Global Poverty Campaigns

Weekly Update | Week of March 13, 2017

• Quote of the Week

• A Word from Our Executive Director

• Sign-on Letters on Appropriations Open for Signatures in House and Senate

• Other Key Opportunities This Week

• The First 100 Days Campaign Keeps Rolling

• Leading With Action: The 2017 RESULTS International Conference

• Upcoming Learning and Action Opportunities

• Resources at Your Fingertips 

Quote of the Week

"It's easy to feel disheartened right now. It's easy to feel powerless and cynical. But if I had given up every time I felt that way, I would not be where I am today. So here's an idea: let's organize and fight for what we believe in. I believe in our collective power, and I believe in RESULTS.”

– Yara Slaton, RESULTS advocate in Salt Lake City

A Word from our Executive Director

"The evidence shows what’s possible when we come together to advance the fight against poverty, but right now we face extraordinary threats to our progress, both in the United States and around the world." Read commentary from RESULTS Executive Director Joanne Carter about the context in which we are doing our work – what's at stake and what is possible if we act today.

Then consider using our joint action sheet, containing a single action encompassing our concerns for both U.S. and global anti-poverty programs.  

Sign-on Letters on Appropriations Open for Signatures in House and Senate

First, what is a sign-on letter?

• It is a letter circulated by members of Congress (like a petition) to get other members of Congress to sign on to show their support for an issue (also called a "Dear Colleague").  These letters can have a lot of sway with appropriators when a strong number of their colleagues are asking them to support a cause – especially if it shows bipartisan support! – and  these letters will underpin all the hard work you've been doing asking your legislators to make specific appropriations requests to the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittees on  Appropriations in the House and Senate before the end of March.  

• Four letters are currently circulating in the House and one is currently circulating in the Senate, with other Senate letters expected. The topics of these letters are our various  appropriations requests – namely global health and global education. 

What can you do?

• You can take hold of any of these letters and read them over. You'll find the entire set of letters – complete with text, deadlines, and emerging signers list – on our blog.

• Ask your representatives and senators for their signatures of support on these sign-ons. The deadline? Each letter has its own deadline, but we know that, on the whole, it's best to get signatures by March 22. 

• You can use our succinct online action alert to make your sign-on letter requests, if you wish – and you can share this alert with others to enroll them in advocacy!

Other Key Opportunities This Week

1. Creating Bi-Partisan Support for our Issues in our Communities: A Learning and Sharing Lab. March 15, 9 pm ET. Log in online: http://fuze.me/34116938 or via phone (201) 479-4595, meeting ID 34116938.

2. Race and Advocacy "Book Club" Webinar. March 16, 8 pm ET. Are you interested in exploring the critical relationship between advocacy and anti-oppression? Please join RESULTS for a virtual opportunity for a conversation around the book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration In the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander. We invite you to this webinar beginning the discussion around systematic oppression in the United States and how it relates to our RESULTS global and U.S. poverty campaigns. The forward and chapter one will be discussed during this installment. To participate, log in at http://fuze.me/34326078 or dial in by phone (201) 479-4595, meeting ID 34326078. Continuing dates: March 30, April 13, April 27 (dates subject to change). 

3. World TB Day Hearings. Invite your members of Congress and their staff to two important World TB Day hearings next week being co-sponsored by RESULTS. Click to download the invitations and send them along with a personal note. 

• Senate members and staff: Unite to End TB Hearing, March 21.

• House members and staff: World TB Day Congressional Briefing, March 24.

4. Advocacy Workshop Guide. As you may have discovered already , we are supporting you to engage people in your community each month with the monthly Action Sheet by automatically attaching an accompanying Advocacy Workshop Guide. But are also finding that community groups are interested in more comprehensive training, so we've created a longer advocacy workshop guide to support you in training others in a broader set of skills. Look for that on our Resources page after March 17. 

