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New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance

Whole recipient; conditional cumulative air-pollution policy portfolio

Research time: 4 min on GPT-6 Astra Light
  • Research — reviewed programs, finances and impact evidence.

Updated: 2026-09-14

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Summary

What do they do? NJEJA organizes and advocates on cumulative pollution, port operations, energy policy and environmental justice across New Jersey. Its most plausible material health benefit is a reduction in residents' pollution exposure beyond existing protections. The estimate models that major policy pathway with full recipient costs, explicit campaign priors and a separate NYC-MSA beneficiary share.

Why we’re interested in this organization:

  • State permitting and port decisions provide concrete routes from advocacy to exposure change.

  • Recent comments show ongoing attention to local pollution, affordability and reliability.

  • The model prices a major portfolio mechanism rather than workshop or tree-planting counts.

Our main reservations:

  • No campaign-specific population-weighted exposure reduction is measured.

  • Large reserves and already funded regulation may reduce ordinary-gift additionality.

  • Energy substitution, relocation and reliability effects can make net health impact negative.

What do you get for your dollar? $72.3M per better life: ten additional quality-adjusted life years in New York City. Three projected years of whole-recipient expense for a conditional particulate-mortality pathway in the NYC MSA. Not total portfolio or societal return: induced compliance costs are sensitivity-only, and climate, toxic exposure, flooding and non-health benefits remain unpriced..

Policy implementation beyond baseline -> net population-weighted PM2.5 concentration change -> finite cohort survival -> local QALYs. Central exposure before attribution is 500,000 adults × 0.1 microgram/m³ × 5 years = 250,000 concentration-person-years. Policy incrementality, coalition contribution, funding response and local share yield 2,500 additional local concentration-person-years; the epidemiological transfer factor affects health, not this physical unit. Cost is $1,613.75 per modeled additional local concentration-person-year. This is a scenario diagnostic, not measured avoided emissions or an observed permit effect.

1. What do they do?

NJEJA is a separate New Jersey charitable recipient, EIN 81-4338010, not NYC Environmental Justice Alliance or Ironbound Community Corporation. Its portfolio spans cumulative-impact permitting, port pollution, energy policy, organizing and youth development, with statewide and national engagement. All these activities remain in the cost denominator. Portfolio Recent policy submission

2. Monitoring and information sharing

The portfolio webpage contains substantial historical material, including a pre-enactment cumulative-impact bill and 2018 projects; these are not new donation opportunities. NJDEP's current environmental-justice program and March 2026 data update establish an active regulatory baseline. The model asks whether organizing improves enforcement, design or deployment beyond that baseline, not whether it deserves the entire law's benefit. Current agency program

NJEJA opposed the PVSC standby-power permit in September 2024. A February 2026 EPA order denies a different petitioner's request for a permit objection; that is neither an NJEJA victory nor proof that its campaign caused a defeat. The clean-ports selection already anticipated $344,138,135 for the Port Authority's proposed zero-emission package. Neither all permitted emissions nor the full funded package is attributed to a new donation. NJEJA comments EPA order Public funding baseline The EPA Clean Ports announcement is a 2024 selection baseline, not independently verified September 2026 disbursement or achieved emissions reduction. Current NJDEP rules remain an existing permitting baseline; a new gift is not credited for reenacting that law.

3. Qualitative assessment

The selected pathway is cumulative particulate-exposure reduction across the industrial, port and energy-policy portfolio. It is potentially material because modest changes can affect many residents; it is not claimed to be observed. The exposure scenario is deliberately independent of activity counts and of any one permit's maximum emissions. A large Medicare cohort supports an association between fine particles and mortality, but transfer to the modeled adult population, confounding and the timing of health response remain uncertain. Clinical evidence

NJEJA's 2025 energy comments favor a narrow renewable definition and oppose nuclear and several other technologies. These positions are not automatically counted as health benefits. The counterfactual must include replacement generation, grid reliability and affordability: preventing one local project could shift pollution or delay cleaner capacity. The adverse scenario explicitly allows net particulate exposure to rise. Climate, toxic pollutants, flooding, empowerment and income effects are not separately priced; the estimate is a major local-health pathway, not complete social return. Energy comments

4. What do you get for your dollar?

The conditional major air-policy pathway price is approximately $72.26 million per 10 MSA QALYs, not a measured complete portfolio return.

