GiveBetter x USA

Farmworker Justice

Farmworker health, safety, legal and policy advocacy

Research time: 12 min on GPT-6 Astra Light
  • Research — reviewed programs, finances and impact evidence.

Updated: 2026-09-14

Summary

What do they do? Farmworker Justice combines healthcare-access assistance, occupational safety, policy advocacy and litigation for farmworkers. It develops multilingual resources and works with public agencies and other advocates on heat and pesticide protections. A partial heat-mortality model gives about $97 million per 10 USA QALYs; favorable assumptions give about $147,000, while zero or harmful effects remain possible.

Why we’re interested in this organization:

  • Heat prevention has a credible clinical mechanism and a live implementation problem, beyond awareness alone.

  • Current partner evidence verifies technical and coalition work, including a 2026 clinician guide.

  • Original financial records allow full recipient costs and public funding to be distinguished.

Our main reservations:

  • Policy influence, genuinely additional funding and future enforcement are subjective and dominate the estimate.

  • Existing state rules, employer duties and other organizations would protect some workers without additional support.

  • The numerical result excludes substantial recipient pathways and should not be treated as an overall ranking.

What do you get for your dollar? $97.2M per better life: ten additional quality-adjusted life years in USA. Agricultural heat mortality only; other impacts unestimated.

Newly protected workers, effective protected years, heat deaths prevented and discounted lifetime health. Clinical training contacts, guides, comments and policy wins are intermediate outputs. Nonfatal heat illness and indirect injuries deliberately excluded.

1. What do they do?

Farmworker Justice is a national 501(c)(3), EIN 52-1196708, combining health access, occupational safety, immigration/labor advocacy and legal work. Its stated farmworker population is a constituency, not a count of people whose health it changed. Organization

The 2024 audit assigns about $1.01 million to health projects, alongside labor/immigration and other programs. Health work includes technical assistance to health centers and community organizations; the organization is not itself a nationwide direct-care clinic. All programs and support expenses remain in the cost denominator. Audit

2. Monitoring and information sharing

Current pages describe heat policy and multilingual training. Partner sources independently verify an August 2025 coalition webinar, a December 2025 state-rule analysis and a clinician guide updated in 2026. These establish activity, not prevented illness. Policy Webinar State review Guide

Track actual policy text, enforcement resources, workers newly receiving water/rest/shade/acclimatization, retaliation protections and clinical outcomes. A published toolkit is not evidence of employer adherence. Request an unfunded work plan and de-duplicated health-center implementation results before increasing confidence.

3. Qualitative assessment

Heat protection has a plausible physiological pathway. A 2019 retrospective study of 604 municipal workers found fewer heat illnesses after a multi-component program; it lacked a concurrent control and cannot isolate training. Study

The 2025 California study reports larger mortality reductions after enforcement and revisions, but period estimates were individually imprecise; only their joint test was significant. It is observational, covers four states and includes vehicle-death codes not necessarily caused by heat. It therefore supports plausibility and the importance of enforcement, not a precise causal 33% effect for farmworkers. Original study

Federal law already imposes a general duty concerning recognized hazards. Small farms with ten or fewer nonfamily employees and no temporary labor camp in the prior year face a federal enforcement funding limitation. State protection and employer action also exist. These are important counterfactuals, not grounds to count all national heat deaths as preventable by FJ. Current OSHA resources Small-farm policy

Pesticide protection, healthcare access and legal rights can matter substantially but have no recovered marginal service-to-health bridge here. Lost pay, retaliation, policy displacement and ineffective implementation could offset benefits; non-health dignity and income gains are not silently converted into QALYs.

4. What do you get for your dollar?

Full recipient expense was $2,255,738 in 2024, restoring $53,661 of event costs netted out of Form 990 expense. The audit confirms that total. Comparable 2023 expense is $2,236,619 after restoring $31,296, and 2022 is $2,349,230: a three-year mean of $2,280,529. 2024 2023 2022

A two-year support horizon costs $4.51 million at the latest scale. The partial agricultural heat-mortality model yields 0.464 expected USA QALYs centrally, or about $97 million per 10. Its favorable joint scenario reaches 307 QALYs, about $147,000 per 10. These scenarios are not confidence bounds; a weak-influence case is effectively negligible, and zero/harm remain explicit.

OSHA's proposal forecasts 531 annual deaths prevented across industries, not observed lives saved. Its 14-fold fatality undercount adjustment is transported from general-population evidence. This model instead starts from 52 reported/imputed natural-resources deaths over 12 years, narrows to farmworkers, uses a 3-fold undercount and then discounts reach, effectiveness and causal contribution. Original regulatory model, pp.70963–70969

Employer compliance and public enforcement costs are real but outside the recipient expenditure denominator. No monetary value of a statistical life is converted into QALYs. This partial result is neither a total recipient estimate nor a guaranteed lower bound.

Model, assumptions and sensitivity

Two full annual recipient budgets at 2024 expense, all programs and support including netted event costs. Employer/public implementation costs excluded and disclosed; only agricultural heat mortality quantified.

