Turning Earthjustice's Privacy Practice into a Public Commitment
How Agility Lab helped Earthjustice give voice to a privacy philosophy that was already shaping how their organization operated and made it visible to the world.
The Situation
Some organizations build privacy values from obligation. Earthjustice built theirs from conviction — and they stood to benefit from a structure to surface what they already believed.
Across the organization, teams were making privacy-conscious decisions every day in how they collected data from supporters, how they handled constituent information, how they structured their digital infrastructure. That work is real and deeply held.
What was missing was a connective framework: shared language, a governing philosophy, and a public-facing articulation of what Earthjustice believed about the people whose data they held.
Earthjustice didn't need to be convinced that privacy mattered. They needed language that could carry what they already knew.
Agility Lab's approach
Our work with Earthjustice began with listening. Through staff interviews and cross-functional workshops, we mapped how privacy decisions were actually being made, from who was involved, what criteria were being applied, and where clarity was lacking.Â
From there, we conducted a gap analysis that examined Earthjustice's current state across four dimensions: consent collection practices, technology integrations, personal information handling, and third-party data sharing. This gave us both an honest picture of where gaps existed and a foundation for articulating where Earthjustice's practices already aligned with best-in-class privacy stewardship.
We reviewed the existing privacy policy for clarity, completeness, and alignment with current legal standards and developed recommendations for updates that would reflect Earthjustice's values rather than just satisfy regulatory minimums.
Finally, we provided technical recommendations to help close identified gaps — not by overhauling their infrastructure, but by making targeted adjustments that would bring their technical posture in line with the values they wanted to articulate publicly.
What We Built Together
The deliverables from this engagement spanned the operational and the aspirational:
- A comprehensive gap analysis mapping Earthjustice's current privacy practices across consent, technology, data handling, and third-party relationships
- Staff interview insights and workshop outputs that surfaced the organizational understanding of privacy obligations and where clarity was needed
- Privacy policy review and recommendations aligned with both current legal standards and Earthjustice's organizational voice
- Technical recommendations for closing identified gaps in a way that was practical and proportionate
- A public-facing Privacy Values Statement, with seven principles that articulate Earthjustice's belief that privacy is a fundamental expression of respect and dignity
Values In Action
Earthjustice's values statement isn't just a policy artifact. It's a public commitment that any supporter, advocate, or partner can hold Earthjustice to.
The Outcome
The Privacy Values Statement that now lives on the Earthjustice website captures seven principles the organization lives by: transparency, purpose limitation, consent and control, data security, minimalism, equity and inclusion, and stewardship. These aren't aspirational; they reflect how Earthjustice was already operating. The work of this engagement was to name it, formalize it, and make it visible.
For organizations like Earthjustice — whose mission depends on the trust of constituents, donors, and the communities they serve — being able to say what you believe about privacy is as important as the technical infrastructure behind it. This engagement gave them both.
What This Means for Your Organization
If your team is making privacy-conscious decisions without a shared framework to hold them together, you're not alone — and you're not starting from zero. Most mission-driven organizations have more privacy infrastructure than they realize. The work is often in surfacing it, aligning it, and scaling it.
Agility Lab helps organizations find and articulate that voice and build the operational structures to back it up.
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