crisis, to assist all needs of Palestinians, especially basic necessities like food, water, electricity, fuel, and medical supplies...

  • See Our Latest Grants

    See the powerful work we supported in our Spring & Fall 2023 Social Justice Fund Grant Cycles

  • Grantee: Metropolitan Council on Housing

    joins a “Cuomoville” encampment at the governor’s Manhattan office to protest high rents and demand state support for housing justice.

  • A.J. Muste Institute Statement on Police Killings and Public Resistance

    America is on the brink of radical and historic change. Nationwide protests responding to the police murder of George Floyd—as onlookers watched aghast—have opened new eyes to violence perpetrated by police on black and brown people in this country.

  • Grantee: New York State Youth Leadership Council

    leads the call for immigrant justice, providing undocumented youth tools and space to organize in their communities and to agitate for structural change.

What We Do

The Muste Institute provides grants, sponsorships, and educational resources to hundreds of grassroots projects around the world. We fund innovative organizing, often with seed funds that give a necessary boost to bold ideas. We also provide affordable and collaborative space to a dozen or so groups in New York City.
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Why Get Involved?

In the words of our grantee, 350 Seattle: To change everything we need everyone. For those of us who have never attended a rally, joined a picket line, or called for social change, this is the time to get involved – pick something and fight for it. For those who have committed our lives to radical resistance, it has been a time to fight harder, to extend our reach. From our collaborative office and meeting spaces to our far-reaching grantmaking programs, the Institute supports and sustains individuals and organizations fighting together for a just future.

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How We Do It

This section should really be called how you do it: It is your contribution to the Muste Institute that provides funding to organizations meeting a sudden need that exceeds their capacity ; it is your donation that offers shelter and resources to those newly-endangered by their identity or activism; it is your gift that allows our staff to work with groups and activists seeking collaboration. Every resource we provide is the sum of our community's generosity. Please give, or give again 
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Four programs comprise the bulk of the Muste Institute’s support to grassroots activist organizations engaged in nonviolent action for social justice:

  • Grants
  • Fiscal Sponsorships
  • Collaborative Workspace
  • Publications

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Our Newest Annual Report

             Read Our 2023 Annual Report!

Mumia Abu-Jamal talks about AJ Muste and his legacy:

Muste was a central (yet largely unknown) figure who introduced a young college student and seminarian named Martin Luther King, Jr. to the notion of nonviolent activism and, by doing so, changed him and, through him, the entire country.

When Muste first presented his views to King, the two men fell into a “pretty heated argument,” before King could agree. A.J., not Gandhi, was the first to influence King in his turn toward nonviolence.

Muste was a deep and tough thinker. He believed that when disparate groups learned to work together they could influence social change. He was a tireless organizer who built coalitions and could bring those groups together like no other.

This has been reflected in the A.J. Muste Institute's support for the underpinnings of diverse grassroots campaigns – not just to end the death penalty, but to oppose militarism, defend the environment, confront racism, and build social justice. For Muste, and for the Muste Institute, activism from the ground up is the fundamental key to organizing movements that can make social change into a reality.

Political dissent is never easy – it wasn't in the 1940's when Muste was debating with Martin Luther King; nor is it easy now.

But it is necessary.

A.J.’s Life and Activism >>>