Archive for category: State of the Union

Political Updates

Lobbying and Advocacy Efforts

• Total # of Lobbying Meetings in July: 11
• Total # of Lobbying Meetings in 2024: 244
• Lobbying Meetings Goal for 2024: 390

Advocacy Emails

• Total # of Advocacy Emails in July: 6,662
• Total # of Advocacy Emails in 2024: 32,781
• Advocacy Emails Goal for 2024: 84,000
• % of Congress Emailed Year to Date: 96%

Congressional Office Meetings and Bird Dogging

Political Affairs Team members, Annabelle Sala and Walker Rose meeting with Brandon Simon, Senator Cruz’s (R-TX) Central Texas Regional Director

Kim Thelwell and Political Affairs Team members Shayyan Ahmed and Matthew Sotomey, meet with Representation John Sarbanes’ (D-MD-03) staffer, Lily Chang

The Borgen Project Team members, meeting with Senator Duckworth’s (D-IL) staff

Political Affairs Team member Aliyyah Gbadamosi, met with MP Margaret Mullane (Dagenham and Rainham)

Political Affairs Team member Kayla Soetaert, Canada, met with MP Dane Lloyd

The Borgen Project Team members meeting with Senator Gillibrand’s (D-NY) office

Political Affairs Team member Madison Possamai, Bird Dogging Representative Jennifer Stewart (D-RI- 59)

Updates from DC

Listen in to hear all of the latest updates from DC.

Recognition

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

• • • Capital Achievement Award (raised $2,000 or more):
      • Advocate: Blake Lee
    • Chief Closer Award (raised $1,000 or more):  
      • Nonprofit Leadership Team: Kayla Soetaert
      • Political Affairs Team: Grace Foose, Lily Pellillo
    • Bird-Dog Award: 
      • Political Team: Grace Foose, Annabelle Sala, Media Hosseiny, Prisha Jain
    • President’s Circle Award (Mobilized 50+ people):
      • Political Team: Toluwanimi Famurewa, Yoshita Virdi, Kalee Dickason, Brayden Hunt, Shreya Raman
      • PR/Marketing Team: Maria Williams
    • Article of the Month: 
      • The Labour Party’s Approach to International Development by Carla Messinger

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

Getting the Word Out

Information Events

Political Affairs Team member Madison Possamai, presented to Massacoit Community College and a summer class at Wheaton College, MA

Madison Possamai also presented to her local Rotary Club

One-Mile Campaigns & Mobilizing

Content Team member, Maria Waleed – Yokohama, Japan

Content Team member Deepak Joshi Pokhrel, in Nepal

Regional Director Ava Poehlmann, transform an empty window in VT, USA

Political Affairs Team member Valerie Dib, completed her campaign in Vancouver, BC, Canada

Political Affairs Team member Julian Kukor, Detroit, MI

Madison Possamai – JFK Federal Building in Boston, Massachusetts

PR/Marketing Team member Henry Phelan, Scotland

PR/Marketing Team member Benjamin Suhrstedt, Bainbridge, WA

Content Team member Philip Mundy

PR/Marketing Team member Ruthu Ganesh Jayalakshmamma, London, UK

Letters to the Editor

Political Affairs Team

• Antonella Pecora Ruiz Burlington Local News
• Elisabeth Flynn Cleveland.com
• Yoshita Virdi Loudoun Now
• Ellen Jin Wis Politics
• Jack Ericson Sacramento Bee and Modesto Bee
• Cassandra Schoene St. Louis Post-Dispatch
• Sophia Brazier Yorkshire Bylines
• Carson Davidson Issaquah Reporter

Content Team

• Jonathan McCloud Herald Banner

PR/Marketing Team

• Brandon Simpson – Capital Gazette
• Julia Bobe Portland Tribune and Albany Democrat Herald
• Hailey Alt – Issaquah Reporter, Queen Anne & Magnolia News and Westside Seattle
• Ryan Lesh The Baltimore Sun

Fundraising

PR/Marketing Team member, Danielle Hutchinson – walked Hadrian’s Wall to raise money for her fundraiser

