The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) is a New York–based nonprofit civil rights organization that works to protect and promote the civil, political, and human rights of Asian Americans. It pursues impact litigation, policy advocacy, community education, voter protection and monitoring, and grassroots organizing to address discrimination, language-access barriers, voting rights, immigrant and workers’ rights, police accountability, and hate crimes.
Voting rights and election protection, language access and civic participation, immigrant rights and due process, employment and workplace discrimination, police and criminal justice accountability, hate-crimes prevention, education equity and anti-discrimination enforcement, redistricting and census advocacy
Primarily supported by foundation grants and individual donations, supplemented by law firm and corporate donations, program service revenue (including attorneys’ fees) and occasional government or foundation project grants
Frequently collaborates with national and local civil-rights and Asian American organizations such as Asian Americans Advancing Justice affiliates, the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA), the ACLU, MALDEF, and community-based Asian American advocacy groups
Nonprofit (501(c)(3)) civil rights legal organization