The central judgment scenario assumes an additional policy package produces a net 0.1 microgram/m³ reduction in annual PM2.5 exposure for 500,000 adults for five years, beginning after a two-year implementation delay. Neither number is an observed campaign forecast. The population is a hypothetical affected cohort, much smaller than the state's historical 4.5-million-person overburdened-community envelope, not a claim that all such residents benefit. A 50% epidemiological transfer factor, 25% incremental coalition probability, 20% NJEJA contribution and 25% ordinary funding response are each explicit priors. Population envelope

A single cohort survival comparison, capped at fifteen years from exposure onset, replaces repeated 'deaths saved times lifetime' arithmetic. Eighty percent of the modeled cohort's gains are assigned to the MSA as a subjective residence/exposure share reflecting northern urban work; Camden, Trenton and other non-MSA residents are not automatically local. This geography prior is not calibrated by NJEJA's headquarters.

Three years of the entire recipient's latest operating cost are charged. The main estimate excludes separately induced compliance investment because it is unmeasured, so a $10 million additional-resource case is prominent. A 25% unrecognized-resource case tests donated coalition inputs. The positive range is wide, complete funding replacement gives zero, and energy displacement can produce net harm. This is not a claim that regulation is costless or that the portfolio always lowers pollution.

The physical bridge is 250,000 conditional concentration-person-years, reduced to 2,500 additional local concentration-person-years by the policy, contribution, funding and geography factors, before epidemiological transfer. That is $1,613.75 of whole-recipient cost per additional local concentration-person-year. N refers to adults alive when exposure reduction starts; using today’s fixed cohort instead would reduce the health term by exp(-0.01 × 2), about 2%. The three-year expense numerator is a constant-scale projection charged upfront, not an observed future budget or three completed financial years.

Model, assumptions and sensitivity

Three years of latest whole-recipient reported gross expense; FY2024 cash-basis proxy, not a verified accrual audit. No program-only denominator; induced compliance and unrecognized-resource sensitivities explicit.

g=.8 is an explicit prior for the modeled exposure cohort, not an observed share of statewide beneficiaries. Only official 22-county MSA residents' gains enter the local denominator.

k=ln(1+d); delta=m*(1-exp(-beta*pm))*c; F(v,t)=(1-exp(-v*t))/v; Qall=N*u*p*a*b*exp(-k*lag)*[F(m-delta+k,T)-F(m+k,T)+(exp(-(m-delta)*T)-exp(-m*T))*exp(-k*T)*F(m+k,L-T)]-h; QMSA=g*Qall; price10=10*C/QMSA if positive. N is the hypothetical cohort alive at exposure onset after lag, not a fixed group counted today. Thus pre-onset survival is not applied again; if N instead denotes today’s fixed cohort, multiply the positive survival term by exp(-m*lag). No benefit occurs before exposure onset.

C
4034382 USD three-year whole-recipient resources (judgment). Three times the observed FY2024 cash-basis expense of $1,344,794. A constant future scale and charging all three years at the decision date are conservative analyst assumptions, not an observed three-year budget. [return2024] [schedule2024]
N
500000 hypothetical affected adults (judgment). Explicit scenario prior, not source-calibrated campaign forecast or observed local input. [energy] [portfolio] [current]
pm
0.1 micrograms/m³ net annual PM2.5 reduction (judgment). Explicit scenario prior, not source-calibrated campaign forecast or observed local input. [energy] [portfolio] [current]
beta
0.007045846364856137 log mortality association per microgram/m³ (observed). Log(1.073)/10 from Medicare association; c separately discounts causal and population transfer. [clinical]
c
0.5 epidemiological transfer fraction (judgment). Explicit scenario prior, not source-calibrated campaign forecast or observed local input. [energy] [portfolio] [current]
m
0.01 baseline adult annual mortality hazard (judgment). Explicit scenario prior, not source-calibrated campaign forecast or observed local input. [energy] [portfolio] [current]
u
0.75 health utility (judgment). Explicit scenario prior, not source-calibrated campaign forecast or observed local input. [energy] [portfolio] [current]
T
5 years of reduced exposure (judgment). Explicit scenario prior, not source-calibrated campaign forecast or observed local input. [energy] [portfolio] [current]
L
15 finite survival horizon years (judgment). Explicit scenario prior, not source-calibrated campaign forecast or observed local input. [energy] [portfolio] [current]
lag
2 years until exposure improvement (judgment). Explicit scenario prior, not source-calibrated campaign forecast or observed local input. [energy] [portfolio] [current]
p
0.25 incremental coalition probability (judgment). Explicit scenario prior, not source-calibrated campaign forecast or observed local input. [energy] [portfolio] [current]
a
0.2 NJEJA contribution fraction (judgment). Explicit scenario prior, not source-calibrated campaign forecast or observed local input. [energy] [portfolio] [current]
b
0.25 funding response fraction (judgment). Explicit scenario prior, not source-calibrated campaign forecast or observed local input. [energy] [portfolio] [current]
g
0.8 MSA benefit fraction (judgment). Explicit scenario prior, not source-calibrated campaign forecast or observed local input. [energy] [portfolio] [current]
h
0 net adverse QALYs (judgment). Explicit scenario prior, not source-calibrated campaign forecast or observed local input. [energy] [portfolio] [current]
d
0.03 annual discount rate (judgment). Explicit scenario prior, not source-calibrated campaign forecast or observed local input. [energy] [portfolio] [current]