PR/Marketing Team member Isabella Chow, at Dave and Busters – NYC

Political Affairs Team member Andrea Mendoza, had a yard and candy sale

Political Affairs Team member Samrah Syed, hosted a bake sale and raised an incredible $219

Political Affairs Team member Robert Hunter, completed a triathlon event for his fundraiser

Content Team member Carl Massad’s fundraising template

Political Affairs Team member Antonella Pecora Ruiz’s video about her fundraising/awareness summer camp

TikTok

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

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

Videos

Political Affairs Team – Isabella Chow

Political Affairs Team member, Meredith Kovarovic

PR/Marketing Team member, Iman Chima

Political Affairs Team member, Dhani Freeland

PR/Marketing Team member, Danielle Hutchinson

Political Affairs Team member, Courtney Brown

PR/Marketing Team member, Callie Finck

Political Updates

Lobbying and Advocacy Efforts

• Total # of Lobbying Meetings in May: 37
• Total # of Lobbying Meetings in 2024: 203
• Lobbying Meetings Goal for 2024: 390

Advocacy Emails

• Total # of Advocacy Emails in May: 3,617
• Total # of Advocacy Emails in 2024: 19,206
• Advocacy Emails Goal for 2024: 84,000
• % of Congress Emailed Year to Date: 91%

Congressional Office Meetings and Bird Dogging

Senior Program Manager, Amy Jenkins and Nishka Gouri met with Hannah Umansky Castro from Representative Norton’s office (D-DC-1)

Senior Program Manager Amy Jenkins and Cara Wong, Political Affairs Team member, met with Aneeb Sheikh, Representative Pressley’s (D-MA-07) Legislative Assistant.

Kim Thelwell, VP, Policy & Communications and Content Team member Jacob Barker,  met with Representative Randy Feenstra’s office (R-IA-4)

Political Affairs Team member Hayden Wilkinson in the UK, met with Prospective Political Candidate Hanif Khan in support of ODA, in the run-up to the UK general elections.

Updates from DC

Listen in to hear all of the latest updates from DC.

Recognition

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

• • • Chief Closer Award (raised $1,000 or more):  
      • PR/Marketing Team: Isabelle Hickman
    • Article of the Month:
      • Education Cannot Wait: Empowering Children Through Education by Danielle Schaafsma
      • Hand Embroidery in Iran: Using Traditions To Support Women by Richard Sartor

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

Getting the Word Out

Information Events

UK Team member Lucrezia Gentili, Phoebe Wirick, Fiona Specker and Lara Crease, represented The Borgen Project at the RESULTS UK summer gathering on June 9th

Political Affairs Team member, Savannah Kapcoe gave her first class presentation

Political Affairs Team member Sara Nasrallah hosted a tabling event on her university’s campus

One-Mile Campaigns & Mobilizing

PR/Marketing Team

Delara Baria in Nottingham, UK

Diya Shah in Stanmore, UK

Rimsha Sawant in Blackburn, UK

Azza Hani Md Alexirwan in Oxford, UK. Azza works for Holland & Barrett and gained permission to write @BORGENPROJECT.ORG on some of the paper bags.

Political Affairs Team

Mariam Asratashvili in Glasgow, UK

David Zhu in San Jose, CA

Maria Rosaria Bitti in Glasgow, UK

Adam Ribbans in Bedfordshire, UK

Political Affairs Team member, Shovon Banik completed his one-mile campaign in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada

Letters to the Editor

Political Affairs Team

• Marta Tavares Fernandes Oakville News

Content Team 

• Madison McCray The Post and Courier

Outreach & Mobilizing Materials

PR/Marketing Team member, Danielle Hutchinson

PR/Marketing Team member, Ege Ulusoy

Regional Director Felipe Mancera

Content Team member, Emily Weir

PR/Marketing Team member, Alicia Ng

Fundraising

Political Affairs Team member, MillaMay Garrow in the UK is having a charity gig as part of her fundraiser. If you are in the area, please support MillaMay!

Political Affairs Team member, Sara Nasrallah held a bake sale at her university

TikTok

@isabellegrace___

PR/Marketing Team member, Isabelle Hickman is completing her 10 x 10 challenge (running 10km for 10 consecutive days) to showcase how some women and girls around the world walk between 6 to 10 kms every day to access clean water. Amazing job Isabelle.

