Global Weekly Update April 23, 2012
Global Action Week for Education is Here!
International Global Action Week for Education is April 22–28, and we are partnering with our U.S. poverty RESULTS advocates to take an organization-wide look at how we can outreach to our communities on this important issue. This is a particularly good time to identify nearby influential voices and grasstops leaders who care about education. Every April, the world focuses on the need to get kids in school. This is a priority we share with our families and our neighbors in the U.S., in addition to those who live worlds away from us.
Take Action:
1. Invite your representative to this Thursday’s briefing on education for all, moderated by RESULTS Executive Director Joanne Carter. Get all the details on our blog.
2. Use our Education for All Outreach Kit for the April action sheet, a relevant laser talk, education fact sheets, inspiring videos, and other outreach resources.
3. Check out our tips on building a coalition of community allies and start brainstorming with other activists about people and organizations who care about educating kids and might be interested in collaboration. Local school board? Teachers union? Girl and Boy Scout troops? Head Start center? PTA? Education department at the local college? Who is in your neighborhood working for education? These groups may not know about RESULTS and our commitment to early childhood education here and around the world, and they might love to learn about us and consider collaborating.
4. Research the contacts at the organizations of your choosing and make a few calls to set up meetings! Coalition-building is relationship-building around common visions and goals. It takes time to talk about those common goals and develop ideas on how you and other like-minded groups can work together. Now is a great moment to start taking that time.
5. Glance at the international Global Action Week website for a splash of inspiration.
6. Take a quick action that emphasizes the link between education and microfinance.
Dr. Jeffrey Sachs will speak at the RESULTS 2012 International Conference!
We are excited to announce that Dr. Jeffrey Sachs will attend our conference this summer! Dr. Sachs is a world-renowned professor of economics, leader in sustainable development, senior UN advisor, bestselling author, and syndicated columnist whose monthly newspaper columns appear in more than 80 countries. He has twice been named among Time magazine’s 100 most influential world leaders. He was called by the New York Times, “probably the most important economist in the world,” and by Time magazine “the world’s best known economist.” A recent survey by The Economist magazine ranked Professor Sachs as among the world’s three most influential living economists of the past decade.
Earlybird registration ends April 30. Don’t miss this chance to see Dr. Sachs in person and ask him questions!
Other important deadlines are coming up for the REAL Change program (for 18-25-year-olds), volunteering, and other financial assistance. Check out the details at the Financial Assistance tab on the right side of our International Conference webpage. Register today.
Other Grassroots News You Can Use
1. Global Advocacy Campaigns Overview. You are invited to listen to a recording of last week’s informative call with John Fawcett, our legislative director, as he reviewed where we’ve been and where we’re going in our global campaigns advocacy work, particularly as related to this second quarter of the year. Find this recording (and other great training calls) on the Training Calls and Webinars page of the Multimedia Resources section of our website.
2. Amazing Things Happen When We Use Our RESULTS Savvy and Work Together. On Tuesday, April 17, Rep. Jan Schakowsky spoke on the House floor in defense of SNAP (formerly Food Stamp program). Read on our blog how one of our own global advocate-champions made it happen.
3. This is Also World Immunization Week. RESULTS is building on its legacy of working for child survival by advocating for such powerhouse life-savers as childhood vaccines. Mark this important week by reading a recent blog post on vaccine work by new RESULTS Evanston advocate Ellen Marshall!
BIG News in Fundraising!
All day Wednesday, May , your gift to the RESULTS Educational Fund will have a greater impact. Thanks to the Seattle Foundation’s giveBIG campaign, gifts of any size will be stretched. Any donation will also make you eligible for a Golden Ticket, increasing your donation by $1,000! Thank you to Karen Gielen and our Seattle partners for setting up this opportunity. On May 2, donate to RESULTS Educational Fund on the Seattle Foundation’s website and spread the word via social media.
Also, one last reminder that our Friends & Family fundraising campaign websites will be closing after Monday, April 30. Now is the time to thank your donors personally if you haven’t already! We will thank them from the office, but nothing keeps a donor coming back like sincere and personal expressions of gratitude. Each group will be receiving a list of donor names and addresses of every donor that contributed on their behalf during this campaign.
“When the world says, ‘Give up,’ Hope whispers, ‘Try it one more time.’”
-Author Unknown
March-May: Global Poverty Project 1.4 Billion Reasons presentations
Until April 28: Global Action Week for Education and World Immunization Week
April 24-27: RESULTS expansion and outreach events in the northeast. Contact Ken Patterson if you know folks in that part of the country who might like to meet RESULTS!
April 28: RESULTS Northeast Regional Conference. Contact David Burns for more details.
May 2: RESULTS Introductory Call. 9 pm ET. Contact us with any questions and RSVP for the call.
May 7 and 21: RESULTS New Activist Orientation, 9 pm ET. New activist with RESULTS? Then join our two-session orientation to learn the basics of who we are and how we work together to become vibrant advocates for the end of poverty. To RSVP, contact Lisa Marchal. To call in, dial (712) 432-3100, passcode 761262.
May 12: National grassroots conference call for global campaigns. 2 pm ET. Dial (888) 409-6709 a few minutes before the call. (Check out our conference call archive, too!)
May 15: RESULTS Free Agents domestic poverty group call. Contact Jos Linn for more information.
May 18: RESULTS Introductory Call. 1 pm ET. Contact us with any questions and RSVP for the call.
May 21: RESULTS Free Agents global poverty group for activists in towns without RESULTS groups. 8 pm ET, (218) 486-1611, passcode 7378587. Contact Lisa Marchal with questions.
July 21–24: RESULTS International Conference in Washington, DC