Earth Ministry/Washington Interfaith Power & Light

GiveBIG to the Power of Community

Mission: Earth Ministry/Washington Interfaith Power & Light transforms faith and conscience into action for the well-being of communities and the environment.

Geographic Focus: Washington State

Who We Are:  Earth Ministry/WA IPL is a multifaith nonprofit that connects, educates and mobilizes sacred communities and people of conscience for the purpose of making Washington State more environmentally just and healthy. We accomplished this through two core programs: Advocacy and Organizing, which focuses on enacting laws, policies, and regulations that advance environmental justice at the federal, state, and local levels, and Multifaith Programs, which designs and delivers offerings to promote health and well-being in individuals, communities, and the natural world.  (Scroll down to “How We Work” for additional detail about our programming.)

Who and Where We Serve: We work to secure relief and protection for the vulnerable communities, creatures, and ecosystems that are unjustly burdened by environmental conditions that undermine their health. They include…

• Washingtonians, especially those who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, low-income populations, and any community experiencing high rates of exposure to the intersectional harms of poverty, health, climate change, and environmental degradation (Washington Health Disparity Map).
• Washington's creatures, particularly species that are threatened or nearing population collapse, such as pollinators, the Southern Pod Orcas, lampreys, and the state’s keystone salmon species (Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife).
• Washington's ecosystems, primarily the ecosystems of the state’s key rivers (Columbia River and Snake River systems), saltwater bodies (Southern, Central and Northern Puget Sound and Pacific Ocean coastline), and groundwater (Central and Far Easten Washington). Addressing issues related to water is one of Earth Ministry/WA IPL’s three strategic focuses for 2025.

The Power of Community: Educate. Mobilize. Connect.

How We Work: Earth Ministry/WA IPL works by giving sacred communities and people of conscience opportunities to learn, grow, and act on their environmental justice values. Essential to our work is convening and resourcing a statewide “community of communities”—our multifaith network—to pursue environmental justice initiatives and well-being activities across the State of Washington, from establishing local community gardens to organizing a protest of a proposed fossil fuel pipeline. The fruit of our mission is varied, but its seed is always the same: the quest for environmental justice and well-being for all Washingtonians and throughout Washington State.

Our two programs work together to achieve this.

Advocacy and Organizing educates about the issues before elected officials and mobilizes our community to help dismantle the institutional, legal, and societal barriers standing in the way of environmental justice and to advocate for environmentally just laws. The central focus is systems change, removing the structures that perpetuate systems of harm and replacing them with laws and regulations that promote health.  An example of a success in this work is the passing of the Health Environments for All Act (HEAL Act).

In the past, Earth Ministry/WA IPL’s advocacy was predominantly confined to the state and federal levels. This spring, we are rolling out a new direct action organizing initiative, Fortify Washington, that will embed Earth Ministry/WA IPL’s advocacy and organizing at the local level. This important addition will enable Earth Ministry/WA IPL to micro-target and mobilize its advocacy actions in ways it has never be able to do before.

Multifaith Programs complements Advocacy and Organizing by offering programming that supports wellness in body, mind and spirit and promotes climate-friendly practices and technologies to empower communities to care for the environment and their neighbors. For a sense of the kind and quality of Multifaith programming we offer visit the Season Series tab above, which highlights a popular program that we launched last year. We also offer Greening Congregation Certification and a Colleague Connections Group to support the ordained and lay leaders working on the frontlines of environmental justice in their communities. For more information, visit Multifaith Programs.

Your GiveBIG gift will support work in each of these critical areas