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

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

Videos

PR/Marketing Team

Ruby Cheng

Isabelle Hickman

Hailey Alt

Political Affairs Team

Keaton Walding

Gulce Yegen

Elt Bashar

Fiona Specker

Political Updates

Lobbying and Advocacy Efforts

• Total # of Lobbying Meetings in March: 12
• Total # of Lobbying Meetings in 2024: 72
• Lobbying Meetings Goal for 2024: 390

Advocacy Emails

• Total # of Advocacy Emails in March: 4,272
• Total # of Advocacy Emails in 2024: 12,876
• Advocacy Emails Goal for 2024: 84,000
• % of Congress Emailed Year to Date: 81%

Congressional Updates

PEPFAR PASSED!

Although we were hoping for 5, we’re glad to see PEPFAR’s 1 year reauthorization pass in Congress with bipartisan support. This highly regarded global health program will continue saving the lives of millions and aiding in the response to fight HIV/AIDS worldwide.

In the past year, Borgen Project volunteers mobilized more than 3,000 emails to Congress regarding PEPFAR and our team held more than 100 Congressional meetings to build support for its reauthorization. Thank you all for your advocacy! Read more about the importance of PEPFAR here.

Updates from DC

Listen in to hear all of the latest updates from DC.

Recognition

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

• • • President’s Circle Award (Mobilized 50+ people):
      • PR/Marketing Team: Esther Elliot
    • Articles of the Month: 

      • The Cultivation of Lychee Fruit Is Changing the Country of Vietnam by Madison McCray

      • Living Wage in Colombia’s Banana Industry by Ben Miley-Smith

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

Getting the Word Out

Information Events

Political Affairs Team member, Adam Ribbans presenting at the University of Lincoln, UK

PR/Marketing Team member, Zachary Hylan conducted his informational event

PR/Marketing Team member, Francis Nwobodo held his focus group at Teesside University, UK

Political Affairs Team member, David Zhu attended a career fair to present about The Borgen Project at Cupertino High School

One-Mile Campaigns & Mobilizing

Political Affairs Team

Jenkin Yuen completed his one-mile campaign in Toronto, Ontario

Daniel Lonic, in Canada

Allison Sheppard in NJ

Aidan Donohue in NJ

Joe Bagley in Lewiston

Brynna Torpey in PA

Robert Hill in Atlanta, GA

Sydney Mailloux in downtown Fort Myers

Steph Thain in London, UK

Moses Sappé in Sheffield, UK

Swalha Ali Abdulcadir in London, UK

PR/Marketing Team

Anna Barbour

Zachary Main

Hana Bui, who also created stickers for coffee cups

Giovanni Coeli

Alyssa Pomales

Nonprofit Leadership Team

Olivia Siyahian

Amelia Klein

Letters to the Editor

Political Affairs Team

• Charles Hill Islington Tribune

PR/Marketing Team 

• Delara Baria Platform Magazine
• Giovanni Coeli Financial Times and The Stork

Outreach & Mobilizing Materials

PR/Marketing Team member, Amara Keeney writing letters to her leaders

Fundraising

Regional Director, Courtney Petersen, held a Trivia night, with Clint in attendance and raised an amazing $2100!

Political Affairs Team member, Del Moazami is selling some old clothes for her fundraising campaign

Content Team member, Phoebe Vaughan and friends, doing a mountain climb for her fundraiser.