Conditional cumulative air-policy portfolio: Cost: $4.0M; New York City QALYs: 0.5583307170720594; all-population QALYs: 0.6979133963400742. {"C":4034382,"N":500000,"pm":0.1,"beta":0.007045846364856137,"c":0.5,"m":0.01,"u":0.75,"T":5,"L":15,"lag":2,"p":0.25,"a":0.2,"b":0.25,"g":0.8,"h":0,"d":0.03}

Small exposure change and weak influence: Cost: $4.0M; New York City QALYs: 0.00028108013650650614; all-population QALYs: 0.0005621602730130123. {"C":4034382,"N":100000,"pm":0.02,"beta":0.007045846364856137,"c":0.25,"m":0.01,"u":0.75,"T":5,"L":8,"lag":2,"p":0.1,"a":0.1,"b":0.1,"g":0.5,"h":0,"d":0.03}

Material exposure reduction and policy leverage: Cost: $4.0M; New York City QALYs: 43.36586566036115; all-population QALYs: 48.184295178179056. {"C":4034382,"N":1000000,"pm":0.3,"beta":0.007045846364856137,"c":0.75,"m":0.01,"u":0.75,"T":5,"L":20,"lag":2,"p":0.5,"a":0.3,"b":0.5,"g":0.9,"h":0,"d":0.03}

Complete funding replacement: Cost: $4.0M; New York City QALYs: 0; all-population QALYs: 0. {"C":4034382,"N":500000,"pm":0.1,"beta":0.007045846364856137,"c":0.5,"m":0.01,"u":0.75,"T":5,"L":15,"lag":2,"p":0.25,"a":0.2,"b":0,"g":0.8,"h":0,"d":0.03}

Replacement generation worsens exposure: Cost: $4.0M; New York City QALYs: -0.11171227721758326; all-population QALYs: -0.13964034652197907. {"C":4034382,"N":500000,"pm":-0.02,"beta":0.007045846364856137,"c":0.5,"m":0.01,"u":0.75,"T":5,"L":15,"lag":2,"p":0.25,"a":0.2,"b":0.25,"g":0.8,"h":0,"d":0.03}

Additional affordability or reliability harm: Cost: $4.0M; New York City QALYs: -0.24166928292794065; all-population QALYs: -0.3020866036599258. {"C":4034382,"N":500000,"pm":0.1,"beta":0.007045846364856137,"c":0.5,"m":0.01,"u":0.75,"T":5,"L":15,"lag":2,"p":0.25,"a":0.2,"b":0.25,"g":0.8,"h":1,"d":0.03}

Added induced compliance resources: Cost: $14.0M; New York City QALYs: 0.5583307170720594; all-population QALYs: 0.6979133963400742. {"C":14034382,"N":500000,"pm":0.1,"beta":0.007045846364856137,"c":0.5,"m":0.01,"u":0.75,"T":5,"L":15,"lag":2,"p":0.25,"a":0.2,"b":0.25,"g":0.8,"h":0,"d":0.03}

Unrecognized coalition resources 25%: Cost: $5.0M; New York City QALYs: 0.5583307170720594; all-population QALYs: 0.6979133963400742. {"C":5042977.5,"N":500000,"pm":0.1,"beta":0.007045846364856137,"c":0.5,"m":0.01,"u":0.75,"T":5,"L":15,"lag":2,"p":0.25,"a":0.2,"b":0.25,"g":0.8,"h":0,"d":0.03}

Counterfactual: Existing EJ law, permitting staff, funded clean-port projects and other advocates continue. pm is net incremental exposure after relocation and replacement generation, not total regulated emissions. b captures ordinary-donation response once.

Attribution: One correlated policy portfolio opportunity, with separate coalition additionality p, NJEJA contribution a and funding response b. Do not add full policy benefits from each coalition member or duplicate grants flowing between them.

All campaign-scale, exposure and attribution figures are explicit judgment. The exposure hypothesis is not empirically calibrated. A major potential portfolio pathway is priced, but climate, toxics, social benefits and non-PM harms remain incomplete.

