Global Weekly Update October 18, 2010

Currency Transaction Levy: An Innovative Opportunity

The global economic crisis created a $65 billion “fiscal hole” in the budgets of the world’s 56 poorest countries. As the economic crisis persists, we need innovative sources of financing for pressing global development needs. Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA), a senior member of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, has introduced legislation that would levy a tiny tax on foreign currency trading by big banks and businesses — a market with $4 trillion in daily activity that is completely untaxed. The revenue would be directed to global health, climate change, and child care for low income families in the U.S. Learn more and ask your representative to cosponsor the Investing in our Future Act of 2010 (H.R.5783). Check out our CTL page on our website as you get acquainted with this new, big idea, and take a look at our action sheet.

Current Cosponsors (as of October 18, 2010):

Rep. Filner, Bob (D-CA-51) — 9/14/2010
Rep. Grijalva, Raúl M. (D-AZ-7) — 7/27/2010
Rep. Jackson, Jesse L., Jr. (D-IL-2) — 7/27/2010
Rep. Kucinich, Dennis J. (D-OH-10) — 7/30/2010
Rep. Lee, Barbara (D-CA-9) — 7/27/2010
Rep. Moore, Dennis (D-KS-3) — 9/14/2010
Rep. Schakowsky, Janice D. (D-IL-9) — 9/22/2010

Fall Fundraising Update

Goal setting for the 2010 Friends and Family Campaign has begun and you should have fundraising materials in your hands now! If you haven’t done so, please set your group and individual goals as soon as possible. Start by making a list of people you plan to solicit. Assign a prospective gift to each person on your list. Add the list of prospective gifts together with your own to develop your goal. Gather the support materials you will need to conduct fundraising. Use the 30th Anniversary Brochure, remittance envelopes, and the monthly sponsorship brochures to support your solicitation letters.

Other materials such as sample letters, the follow-up phone script, and thank you notes may be obtained online at https://results.org/resources/fundraising_tools/.

Once you have a list of prospective donors, your goal and your support materials, begin writing! Ask those who are most likely to give or increase their gift to give first and continue asking until you’ve solicited your list. Please have letters ready to go out the week of October 25 and then follow-up with phone calls to be complete by the week of November 8. Our goal is to raise $50,000 in increased support by the end of the year.

Thanks and gratitude to Des Moines and Santa Fe for delivering successful high quality events! Your events not only raised critical funding for RESULTS/REF but, also increased our visibility and helped spread the word about ways in which everyday citizens can make extraordinary change in the world. The Des Moines event featured Ambassador Tony P. Hall and raised some $2,850 in conjunction with other fundraising activities. The Santa Fe event raised a total of $1,965; this on top of $3,100 raised during the summer!

Thanks to all who are helping RESULTS/REF reach out to communities across the country. We couldn’t do it without you!

Upcoming Fundraising Events

November 7: Columbus

November 20: San Jose

December 5: Chicago

December 9: DC

If you have questions or need more information, contact Donna Howard at (202)-783-4800 x124 or online at [email protected].

Time is Running Out — Apply for a World AIDS Day Mini-Grant!

World AIDS Day (WAD) is December 1. To help highlight the deadly synergy between TB and HIV, RESULTS Educational Fund (REF) is offering RESULTS grassroots groups the opportunity to undertake TB advocacy activities for WAD 2010 and beyond that might not be possible without support funding. Activities can fall between September 1 and December 31, 2010. We are making funds available, through a competitive grant application process, for WAD events, and TB awareness building in your communities. These mini-grants are funded through REF’s ACTION project. The very last day to apply is November 5, and applying even earlier is preferred, so don’t wait!

Visit our 2010 World AIDS Day page for a link to the application.

Ideas Types of Activities — Be Creative!

• Organize a community panel discussion on TB-HIV co-infection and invite the media, community members, and members of Congress.
• Reach out to local HIV/AIDS groups to build coalition support around events that could highlight TB-HIV.
• Organize a conference call for journalists with local or state TB experts (e.g. a state TB controller).
• Hold a screening and discussion of a TB-HIV related film.
• Research the history of TB in your community and do a public art show, display, discussion or other community event to bring attention to it and the current state of affairs of TB in the world.
• Work with your local opera on their production of La Boheme or La Traviata and make the connection to TB.
• Organize a book club around an appropriate TB related book.
• Identify and work with one or more TB patients to help them become advocates. Find opportunities for them to write and be published, speak out publicly, speak anonymously (on a radio program for example).
• Create an event — a rally, a walk, a candlelight vigil — that brings media attention to TB.

Also, as you look to World AIDS Day, be thinking about how you can leverage our incredible media work on the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Share our press release summarizing what did and did not happen at the Global Fund replenishment meeting, and use the urgency to create more media as World AIDS Day approaches.

Education For All Act Introduced in the Senate

On September 17, Sen. Gillibrand (D-NY) reintroduced the Education for All Act in the Senate! It is very simliar to the House version, with minor tweaks.

Take Action! Visit our education page to review our action sheet and read the Senate fact sheet. Plan to call in to the national conference call for all global activists on November 13 as we take a closer look at our Education for All campaign and this opportunity.

Read the press releases from Sen. Gillibrand and GCE-US.

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.

—John Quincy Adams

October: Congressional recess

October–December: Fall fundraising campaign.

October 27 and Nov. 3 (date correction): New Activist Orientation. (712) 432-3100, passcode: 761262. Contact Ken Patterson or Lisa Marchal for more details.

November 13: Monthly national conference call for global activists. 2 pm ET. Theme this month is Education for All. Call in to (888) 409-6709.

November 18: Researching Your Member of Congress Training Call. 9 pm ET. Call in to (712) 432-3100, passcode 761262. Have a new representative or senator?  Don’t yet know enough about the positions of a continuing legislator? Join Allison Gallaher to learn how to effectively research your own members of Congress for more effective advocacy.

December 1: World AIDS Day. Interested in an event to raise awareness about TB-HIV coinfection? Think of all the possibilities, and then apply for a mini-grant to help your event take off!

Upcoming Fall Fundraisers

• November 7: RESULTS Columbus
• December 5: RESULTS Chicago
• December 9: RESULTS in DC

Other Dates

June 19–21: RESULTS International Conference in Washington, DC.