Content Team member, Catrin Jones undertook a sponsored walk

Political Affairs Team member, Seb Owers ran the Exeter, UK, half marathon

TikTok

@aidanmdonohue learn how to call congress #fyp #foryoupage #politics #election #democrat #republican #biden #trump #borgenproject ♬ Aesthetic – Tollan Kim

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

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

Videos

PR/Marketing Team

Diya Shah

Lila Russell

Isabelle Hickman

Azza Hani Md Alexirwan

Political Affairs Team

Pari Patel

Jin Young Lee

Sydney Losh

Krista Amoth

Political Updates

Lobbying and Advocacy Efforts

• Total # of Lobbying Meetings in Janaury: 32
• Total # of Lobbying Meetings in 2024: 32
• Lobbying Meetings Goal for 2024: 390

Advocacy Emails

• Total # of Advocacy Emails in January: 4,552
• Total # of Advocacy Emails in 2024: 4,552
• Advocacy Emails Goal for 2024: 84,000
• % of Congress Emailed Year to Date: 65%

Congressional Office Meetings and Bird Dogging

Senior Program Manager Amy Jenkins, Boyana Nikolova and Samantha Morales met with Representative Crow’s [(D-CO-6) Senior Legislative Assistant, Mackenzie Fallt.

Senior Program Manager Amy Jenkins and Kylie Burgel met with Drew Martineau, Senator Brown’s (D-OH) Legislative Assistant.

Senior Program Manager Amy Jenkins, Alex Li and Amman Alkayal met with Senator Warren’s (D-MA) Legislative Correspondent, Nikhil Srinivasan.

Jenkin (Santos) Yuen had a lobbying meeting with MP Chrystia Freeland’s Constituency Manager (Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister)

Regional Director Lucrezia Gentili held a lobbying meeting with MP Stephen Timms (Labour, East Ham)

Political Affairs Team member, Diya Thomas met with her MP, Annelise Dodds (Labour and Co-operative, Oxford East)

Updates from DC

Listen in to hear all of the latest updates from DC.

Recognition

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

• • • Chief Closer Award (raised $1,000 or more):  
      • Political Affairs Team: Stuti Mishra
    • Bird-Dog Award: 
      • Political Team: Aditya Sehgal
    • Articles of the Month: 
      • The Foundation of Goodness: Providing Aid After The Tsunami by Alex Finch

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

Getting the Word Out

Swarms

PR/Marketing Team member Francis Nwobodo in the UK mobilizing the community

Information Events

Political Affairs Team member Swalha Ali Abdulcadir tabling an event to mobilize in the UK

Political Affairs Team member Robert Hill presented to 2 classes in Georgia

One-Mile Campaigns

Political Affairs Team members:

Eleanor Anderson in Minnesota

Alejandra Contreras in Downtown LA

Norhan Abdelaziz in Sevenoaks, Kent, UK

Natalie Bookout completed her 1 mile campaign in Charlotte, NC

Yi Nian Mercedes Cheung in County Durham, UK

Rosmond Thomas, New York, NY

Akhil Ponnam completed his campaign in VA

Martha Ross-Smith completed her campaign in Hitchin, UK

Amy Stoneman completed her campaign in Newcastle, UK

Parth Nikalje completed the campaign in Bristol, UK

PR/Marketing Team:

Bianka Nemesova

Amelia Beuscher hanging posters at her college campus

Nonprofit Leadership Team:

Dawson Schatz completed his campaign around the local office of Representative Peters

Madelyn Snyder

Outreach & Mobilizing Materials

Political Affairs Team member Anisa Rashid created this infographic to share around her university campus

PR/Marketing Team member Lila Russell is focusing on The MINDS Act

PR/Marketing Team member Anna Barbour has done an amazing job on her outreach materials for The SAFE Act

PR/Marketing Team member Brianna Boen in support of The SAFE Act

Political Affairs Team member Piper Treacy

Nonprofit Leadership Team member Yijun Ni

Nonprofit Leadership Team member Udita Das created this great photo for her outreach

Content Team member, Arman Ahmed

Content Team member Abraham Ikongshul

Fundraising

Content Team member, Sam Waterkeyn cycled from London to Land’s End over the course of 5 days. Same rode over 300 miles and raise £500.

Political Affairs Team member Olivia Shipman completed a winter swim fundraiser in the UK – very brave! 🥶

PR/Marketing Team member Lila Russell started her fundraising campaign with a bang!

TikTok

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

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

Videos

Political Team

Camila Tinjaca Pino

Benjamin Luu

Bisrat Muluneh

Jack Evans

Olivia Shipman

PR/Marketing Team

Amelia Beuscher

Anna Barbour

Brianna Boen

Lila Russell

Gabriel Seriki

Wishing everyone at The Borgen Project a Very Happy Holidays and a great 2024!

