Global Weekly Update March 25, 2013

Top Action: Make Appropriations Requests This Week!

April 15 is more than Tax Day; it’s the deadline for members of Congress to submit appropriations requests to the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee of Appropriations. This means that the deadlines our members of Congress have to receive requests from us is earlier than that. Each office has their own deadline, so contact the foreign policy aide in your representative’s and senators’ offices and ask them about deadlines!

With all the talk of spending cuts and sequester, there is great risk to the most vulnerable. This is why RESULTS engages our representatives and senators in the appropriations process, the annual cycle when spending decision are made. We ask our members of Congress them to write and speak to key congressional colleagues who will be making these decisions. In the House, Reps. Kay Granger (R-TX) and Nita Lowey (D-NY) head the subcommittee making foreign aid spending decisions, the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee of Appropriations. In the Senate, Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Lindsay Graham (R-SC) head that subcommittee.

We need to act now to get our spending preferences to our members of Congress for fiscal year 2014. Here’s what you can do next:

• Get some background: Read the latest on the FY14 Budget Process on our blog. You can also read Executive Director Joanne Carter’s recent testimony before the House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations.
• Take Action:
  • Most Powerful: Request a face-to-face meeting with your legislator. Use our online tips for securing a meeting with your member(s) of Congress or for building a great relationship with the aide who handles our issues. Congress is on recess; it’s a great time to make a call to the scheduler for your member(s) of Congress.
  • Very Powerful: Call and e-mail Capitol Hill. Send our appropriations requests to the foreign policy aides of your representative and senators via e-mail, then follow up with a call. You can find their names here (look under the staff tab once you find your member of Congress). Follow up with them via e-mail and phone each week until you are able to have a conversation with them.
  • Powerful: Write your own letter. Use our February/March Action Sheet or fast online action to write a letter to your representative and senators. Personal letters rank very high in terms of influence. You can hand write and deliver via the mail or dropping it by the local office, or you can type up and submit via their website, or to one of the aides. You can find contact information for your members of Congress here.

If you want guidance or coaching in making these critical requests, contact Ken Patterson, Global Grassroots Manager, or Lisa Marchal, Senior Global Grassroots Associate.

World TB Day Media: Great Work . . . Keep it Up!

This week, advocates all over the country put pen to paper and landed World TB Day media in papers large and small. See the running list on our blog. This media is essential to our work in generating the political will for a bold pledge to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria later this year.

Hopefully you were proud of the work you did and are inspired to write in the future even if you weren’t able get anything published this time around. Don’t despair! Building relationships with editorial writers and newspapers takes time.And even with strong relationships, getting published isn’t guaranteed every time we write and pitch. That’s why the RESULTS trait of being persistent is so important. The world is talking about TB; keep working to help your newspaper do the same. Here’s what you can do:

1. First, take time to comment on and share another RESULTS advocate’s media piece. Take a look at our blog to see the running media list, and then plan your own next move! Consider sending the best pieces to your members of Congress.

2. Second, read the 2013 World TB Day editorial packet, and keep it on hand as resource material for later in the year. Your future work to get TB and the Global Fund on to the editorial page of your local paper will support our efforts for robust funding to fight the tuberculosis scourge — funding that includes robust support for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

3. Third, share our World TB Day letter to the editor action with your group’s action network, with someone who’s curious about RESULTS, or with someone to which you’d like to introduce RESULTS. Amplify your voice by enrolling others to speak out as well! It’s still timely if you write today!

A Summer Highlight: The RESULTS International Conference

2013 RESULTS International Conference. Registration is open and the earlybird rate is available through April 15!

Join us for a spectacular event in Washington, DC, July 20–23. You can also get an application for REAL Change, a scholarship opportunity for young emerging leaders, age 18–27. The deadline for application to REAL Change is May 15! Join hundreds of your closest friends as we learn, celebrate, and advocate. What could be better?

P.S. Have you heard that Tony Lake, the executive director of UNICEF, is slated to be with us?

Friends and Family Fundraising Campaign: Get Set, Go!

We are one week away from the start of our Friends and Family fundraising campaign launching April 1 when we’ll send requests to people we know, asking them join in our mission by making donations. Thanks to Teresa Rugg, Pattie Hofland, Lisa Marchal, Margaret Smith, and Ginnie Vogts, who have already set up their online fundraising pages! Please let your group leader know if you will participate, so we can support you! For more details, visit our website.

Contact Cindy Levin, Grassroots Fundraising Associate, with questions or to receive materials. We hope you’ll join us in this wonderful way to share RESULTS and help us to our goal of raising $35,000 this year!

Friends & Family Support Call Schedule:

Tuesday, March 26, 9 pm ET, Online Tool Webinar: (775) 996-3560, code 796141, https://www.fuzemeeting.com/fuze/f2988286/18965095

Thursday, March 28, 1:30 pm ET, Fundraising with Social Media: (775) 996-3560, code 796141, https://www.fuzemeeting.com/fuze/f2988286/18919967

Saturday, March 30 noon ET, Online Tool Webinar: (775) 996-3560, code 796141, https://www.fuzemeeting.com/fuze/f2988286/18919875

For the health of humanity across the globe, our U.S. legislators need to adequately fund the Global Fund,and thus become part of history in making [HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria] a footnote in history.

— Barbara Drake, RESULTS Tampa advocate; Tampa Bay Times; March 8, 2013

1. March 26, 9 pm ET, Online Tool Webinar: (775) 996-3560, code 796141, https://www.fuzemeeting.com/fuze/f2988286/1896509

2. March 28, 1:30 pm ET, Fundraising with Social Media: (775) 996-3560, code 796141, https://www.fuzemeeting.com/fuze/f2988286/18919967

3. March 30 12 pm ET, Online Tool Webinar: (775) 996-3560, code 796141, https://www.fuzemeeting.com/fuze/f2988286/18919875

4. April 10, 9 pm ET. RESULTS Introductory Call. Heard of RESULTS and want to know more? Join us for this 30-minute introductory call. Contact us with any questions and RSVP for the call. Dial (712) 432-3100, passcode 761262 to join.

5. April 13, 2 pm ET. RESULTS National Grassroots Conference Call for Global Poverty Campaigns. Dial (888) 409-6709 to join!

6. April 17. Congressional Gold Medal ceremony for Dr. Muhammad Yunus.

7. April 26, 1 pm ET. RESULTS Introductory Call. Heard of RESULTS and want to know more? Join us for this 30-minute introductory call. Contact us with any questions and RSVP for the call. Dial (712) 432-3100, passcode 761262 to join.

8. May 20, 8 pm ET. Next RESULTS Free Agents call for global poverty advocates. No meeting in April. Dial: (218) 486-1611, passcode 7378587 (RESULTS). Are you a RESULTS activist with our global poverty campaigns, living in a town with no RESULTS group? You are alone no more! Contact Lisa Marchal for more information on this monthly group call.

9. July 20–23. RESULTS International Conference in Washington, DC. Dr. Muhammad Yunus and author/speaker Marianne Williamson are already set to join us. Registration is open and the earlybird rate is good through April 15!