State of the Union November 2016
Note from the President:
- This session of Congress (two-year cycle) ends in mid-December. Any legislation that doesn’t pass this month or next will have to be reintroduced in 2017. Now is the time for a strong push!
- I love our new bill! Check out the Protecting Girls’ Access to Education in Vulnerable Settings Act. For those of us who’ve been eagerly waiting for legislation that helps refugees get access to education… Our bill has arrived! Realistically, this bill won’t have enough time to pass this year, but we need to raise it’s profile in Congress. We’ll be doing a hard push for it in January and the more members of Congress are hearing about it now, the better.
- Amazing work Clayton Haglund and Madasen McGrath! Both have raised over $2,000.
- Holiday fundraising begins! Count yourself lucky, this is the best time of year to be fundraising and “making the ask.”
- Amazon holiday shopping.. Don’t forget the link. When you start on that page, Amazon gives The Borgen Project 4-8% of what you spend. In other words, if you spend $100 on Amazon, $4-$8 will be given to The Borgen Project.
– Clint Borgen
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Political Updates
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Volunteers in all 50 States have sent advocacy emails to their representatives! Fantastic work everyone.
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- For October 2016, we had just over 4,000 emails to Congress bringing the year-to-date total to over 32,000 emails!
- We had 26 lobbying meetings during the month for a total of 322 meetings since January.
- M-CORE Act: Language from the M-CORE Act was added to the AGOA Enhancement Act and passed in the House! Our focus is now the Senate!
- New Bill: We have also added the Protecting Girls’ Access to Education in Vulnerable Settings Act to the lineup of bills. The legislation is aimed at prioritizing efforts to support access to primary and secondary education for displaced children with a specific focus on the inclusion of women and girls in foreign assistance programs. Be sure to email and call your leaders about this important legislation.
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Warren’s Address
Listen to Warren with the latest updates from D.C.
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Annie Shin, Megan McCaslin and Clayton Haglund meet with the staff of Senator Feinstein’s office, San Diego, CA to discuss the Digital GAP Act.
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Shine Kang, Regional Director, held a clothes swap fundraising event
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Lola Babatunde, PR/Marketing Intern, meets with Mr. Robert Vega, Legislative Assistant for Congressman Kenny Merchant, Texas.
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Shanique Wright organized an Afro Caribbean night, raising a total of $806!
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Scary Stuff?
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Content Team Updates
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- Both the website and magazine had their biggest months ever!
- The website had over 272,000 visitors. (40,000 people more than previous highest month!)
- The Borgen Magazine had over 80,000 visitors.
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Shannon Warren, Writing Intern, shows us how to deliver a class presentation…
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HR Team Updates
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With lots of new interns joining us again this month, we’d like to wish everyone a very big, warm welcome to The Borgen Project. We hope that you have a memorable experience as part of our team.
Applications for positions within our internship and volunteer programs remain high, as we experience a year-end surge of new applications.
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| RD’s & Advocates | Content Team | Political Affairs | In-Office | HR Team | PR | Total Applicants | |
| October | 171 | 268 | 117 | 12 | 175 | 231 | 974 |
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Recognition Awards:
This month seven people have achieved Borgen Project Fundraising Awards.
Capital Achievement Award (raise $2,000) or more: Clayton Haglund and Madasen McGrath.
Chief Closer Award (raise $1,000 or more): Kristen Guyler, Peyton Jacobsen, James Blaise, Lester Stone, and Rasmussen.
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Let’s Talk Fundraising!
Amanda Warren, talks to Clayton Haglund, who, since talking with Amanda, has now raised over $2000. Amazing!
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Social Media
What’s the point of all these Tweets?
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[big_box left=”People” bellow=”visited borgenproject.org this year after clicking on a link they saw shared on FaceBook”]24,894[/big_box]
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Top Influencers Following The Borgen Project on Twitter
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…Also lots of political leaders follow The Borgen Project on Twitter including:
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Behind the Scenes: “Search Wars”
Most people don’t think about how Google and other search engines determine what content appears in the top results… The Borgen Project, however, has turned SEO (Search Engine Optimization) into a key component. We’re constantly trying to identify terms that are likely to be searched by members of Congress and their staff. From there, our team of Writers produce great articles on the topics that when all goes right appear in the top results and bring political influencers to the organization’s website. Literally, from the moment a person decides to run for office (see below) we’re trying to make sure they are becoming familiar with The Borgen Project and efforts to combat global poverty.
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By identifying terms that are likely to be searched by Foreign Policy LA’s in Congress, The Borgen Project is able to familiarize those staffers with the movement. The term “150 Account” in the example below is used frequently by White House and Congressional staffers to refer to the International Affairs Budget.
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