Global Weekly Update January 9, 2012

Launch 2012 with the National Grassroots Conference Call Featuring Dr. Jeffrey Sachs!

This Saturday, January 14 at 2 pm ET, gather your group, your action network, and even local RESULTS donors and dial (888) 409-6709 for our first monthly conference call of the year. Dr. Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University will be our featured guest, and he is a great friend of RESULTS. He is also quite fired up about the 10th anniversary of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria which will be marked on January 28. Dr. Sachs helped found the Global Fund, and he’s a bit outraged that the Fund was forced to suspend making new grants until 2014 because a lack of funds. Ultimately, this cancellation means lives lost, and we can’t stand for this. Dr. Sachs will give us some ideas to help us make effective media pitches on this issue; it will be exciting to experience his expertise and passion. 

And speaking of starting off the new year, don’t forget to book a date for your 2012 group planning if you haven’t done so already. Group planning materials for 2012 are now online; start out the year right by brainstorming and dreaming with your group about what you’re going to accomplish in 2012.

Supporting the Global Fund: Editorial Packet, Action Sheet and Action Alert

January 28 marks the 10th anniversary of the revolutionary, life-saving Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. As funding for the Fund remains under threat, our advocacy is more important than ever. To support a media push on this issue, we have created an editorial packet, an action sheet, and an action alert; these are all designed to empower you to get yourself, your group, and your networks moving on this issue in a meaningful way. Stay tuned for more on how we, as a grassroots base, will coordinate for maximum media impact. In the meantime, share this editorial packet with your paper’s opinion writers and take action on paper or online!

The 2012 International Conference Registration Begins Soon, and You Could Win a Free Registration!

In just a few days, you’ll be able to register your presence with us! Join us in Washington, DC, for what we hope will be the most powerful conference so far (July 21–25), particularly because it will coincide with the International AIDS Conference.

We are shooting for 400 attendees this year, and we are committed to having everyone there who wishes to attend. Contact your group leader, your regional coordinator, and/or RESULTS staff if you have questions about the conference and need a hand in making sure you can join us in Washington, DC, this summer.

To help us reach our goal, consider entering our competition! You’ll help promote the conference and maybe win yourself a free registration. We’re offering the prize of one free conference registration if you submit the winning video testimonial about the RESULTS International Conference! We want to know why the IC is a great experience and why you think everyone should attend.

Guidelines:

• The testimonial must be less than one minute.
• Questions you can answer include the following: Why would you invite someone to attend the IC? What difference did it make in your life? What’s a high point of your IC experience?
• Your submission can be filmed on any camera, including a cameraphone, but it must be audible and clear.
• Send your submission to Jennifer Maurer. In the subject line, please write IC 2012 Video Testimonial.
• Once submitted, you give RESULTS permission to post your video on our IC event page.
• RESULTS staff will judge the videos.
• Deadline is February 15. Winner will be informed by March 1. (If you have already registered, RESULTS will reimburse you. The registration is transferable.)

Good luck!

2011 Grassroots Fundraising Ended With a Bang!

Celebrate, celebrate! Thanks to your incredible fundraising work, you raised $216,000 in 2011 to support our life-saving advocacy. This is phenomenal news, and you all should be incredibly proud.

By the way, does your group have a website, Facebook page or other internet presence? If so, please remember to prominently display a link to the RESULTS website. Sometimes when new donors don’t know that RESULTS is based in DC, they visit their local RESULTS page and can’t find a way to make a donation. This happened over the holidays with at least one new donor trying to make a surprise gift! Please contact Ashton Wingate or Cindy Levin if you need assistance. Thank you!

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.

— Abraham Lincoln

January 14: National Conference Call for Global Grassroots featuring Dr. Jeffrey Sachs. 2:00 pm ET. (888) 409-6709.

January 17: House returns to Washington from holiday recess

January 20: RESULTS Introductory Call. 1:00 pm ET. Register today!

January 23: Senate returns to Washington from holiday recess

February 1: RESULTS Introductory Call. 9:00 pm ET. Register today!

February 13: First session of two-session New Activist Orientation. 9:00 pm ET. Register today!

February 17: RESULTS Introductory Call. 1:00 pm ET. Register today!

February 27: Second session of two-session New Activist Orientation. 9:00 pm ET. Register today!

July 21–24: RESULTS International Conference in Washington, DC