State of the Union November 2019
Political Updates
Lobbying and Advocacy Efforts
- Total # of Lobbying Meetings in October: 65
- Total # of Lobbying Meetings in 2019: 696
- Lobbying Meetings Goal for 2019: 775
Advocacy Emails
- Total # of Advocacy Emails in October: 5,917
- Total # of Advocacy Emails in 2019: 90,754
- Advocacy Emails Goal for 2019: 80,000
- % of Congress Emailed in October: 99%
Congressional Office Meetings
Content Team member Trey Ross completed her first lobbying meeting! Trey met with Jaci Winship, the Senior Community Liaison for Rep. Ann Wagner (R-MO). The two discussed The Borgen Project, increasing funding for the International Affairs Budget and the Keeping Girls in School Act.
Content Team member Susan Niz met with Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) office to lobby on behalf of the world’s poor.
Warren’s Address
Listen to the latest from Warren about the goings-on in D.C.
Content Team Updates
Year to date our website has had 6 million visitors! With a 2019 goal of 5 million visitors, we have smashed it! Well done everyone.
The Borgen Project received a shoutout in an article on Bustle featuring Harry Styles. Take a look: Harry Styles Tweeted A Link To This Mysterious Website & Twitter’s Experiencing A Collective Moment
Recognition
Congratulations to the following team members who have achieved Borgen Project Honors & Recognition.
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- Capital Achievement Award (raised $2,000 or more): Olivia Heale and Sophia Wanyonyi from the Content Team; Michelle Dickson from the Political Affairs Team member.
- Chief Closer Award (raised $1,000 or more): Sophia Wanyonyi, Content Team member; Angus Gracey, Political Affairs Team member; Ryan B. Holman, Content Team Member; Angus Gracey Political Affairs Team member and Madison Botsch, PR/Marketing Team member.
- President’s Circle (held 3 congressional meetings): Marisa Anopolsky, Jacob Lang and Isabelle Pinzon from the Political Affairs Team.
- Bird Dog Award: Mahzarin Mistry, Political Affairs Team member.
- Public Outreach Award (50 or more people mobilized): Alina Shivji, PR/Marketing Team member (55); Maggie Aulman, PR/Marketing Team member (50). Elisabeth Drabkin, Political Affairs Team member (50).
- Article of the Month: The Importance of the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2019 by Sarah Frazer
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Visit the Our Team Members page and read about success stories with our organization.
Getting the Word Out
One-Mile Campaigns
HR Team member Jie (Caroline) Jing completed her 1-Mile Campaign around the Minnesota State Capitol.
HR Team member Taryn Woodburn’s 1-Mile campaign took place around Ted Cruz’s office in Houston, TX.
HR Team member Ariel St. Claire held her 1-Mile Campaign in Spokane, WA.
Political Affairs Team member Kevin Chiang
PR/Marketing Team member Courtney Palmersheim
PR/Marketing Team member Chika Okoye
Political Affairs Team member Anthony Dolmat
With a little help from her sons, HR Team member Sherice Banks completed her 1-Mile Campaign at a city park in Oklahoma.
Letters to the Editor
Political Affairs Team
- Emily Kerr in The Athens News: Trump wrong to cut our country’s International Affairs Budget
- Sarah Clark in Social Policy: A Letter from The Borgen Project: We Got Mail!
- Kyle Coburn in Delaware Online: Foreign aid benefits Delaware
- Roberto Consuegra in The Gainesville Sun: Untapped Markets
PR/Marketing Team
- Timothy Linton in The Spokesman-Review: Communicate on Issues
- Venus Nguyen in The Mercury News: Congress should increase aid to end world hunger
Advocates
- Emily Klein in The Gonzaga Bulletin: True power of change lies in reaching out to representatives
Outreach & Mobilizing Materials
Political Affairs Team member Mehak Rajpal created a flier as an aid to hand out during presentations to classes and student organizations.
PR/Marketing Team member Jeanne Alix: “The bill will cut child deaths by 50 percent. Education is one of the most valuable resources when it comes to saving children’s lives. Malnutrition is one of the leading causes of death for children under five largely due to many mothers’ lack of education on proper hygiene, health and nutrition. According to UNESCO, if all women received secondary education, it would cut in half the number of child deaths and save three million lives. When provided with an education, mothers are able to raise their children in a healthier way because they have the knowledge necessary to provide them with a higher quality of life.”
“The good and the bad: The progress we’ve made and where we can do better” by PR/Marketing Team member Timothy Linton
PR/Marketing Team member Ashley Strand highlights stats around the world.
Information Events
PR/Marketing Team member Ashley Strand tabled at HTC to fundraise and inform individuals about the organization.
PR/Marketing Team member Cindy Mendoza held an info event in Seattle on the University of Washington’s campus.
Fundraising
PR/Marketing Team member Madison Botsch raised over $300 from her cookie sale.
Content Team member Trey Ross hosted friends in her backyard for a dinner party and summit to discuss The Borgen Project. Trey raised $840 from combining two of her biggest passions – sharing the message for bipartisan efforts to downsize global poverty and throwing a big party! “It was awesome getting to tell my closest friends how lifting communities out of poverty can actually benefit us here at home, since they had never thought about it that way before. I made a ton of delicious appetizers and served cocktails.”
PR/Marketing Team member Ashley Strand hosted a trivia night to fundraise for her campaign. Ashley has also created an Ebay account to sell inventory. A portion of the funds will go to The Borgen Project.
Content Team member Sophia Wanyonyi, based in Kenya, held a dance party in October. Sophia raised $1,188 by selling drinks and snacks as well as collecting donations. Way to go, Sophia!
Political Affairs Team member Jacob Lang fundraising. His caption was: ‘There’s nothing “sweeter” than working to solve global poverty.’ A donation of $1.50 = one guess in this jelly bean raffle!
Political Affairs Team member Rupkatha Banerjee organized a concert as a part of her fundraising campaign.
Political Affairs Team member Mehak Rajpal held a bake sale on-campus. Mehak shared the photo to her Instagram story to help spread the word.
Media Outreach
Videos
PR/Marketing Team member Ashley Strand shows us how easy it is to e-mail Congress