State of the Union May 2021

Political Updates

Lobbying and Advocacy Efforts

Total # of Lobbying Meetings in April: 38
Total # of Lobbying Meetings in 2021: 101
Lobbying Meetings Goal for 2021: 700

Advocacy Emails

Total # of Advocacy Emails in April: 15,018
Total # of Advocacy Emails in 2021: 69,418
Advocacy Emails Goal for 2021: 330,000
% of Congress Emailed Year to Date: 100%

Congressional Office Meetings

Regional Director, Jesus Quinones, attended a coffee with constituents with Rep. Eskamani

Regional Director, Javid Javadikhomami, bird-dogged Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA)

Kim Thelwell, Alyssa Alvarez, Chloe Webster, Clare Dumler, Emre Kantarci, Gabriel Ratner, Kieran Graulich, Skyla Chiorando, Seth Morer, Sydney Zaremba, Paige McDonald, and Aidan Shor meet with Sachin Mathur, Senator Gillibrand’s Legislative Correspondent in April

Recognition

Congratulations to the following team members who have achieved Borgen Project Honors & Recognition

- - Chief Closer Award (raised $1,000 or more):
    - HR Team: Tori Slider
    - Political Affairs Team: Rayna Wolff, Musa Ali, Parwiz Waziry
    - Content Team: Kendall Carll, Kari Millstein
    - PR/Marketing Team: Alex Jacqmin, Melissa Vides
    - Nonprofit Leadership Team: Haley Mortensen, Adrienne Wentling, Rosalie Dillon, Julian Prosser, Kamryn Moore
  - Articles of the Month:
    - The Global Health Security Act of 2021 Passes Committee by Kate Lucht
    - Indian Farmers Protesting New Bills Find Ally in NGO by Joseph Cavanagh
    - S.Res. 95: How COVID-19 Impacts Women Globally by Samantha Silveira
    - The Suaahara Project II: Malnutrition Efforts During COVID-19 by Elyssa Nielsen
    - #GiveHerASeat: The Girls LEAD Act and Women in Leadership by Alexander Vanezis

Visit the Our Team Members page and read about success stories with our organization.

Getting the Word Out

Swarms

Political Affairs Team member, Olivia Potthast, hosted a living room summit

Political Affairs Team member, Ariana Salcedo, hosted a swarm

HR Team member, Biani Benitez, hosted a swarm

Political Affairs Team member, Aria Davis, hosted a swarm

Information Events

Regional Director, Alexa Blake Sinclair, presented to her class about her position and shared a link with the class for volunteer and internship opportunities

One-Mile Campaigns & Mobilizing

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HR Team member, Kristie Ortiz

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HR Team member, Rashad Sorel

PR/Marketing Team member, Janet Metcalf

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HR Team member, Rachel Nemeth

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HR Team member, Kristopher Woodard

PR/Marketing Team member, Jenny Newman

PR/Marketing Team member, Olesya Tarım, completed her mile campaign in Istanbul, Turkey

PR/Marketing Team member, Necati Uygun, also completed his mile campaign from Istanbul, Turkey.

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HR Team member, Stehanie Surber

Content Team member, Soizic Lcq

Political Affairs Team member, Ria Mehrotra

Political Affairs Team member, Tala Pesigan

Political Affairs Team member, Zachary Jones

Political Affairs Team member, Mackenzie Wetherill

Political Affairs Team member, Zofishan Zahid

Regional Director, Arjuna da Silva

Regional Director, Shelby Wane

Political Affairs Team member, Olivia Wolcott, did a one-mile campaign around the US Ambassador’s residence in Dublin, Ireland

Political Affairs Team member, Toraj Rozbeh

PR/Marketing Team member, Paola Bianchi

Nonprofit Leadership Team member, Sanjana Tummala

Nonprofit Leadership Team member, Nyah Doe

Nonprofit Leadership Team member, Renae Maskey

PR/Marketing Team member, Alex Cuniglio

PR/Marketing Team members, Anna Borton

PR/Marketing Team member, Celeste Festoso

HR Team member, Biani Benitez

PR/Marketing Team member, Miya Blythe

Political Affairs Team members, Jesus Gonzalez

Regional Director, Alexa Blake Sinclair

Letters to the Editor

Political Affairs Team

Jason Albert in The Dallas Morning News
Nicholas Filipek in the Chicago Tribune
Kelsey Iversen-Cartwright in The Seattle Times
Brandon Fuhs in the Las Vegas Sun
Kaylee DeLand in The Independent