USA 50 states plus DC resident health; g=.9 judgment, .7–.98 sensitivity. National headquarters does not determine attribution. H-2A status alone is not a residence classification. No overseas or other-industry spillover credit.

C=2*2255738. F=52/12. Y(T)=sum(t=1..T)1/1.03^t. Q_all=F*f*u*k*e*q*Y(T)*p*a*b-H. Q_USA=g*Q_all. Price=10*C/Q_USA when positive. q discounts lifetime health after each averted death; Y discounts when that death would occur. Two-year spending buys a subjective five-year effective protection stream, not five years of spending.

F
4.333333333333333 reported/imputed natural-resources heat fatalities per year (observed). 52 over 2011–22; includes mining, forestry and fishing, not exclusively farmworkers. [fj-osha-rule]
f
0.7 farmworker share of natural-resources mortality (judgment). Exclude other industries; .5–.9 scenarios. A selected farmworker-specific series would improve this approximation. [fj-osha-rule]
u
3 fatality undercount multiplier (judgment). Use 3 rather than OSHA central 14; the 14-fold transport comes from general-population excess mortality, not a measured occupational undercount. [fj-osha-rule]
k
0.5 baseline farmworker burden newly reachable by protection (judgment). Excludes small-farm enforcement gaps, existing state/employer protection and independent improvements. .2–.8 scenarios; not a measured workforce fraction. [fj-small-farms] [fj-states]
e
0.33 mortality reduction with implemented protection (judgment). Clinical-mechanistic judgment, not direct transplantation of the California point estimate. .1–.7 positive scenarios, zero possible; includes imperfect real-world adherence. [fj-heat-study25] [fj-heat-study19]
q
15 discounted lifetime QALYs per prevented heat death (judgment). Working-age population; roughly 27 remaining years at 3% and .82 health quality gives 15. Not observed decedent age/utility data. 8–25 scenarios. [fj-h2a-death]
T
5 effective years of added protection (judgment). Bounded 2027–31 equivalent horizon, not a claim that finalization occurs in 2027. Delay or nonfinalization reduces this value. [fj-policy]
p
0.1 incremental coalition probability of securing modeled protection (judgment). Ten percentage points is a subjective policy forecast, not baseline passage probability. Covers adoption and survival to implementation; .01–.3 scenarios with zero possible. [fj-coalition] [fj-policy]
a
0.1 FJ share of incremental coalition contribution (judgment). Farmworker-specific expertise and ongoing work, but government, labor groups, MCN, Public Citizen and others matter; .02–.2 scenarios, not equal signatory allocation. [fj-coalition] [fj-states]
b
0.5 funding additionality (judgment). Discount reserves, existing grants and replacement donors; .1–.8 scenarios. No verified next-dollar work plan. [fj-audit24] [fj-99024]
g
0.9 USA 50 states and DC resident health share (judgment). Domestic work focus; .7–.98 sensitivity for temporary nonresident workers, territorial work and follow-on health outside the resident boundary. Immigration status alone does not decide residency. [fj-h2a-death]
r
0.03 annual discount rate (judgment). Future effective protection years discounted separately from lifetime health after each death.
H
0 QALYs of adverse effects (judgment). Provisional zero, not demonstrated absence of harm; adverse scenario subtracts 1 for retaliation, lost income or displaced care.
otherPathways
null net QALYs from remaining work (unknown). Healthcare-access assistance, pesticides, immigration/labor litigation, nonfatal heat injury and spillovers to other industries unpriced. [fj-operations]

Partial heat-mortality central: Cost: $4.5M; USA QALYs: 0.4641590480561499; all-population QALYs: 0.5157322756179443. f=0.7; u=3; k=0.5; e=0.33; q=15; T=5; p=0.1; a=0.1; b=0.5; H=0; g=0.9; F=52/12; Y=4.579707187194534. Partial agricultural heat-mortality pathway only.

Strong clinical and policy influence: Cost: $4.5M; USA QALYs: 306.72371075821513; all-population QALYs: 312.98337832470935. f=0.9; u=14; k=0.8; e=0.7; q=25; T=10; p=0.3; a=0.2; b=0.8; H=0; g=0.98; F=52/12; Y=8.530202836775828. Partial agricultural heat-mortality pathway only.

Little additional protection: Cost: $4.5M; USA QALYs: 0.00000928670625569485; all-population QALYs: 0.000013266723222421217. f=0.5; u=1; k=0.2; e=0.1; q=8; T=2; p=0.01; a=0.02; b=0.1; H=0; g=0.7; F=52/12; Y=1.9134696955415214. Partial agricultural heat-mortality pathway only.

No incremental protection: Cost: $4.5M; USA QALYs: 0; all-population QALYs: 0. f=0.7; u=3; k=0.5; e=0.33; q=15; T=5; p=0; a=0.1; b=0.5; H=0; g=0.9; F=52/12; Y=4.579707187194534. Partial agricultural heat-mortality pathway only.

No benefit with illustrative downside: Cost: $4.5M; USA QALYs: -0.9; all-population QALYs: -1. f=0.7; u=3; k=0.5; e=0.33; q=15; T=5; p=0; a=0.1; b=0.5; H=1; g=0.9; F=52/12; Y=4.579707187194534. Partial agricultural heat-mortality pathway only.