Sensitivity

  • Small exposure change and weak influence: 143531380415 USD per 10 MSA QALYs.
  • Material exposure reduction and policy leverage: 930313 USD per 10 MSA QALYs.
  • Complete funding replacement: no finite positive-benefit price.
  • Replacement generation worsens exposure: no finite positive-benefit price.
  • Additional affordability or reliability harm: no finite positive-benefit price.
  • Added induced compliance resources: 251363244 USD per 10 MSA QALYs.
  • Unrecognized coalition resources 25%: 90322408 USD per 10 MSA QALYs.

Unresolved inputs

  • Campaign-specific additional exposure reductions after funded and mandated baseline.
  • Affected adult cohort, residence and source-to-receptor modeling.
  • Incremental coalition influence, recipient contribution and unrestricted-funding allocation.
  • FY2024 accrual audit reconciliation and complete donated/coalition resource inventory.
  • Induced compliance investment, replacement generation, affordability and outage harms.

5. Funding and previous grants

The original FY2024 return reports $1,344,794 total expense, with no netted rental, event or inventory costs and no noncash-contribution amount. Its Schedule D audit reconciliation is blank and its accounting checkbox is cash, unlike the accrual FY2023 return. The current-period figure is a usable disclosed resource proxy, not a verified full accrual audit. FY2023 reports $975,780 and its Schedule D audit expense agrees. FY2022 reports only $28,867; Schedule O identifies a $900,451 receivable for sponsor-held funds from activity before September 1, 2022. That transition-year perimeter is not a mature annual cost. FY2022 and FY2024 are marked noncomparable to prevent a synthetic three-year mean. FY2024 original Transition explanation

FY2024 reports $4,123,595 cash and $4,553,002 net assets, including $726,845 restricted, against $1,288,707 revenue. The government-grant line is blank, which does not rule out public-origin pass-through grants. These balances weaken any claim of an immediate funding bottleneck; the central funding response is only 25%. A new ordinary gift may support reserves, organizing, staff continuity or projects elsewhere rather than the modeled exposure package. Donate

FY2024 Part IX allocates $1,201,749 to programs and $143,045 to management, with zero reported fundraising. Schedule O says no board return review was or would be conducted and that documents were not publicly available through the organization; the original IRS filing is nonetheless publicly accessible. These disclosures are governance/information limitations, not proof of misuse. No three-year average is displayed because the sponsor transition and accounting-method change remain unresolved.

Annual expenses

Organization-level spending, including programs, administration and fundraising. The research list averages three comparable, consecutive full fiscal years when available.

  • FY 2022: $29K; New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance Inc., EIN 81-4338010, 12-month period, Original Form 990 accrual gross expense; transition-year perimeter separately disclosed.. Source
  • FY 2023: $976K; New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance Inc., EIN 81-4338010, 12-month period, Original Form 990 accrual gross expense; transition-year perimeter separately disclosed.. Source
  • FY 2024: $1.3M; New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance Inc., EIN 81-4338010, 12-month period, Original Form 990 cash-basis gross expense; audit reconciliation unavailable.. Source

6. Sources

  1. FY2022 original IRS990. NJEJA / IRS. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  2. FY2022 original IRS990ScheduleD. NJEJA / IRS. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  3. FY2022 original IRS990ScheduleO. NJEJA / IRS. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  4. FY2023 original IRS990. NJEJA / IRS. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  5. FY2023 original IRS990ScheduleD. NJEJA / IRS. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  6. FY2023 original IRS990ScheduleO. NJEJA / IRS. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  7. FY2024 original IRS990. NJEJA / IRS. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  8. FY2024 original IRS990ScheduleD. NJEJA / IRS. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  9. FY2024 original IRS990ScheduleO. NJEJA / IRS. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  10. Policy portfolio, including historical material. NJEJA. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  11. Resource adequacy comments. NJEJA. Published: 2025-08-19; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  12. Opposition to PVSC permit. NJEJA. Published: 2024-09-19; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  13. Order denying another petitioner's PVSC permit objection. US EPA. Published: 2026-02-03; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  14. Current environmental justice implementation and March 2026 map update. NJDEP. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  15. Clean Ports funding selection and planned equipment. US EPA. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  16. Historical statewide overburdened-community population envelope. NJDEP. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  17. Air pollution and mortality in Medicare cohort. Di et al. / NEJM. Published: 2017-06-29; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  18. 2026 youth-program role and current organization information. NJEJA. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  19. Ordinary donation route. NJEJA. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  20. Current environmental justice permitting law. NJDEP. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.