Global Weekly Update February 27, 2012
Rep. Barbara Lee to be a Special Guest on our National Grassroots Conference Call on March 10
We are very pleased that Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA), founding co-chair of the Congressional HIV/AIDS Caucus, will be joining us for next month’s conference call! Rep. Lee’s incredible commitment to the end of AIDS includes working on legislation that created PEPFAR and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; and countless other pieces of AIDS-related legislation. It will be exciting to have her with us while we are in the middle of making our appropriations requests (including requests to fund the fight against tuberculosis and to fund the Global Fund). Hear the latest on our Friends & Family Campaign that is in full swing. Get informed and inspired by our Grassroots Cafe, including stories of what you all are achieving. Take away one or two new tools you can use in your advocacy. Call (888) 409-6709 a few minutes before 2 p.m. EST to get connected and join us!
What’s Hot This Week: Impacting Appropriations to Help End Global Poverty
1. Got 5 minutes? We have a new online action you can take. Write a quick letter to your legislators about a smart, poverty-fighting appropriations request about which you are particularly passionate, then share the link to the online action with a couple of your friends.
2. Got 15 minutes? Take a look at our handy appropriations request chart, individual fact sheets for each appropriations request, and the February action sheet. Together, these resources will give you what you need to write a letter that you can send through the websites of your members of Congress about powerful FY13 global program funding, or appropriations decisions.
3. Got 20 minutes? Request a face-to-face meeting with your Representative or Senators so that you can make our FY13 appropriations requests in person. You all have already been hard at work on this; face-to-face meetings have been planned and/or have happened for activists in Omaha, Seattle, San Jose, Coastal Connecticut/Fairfield University, Asheville, Redmond (WA), and Central New Jersey. Way to go! The timing for your meetings couldn’t be better, for the House has an early March recess slated while the Senate has an Eastertime recess schedule; legislators will find themselves with time in their home districts/states. Why not pick up the phone today and book a meeting? For just the right words to say, take a glance at our February laser talk. Want a dose of inspiration before you make that call to the scheduler? Hear the powerful words of Dr. Jeffrey Sachs from January and of health advocate Jigna Rao from a couple Saturdays ago; both have been guests on our national grassroots conference calls this year.
Fundraising Success Abounds
Congratulations and thank you to Louisville for holding the first fundraising event of the year! Building on our karaoke tradition at the RESULTS International Conference, they held their event at a karaoke bar and even had Rep. John Yarmuth in attendance (although he did not sing). They a raised about $1000 and had a lot of great one-on-one conversations about RESULTS. Best of all, they had an absolute blast doing it. Be sure to come to the International Conference this summer so you can see their performances in person!
Our Friends & Family Fundraising Campaign launched on February 21 and we’re off to a great start. Forty people have registered with fundraising webpages and have raised over $3200 online. Sandra Eagle is our top earner so far with $600, and her Coastal Connecticut Team is in first place with $1161. Great work! We’re already about 20% to our $30,000 goal with 5 weeks left to go. Now’s the time to finish sending out your mailed letters and follow up with more tweets, facebook updates, and especially personal phone calls. You can find support materials online. Look for follow-up call scripts within the “Guide for Mailed Letters” and the “Guide for Online Fundraising” sections and detailed instructions for building webpages in the “Building a Friends & Family fundraising webpage” section. You can get help from our recorded webinar starting at the 3-minute mark.
If you are having any sort of difficulty using the fundraising webpage, please contact Cindy Levin (773-236-7758) right away. A few people have experienced difficulty changing the text on their page, and we have been able to quickly assist and get them back on track.
You Should Come to the International Conference. But Don’t Take Our Word for It…
We received amazing submissions for our contest looking for the best video testimonial about why the IC is a great experience and why you think everyone should attend. You should check them out! We loved watching every one, but only one person can win a free registration to this year’s IC. After much debate, that winner is Rob! Check out his winning submission. Please feel free to continue sending videos; we love watching them and we will definitely be continuing to use them as we promote the conference!
Remember: Registration is only $150 until April 16. Be sure to register TODAY!
Are you an 18-to-25-year-old? Check out our REAL Change program. It might help you get to the conference!
Also, the individual and team that raise the most money online with our Friends & Family Campaign win one free IC registration!
Each time a [person] stands for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, [he/she] sends a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.
– Robert Kennedy
March 7: RESULTS Introductory Call. 9:00 pm ET. Contact us with any questions and RSVP for the call.
March 8: Researching Your Member of Congress training call. (Note: You will want to be in front of a computer with internet access for this call.) 9:00 pm ET. (712) 432-3100, passcode 761262.
March 10: RESULTS National Conference Call for Global Campaigns. 2:00 pm ET. Dial (888) 409-6709 a few minutes before the call.
March 16: RESULTS Introductory Call. 1:00 pm ET. Contact us with any questions and RSVP for the call.
March 24: World TB Day
March 31: RESULTS Texas Regional Conference. Contact Anne Child for more information.
March 31: Friends & Family Fundraising Campaign ends.
April 22-28: Global Action Week for Education for All
July 21–24: RESULTS International Conference in Washington, DC