Nonprofit Leadership Team

Henry Wu in VTDigger

Content Team

Holly Dorman in the Idaho Statesmen
Kendall Couture in The West Volusia Beacon

HR Team

Taylor Huddle in The Journal

PR/Marketing Team

Aliea Bliven in Patch.com
Carolina Zurzica Moura in the Financial Times

Outreach & Mobilizing Materials

PR/Marketing Team member, Audrey Eckhart

Political Affairs Team member, Grace McDonough

Nonprofit Leadership Team member, Adrienne Wentling

HR Team member, Kaylee Castillo

Nonprofit Leadership Team member, Raisah Xu

Political Affairs Team member, Mackenzie Wetherill

Nonprofit Leadership Team member, Lila Schell

Political Affairs Team member, Sreyas Yennampelli

Fundraising

PR/Marketing Team member, Audrey Eckhart, fundraised by selling masks

PR/Marketing Team member, Anna Borton hosted a bake sale for her fundraising campaign

PR/Marketing Team member, Alex Cuniglio, fundraised through pranks

PR/Marketing Team member, Işıl Ekin Özcan, sold cupcakes for fundraising

Regional Director, Lindsey Erdmann, dressed up in an inflatable turkey suit for work after all of her coworkers pitched in $5 for fundraising

PR/Marketing Team member, Sophie Behzadi, baked a marble bundt cake for fundraising

PR/Marketing Team member, Whitney Symens, created this graphic for her diverting campaign

Regional Director, Mickey Johnson, made $50 worth in donations from Uber Eats

Political Affairs Team member, Sarah Coffey hosted a basketball tournament as part of her fundraising campaign

PR/Marketing Team member, Mey Olesya Tarim, fundraised by hosting a chess tournament

Media Outreach

Interviews and Media Features

-PR/Marketing Team member, Reghan Callahan, secured a shoutout for The Borgen Project on Watchable: An Entertainment Podcast. Listen here.

-PR/Marketing Team member, Whitney Bain, secured a shoutout for The Borgen Project on the “‘I’ Statement: Decision Fatigue & Defining Core Principles.” Listen here.

TikTok

@julio323sanchez

How to send CONGRESS an email in 1 minute. #nonprofit #Howto #tutoriales #DIY #Congress #activism

♬ Steven Universe – L.Dre

PR/Marketing Team member, Julio Sanchez

@chloeplums

Learn how to call your Congressional leaders! #theborgenproject #congress #callcongress

♬ Lofi – Domknowz

PR/Marketing Team member, Chloe Plumley

@celeste.anne

I hope you all enjoy my very mediocre Ted Talk #theborgenproject #makeachange #globalpoverty

♬ Inspiration – WavebeatsMusic

PR/Marketing Team member, Celeste Festoso

@borgencaroline

MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!! it’s that easy!! 🙂 #theborgenproject #greenscreen #fyp #socialjustice #FreeFreeDance #foryou #foryoupage #xyzcba

♬ Buttercup – Jack Stauber

PR/Marketing Team member, Caroline Carrier

@alexc3434

Save lives and help develop communities with your voice#fast #easy #poverty #global #advocate #save #life #hunger #borgenproject

♬ original sound – Alex

PR/Marketing Team member, Alex Cuniglio

The Borgen Project is now on TikTok! Give us a follow @theborgenproject.

Have an idea for a TikTok? Please email them [email protected].

News Coverage

Regional Director, Maia Kiniyalocts, sent a brief overview of The Borgen Project and internship opportunities to a scholars group for Freshman. It was published in the weekly newsletter

Political Affairs Team member, Caroline Calhoun, pitched a story to Nimi Princewill who covers news out of the African continent at CNN about vaccine inequality and he did a piece along the lines of her suggestion and sent her the link

Nonprofit Leadership Team member, Baylie McMahon, shared details of his internship within his fraternity’s newsletter

Letter

Political Affair Team member, Emily Day, got a handwritten letter from Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) congratulating her on the article and her dedication to speaking out and bettering her community!

Instagram

Social Media Outreach

PR/Marketing Team member, Riley Rosi, got a story reposted by an account with 7k followers

PR/Marketing Team member, Thyra Funderburk, got a story reposted by @the.teenage.feminist (18.2k followers) on Instagram

Regional Director, Anna Ryu, got a post on @ConnectingWorldCultures on Instagram

Videos

“Importance of the Global Health Security Act” by PR/Marketing Team member Jenny Newman

“Senator Bob Casey Jr., Please Support and Co-sponsor The Girls Lead Act” by Sandra Malkin, Political Affairs Team member