Counterfactual: Without additional work, federal deliberation, state standards, employer duties, public enforcement and other advocates continue. k limits the baseline burden newly reachable beyond these protections and jurisdictional gaps; e is reduction among that reachable burden under real implementation. p is incremental coalition effect on securing the modeled protective stream, not the raw chance a rule passes.

Attribution: a=.1 assigns a modest share of farmworker-specific coalition influence to FJ's technical and advocacy role. b=.5 discounts reserves, other grants and donor replacement. Neither is measured. No sole credit for OSHA, no equal division of signatories, no separate toolkit benefit added to the same protection.

Very-low-confidence partial expected-value judgment. Numerical assumptions are revisable opinions, not measured organization effectiveness or a confidence interval. Mortality data, occupational undercount, farmworker share, enforcement, timing and marginal advocacy all matter. Other recipient work unpriced; net harm possible.

Sensitivity

  • At $4,511,476 cost, $1 million/$100 thousand per 10 requires 45.11476/451.1476 net USA QALYs. With q=15 and g=.9, that is 3.34183/33.41834 fully additional discounted deaths prevented, compared with central .03438 before QALY conversion.
  • Price scales inversely with each positive multiplicative input. A political contribution of zero or complete donor replacement eliminates quantified benefit.
  • Using OSHA's 14-fold undercount alone instead of 3 improves the central price by 14/3, not enough to reach $1 million per 10. The favorable result requires multiple favorable assumptions together.
  • Using the three-year expense mean increases cost about 1.1%. Restricting the denominator to the heat project would not represent ordinary recipient support.
  • Any all-population harm above .51573 QALYs erases the central partial benefit. Nonfatal benefits and other pathways might add value, but are not established offsets.
  • Implementation delay matters: shifting the same stream five years later reduces it by 1/1.03^5. A paper rule without protection is zero, regardless of advocacy success.

Unresolved inputs

  • Marginal funded work plan, available capacity and replacement funding probability.
  • Farmworker-specific current fatality burden and credible occupational undercount, separated from other natural-resource industries.
  • Incremental coalition effect, FJ contribution and eventual enforcement uptake net of existing state rules and public action.
  • Age, residence, remaining health and competing mortality of actually affected workers.
  • Unique healthcare-access/occupational-service changes caused by FJ, subsequent clinical outcomes, costs and overlap with heat policy.

5. Funding and previous grants

The 2024 return records $758,068 of government grants, down from $1,052,974 in 2023. Private support could sustain complementary work or replace public funding; neither its additionality nor a current funding cliff is established. Year-end 2024 unrestricted net assets were $629,075 and restricted net assets $521,427. Cash and savings totaled $871,519. Original return

The 2024 audit issued unmodified financial and federal-compliance opinions with no current findings. Prior-year award-reporting and procurement documentation issues were addressed in its corrective-action record; they should not be presented as new 2024 findings. The audit was signed August 4, 2025 and does not establish 2026 liquidity. Audit

Annual expenses

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

  • FY 2022: $2.3M; Farmworker Justice, EIN 52-1196708, 12-month period, Accrual recipient Form 990; netted event costs restored in 2023 and 2024; 2024 audit confirms total. Source
  • FY 2023: $2.2M; Farmworker Justice, EIN 52-1196708, 12-month period, Accrual recipient Form 990; netted event costs restored in 2023 and 2024; 2024 audit confirms total. Source
  • FY 2024: $2.3M; Farmworker Justice, EIN 52-1196708, 12-month period, Accrual recipient Form 990; netted event costs restored in 2023 and 2024; 2024 audit confirms total. Source

6. Sources

  1. 2024 original Form 990. Farmworker Justice / IRS. Published: 2025-09-30; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  2. 2023 original Form 990. Farmworker Justice / IRS. Published: 2024-10-15; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  3. 2022 original Form 990. Farmworker Justice / IRS. Published: 2023-10-13; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  4. 2024 audited financial statements and federal awards. Calibre CPA Group / Farmworker Justice. Published: 2025-08-04; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  5. Current organization and programs. Farmworker Justice. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  6. Occupational safety policy. Farmworker Justice. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  7. Environmental health and heat training. Farmworker Justice. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  8. August 2025 heat-protection webinar. National Farm Worker Ministry. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  9. State heat-rule review and partnership. Vermont Law and Graduate School, CAFS. Published: 2025-12-19; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  10. Clinical heat guide updated in 2026. Migrant Clinicians Network and Farmworker Justice. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  11. Proposed heat standard: risk, benefits and uncertainty. OSHA / Federal Register. Published: 2024-08-30; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  12. Current heat enforcement resources. OSHA. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  13. Small-farm enforcement limitations. OSHA. Published: 2014-07-29; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  14. California heat standard and mortality. Adam Dean and Jamie McCallum / Health Affairs. Published: 2025-12-02; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  15. Heat stress awareness program outcomes. McCarthy, Shofer and Green-McKenzie / JOEM. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  16. Investigation of fatal heat illness in H-2A worker. US Department of Labor / OSHA. Published: 2024-04-15; retrieved: 2026-09-14.