The First 100 Days Campaign Keeps Rolling

As you may recall, our goal is to have 100% of RESULTS groups and Free Agents meet face-to-face with their members of Congress or meet with local staff in person with participation by DC policy staff. So far, we're at 46% – great work. Let's keep going! The scoreboard is already filling up with completed and scheduled meetings. Check out the tally in real time on our First 100 Days resource page. #First100Days #RESULTS100

1. Book Your Meetings with Your Members of Congress for the upcoming April 10-21 recess. Let us know of your planned member of Congress meetings through our online form. Prep for your meeting using top tips from our Activist Milestones.

2. Outreach To Your Community. It's having coffee with someone who wants to know more. It's inviting a new potential advocate to your local meeting, framed as an advocacy workshop by using our monthly action sheets which now come complete with a meeting guide. It's all of these things, and in this time of invigorated civic awareness, you and your fellow advocates are perfectly primed to bring interested folks into our critical advocacy work. Let's work toward 500 outreach moments in 2017! Report an outreach activity using our handy form. Help us get to 500! 

Go the Extra Mile:

• Write an LTE on Appropriations. Use and share the brand new March Action Sheet and Advocacy Workshop Guide (also available in PDF) focusing on getting published in the media and voicing the call to protect programs that alleviate global poverty.

• Enroll new advocates. Ask an interested friend, neighbor, or family member to make a call to their legislator that asks for support for a budget that prioritizes our global anti-poverty  programs.

Leading with Action: The 2017 RESULTS International Conference

"The International Conference changed my life – it will change yours, too." – Tiffany Wood, RESULTS advocate in Wisconsin

Join us in our nation's capital July 22-25, 2017 and we'll head to Capitol Hill together, because Congress needs to hear from YOU. The RESULTS International Conference (IC) is a chance to use your voice to change the world. Together we’ll spend three days hearing from leading experts, learning new skills, and meeting fellow advocates committed to the end of poverty. Then we’ll take our message straight to Capitol Hill. Registration is now open at earlybird rates! 

P.S. Use our new brochure to invite others to apply for the REAL Change program (which includes IC scholarship monies) or to invite anyone to the IC. 

Upcoming Learning and Action Opportunities

Ongoing. REAL Change Fellowship. The 2017-18 REAL Change Fellowship for emerging leaders (age 18-30) is open for applications. 

March 15, 9 pm ET. Creating Bi-Partisan Support for our Issues in our Communities: A Learning and Sharing Lab. Log in online: http://fuze.me/34116938 or via phone (201) 479-4595, meeting ID 34116938.

March 16, 8 pm ET. Race and Advocacy "Book Club" Webinar. Are you interested in exploring the critical relationship between advocacy and anti-oppression? Please join RESULTS for a virtual opportunity for a conversation around the book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration In the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander. We invite you to this webinar beginning the discussion around systematic oppression in the United States and how it relates to our RESULTS global and U.S. poverty campaigns. The forward and chapter one will be discussed during this installment. To participate, log in at http://fuze.me/34326078 or dial in by phone (201) 479-4595, meeting ID 34326078. Continuing dates: March 30, April 13, April 27 (dates subject to change). 

March 16-17. Senate recess. 

March 24. World TB Day. 

March 24, 1 pm ET. RESULTS Introductory Call. The perfect RESULTS primer. Contact us with any questions and RSVP for the call.

April 8, 2 pm ET. National Webinar/Conference Call for Grassroots. Login: https://www.fuzemeeting.com/fuze/f2988286/30204806. Or to join by phone only, dial (201) 479-4595, meeting ID 30204806. 

April 10-21. House and Senate recesses. 

July 22-25. RESULTS International Conference in Washington DC at the Washington Court Hotel. Registration is open!

Resources at Your Fingertips

Subscribe to the Weekly Update

Advocacy Resources (Weekly updates, action sheets, online action alerts, and more)

Global Poverty Campaigns Background

Global Grassroots Calendar

Skills Center 

Fundraising Tools

Report 2017 Actions

• Report Just an Outreach Activity

• Report Just a Lobby Meeting

• Report Just a Media Piece

2015 & 2016 Global Congressional Scorecards (See global poverty actions your members of Congress have taken over the past few years.)

Contact the Grassroots Board Members of the RESULTS Board