State of the Union December 2017

Note from the President: What a year everyone! The complete numbers will be out in January, but 2017 has set records in just about every category: more political access/lobbying meetings than ever, more leaders being contacted by constituents about poverty-reduction bills, more visitors to the website. The list goes on but the end result is that you’ve built a poverty-reduction movement that is stronger than ever and growing incredibly fast. I want to give a special shout-out to everyone who made sure all members of Congress were contacted by constituents in support of poverty-reduction legislation this year. In the past, the House of Reps, with 435 members representing districts ranging from rural farmland to a couple of miles in a major city, has been very difficult to reach comprehensively. This year, we pulled it off with every single member of the House of Representatives being emailed by voters in their district. If you emailed your leaders and/or mobilized others you were part of this effort. I can’t thank everyone enough for giving a voice to the world’s poor and making sure powerful leaders feel pressure to do more.

– Clint Borgen

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Holiday Schedule

What: Winter Break

When: Saturday, December 23rd 2017 to and including Monday, January 1st 2018.

Arrangements: As a reminder, all trackers are due on Friday December 22nd. However, no trackers are due on Friday December 29th due to the break.

Happy Holidays!
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Political Updates
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Lobbying Efforts
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We are having a record year for political access! As of November 13th, we held 458 lobbying meetings. Here’s a chart comparing our lobbying meetings this year, with year’s past.

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Year	Total Year’s End Number of Lobbying Meetings
2013	106
2014	131
2015	378
2016	383
2017	458 (*As of November 13th)

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Total Lobbying Meetings in November: 77
Total Lobbying Meetings Since the Start of the Year: 504

Advocacy Emails
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Total Advocacy Emails in November: 3,218 emails sent.
Total Advocacy Emails Since the Start of the Year: Borgen Project interns and volunteers have mobilized ~59,000 emails to Congress since the start of the year.
% of Congress Emailed Since January: 100%. We’ve emailed all 535 members of Congress! We couldn’t have done this without your hard work.

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Congressional Office Meetings[hr_invisible]

Regional Director, Madhavi Kuthanur, and Political Affairs team member, Danielle Robinson, met with Zachary Carstensen. Zachary is the Director of Outreach and Engagement for Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (D – WA 7th).

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Warren’s Address
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Content Team
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BORGEN Website Pageviews: November 2017 vs. November 2016

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BORGEN Magazine Pageviews: November 2017 vs. November 2016

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HR Team Updates
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The total number of applicants has risen significantly from September through November.

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Recognition

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

Bird-dog Award: Marietta Le Barbara, Political Affairs team.

Capital Achievement Award (raised $2,000 or more): Richa Bijlani, Content team.

Chief Closer Award (raised $1,000 or more): Colin Ford, Political Affairs team.

President’s Circle Award: Johannes Veltin, Political Affairs team.

Honorable Mention for Email Advocacy Efforts: Carmen Venney, Regional Director; Judy Hamilton, Regional Director; and Marcus Sullivan, Friend.

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

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YouTube

Here are two more videos from Political Affairs team member, Melissa Balke.

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Getting the Word Out

Letters to the Editor

Regional Director, Maggie Carrig, in The Buffalo News – Each of us must get involved in the global poverty fight.

Political Affairs team member, Tim Sonnefeldt, in the Chicago Tribune – The right aid. (Fourth post down)
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One-Mile Campaigns

Fatema Murtaza implemented her campaign for the PR/Marketing team within her neighborhood with chalking, fliers, and car stickers.

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[hr_invisible] Fellow PR/Marketing team member, Katie Larsen, tabled at her school’s student university center and handed out brochures about our organization.