Political Updates

Lobbying and Advocacy Efforts

• Total # of Lobbying Meetings in November: 37
• Total # of Lobbying Meetings in 2023: 338
• Lobbying Meetings Goal for 2023: 405

Advocacy Emails

• Total # of Advocacy Emails in November: 4,016
• Total # of Advocacy Emails in 2023: 67,772
• Advocacy Emails Goal for 2023: 115,000
• % of Congress Emailed Year to Date: 96%

Congressional Office Meetings and Bird Dogging

Political Affairs Team member, Lennon Airey, met with Julie Elliott MP, (Sunderland Central) to discuss supporting more overseas aid

Amy Jenkins, Senior Program Manager and Political Team member, Ashley Page met with Senator Welch’s (D-VT) Legislative Aide, Maggie McGraw

Amy Jenkins, Senior Program Manager and Political Team members Nate Capriglione and Julia Nunamaker met with Ryan Walsh, Sen. Murphy’s (D-CT) Legislative Correspondent, Ryan Walsh

Amy Jenkins, Senior Program Manager and Political Team member Akithma Moraes, met with Congressman Darren Soto (D-FL-09) and his staffer, Andrea

Amy Jenkins, Senior Program Manager and Political Team members Tim Bellman and Madison Seda, met with Sam Lane and Hannah Sztorc from Sen. Manchin’s office (D-WV)

Updates from DC

Listen in to hear all of the latest updates from DC.

Recognition

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

• • • Chief Closer Award (raised $1,000 or more):  
      • Political Team: Francisco Caballero, Anasofia Garcia, Akhil Ponnam
    • Articles of the Month: 

      • Art Literacy in Africa: The AAF & A4A – by Bethany Brown

      • Women Forward International: Addressing Food Insecurity in Mexico – by Kristina Gaffney

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

Getting the Word Out

Information Events

Political Affairs Team member, Olivia Linzy, presenting to LHS EDGE

Political Affairs Team member, Natalie Bookout met with Marie Yovanovitch Former United States Ambassador to Ukraine

One-Mile Campaigns & Mobilizing

Political Team

Jessica Baron in Downtown Los Angeles (Little Tokyo) near Senator Alex Padilla’s office (D-CA)

Julia Nunamaker completed her campaign close to Representative DeGette’s (D-CO-1)  office, around the civic center of her city, and various parks in the area

Madison Seda completed her campaign near Representative Dan Goldman’s office (D-NY-10)

Benjamin Robbins completed his campaign near Congresswoman Salazar’s (R-FL-27) office and at the Palmetto Bay village hall

David Echavarria put up posters at the capital building in Florida

Heran Henoke completed her 1-mile campaign in Silverspring, MD

Timothy Bellman completed his campaign near Representative Alex Mooney’s office (R-WV-2)

Aishat Adeyemo completed her campaign in Greenwich, London, UK

Mollie Sinclair in York, UK

Trisha Williams completed her campaign in North Baltimore, University of Maryland Law School, Loyola University Maryland, Enoch Pratt Library-Waverly and the CFG arena

PR/Marketing Team

Isra Rahman

Elaina Jin

Katie Mitchell

Ginika Uzowulu

Letters to the Editor

Political Affairs Team

• Amy Stoneman Yorkshire Bylines

Content Team 

• Elizabeth Antenucci The Gloucester Times

PR/Marketing Team 

• Dairen Woolfolk The Roanoke Times
• Jackie Nelson The Columbian
• Katie Mitchell Edinburgh Evening News
• Ciara Preece South Wales Echo

Outreach & Mobilizing Materials

Content Team member, Angela A. Darkwah

Fundraising

Political Affairs Team member, Boyana Nikolova is holding a shoe drive for her fundraising campaign

Content Team member, Isabel Burnside, will be braving the shave for her fundraising campaign!

TikTok

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

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

Videos from our Political Team Member

Kylie Burgel

Gabriel Brandao

Olivia Linzy

Max Perry

Alexandra Wittmeier

Samantha Morales