Human-rights support group WITNESS strikes a balance to keep its mission in focus at its galas.

WITNESS is a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based organization originally founded in 1992 as a project of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (now Human Rights First). It spun off in 2001 to become an independent 501(c)3 organization. WITNESS provides support — in the form of video equipment and strategic training — to local groups across the globe to use video in their human-rights advocacy, and it facilitates exposure of global issues by brokering relationships with international media outlets, government officials, policymakers, activists and the general public to use video as a tool to advocate for change.