State of the Union October 2020

Political Updates

Lobbying and Advocacy Efforts

Total # of Lobbying Meetings in September: 117
Total # of Lobbying Meetings in 2020: 1081
Lobbying Meetings Goal for 2020: 710

Advocacy Emails

Total # of Advocacy Emails in September: 27,681
Total # of Advocacy Emails in 2020: 202,344
Advocacy Emails Goal for 2020: 120,000
% of Congress Emailed Year to Date: 100%

Congressional Office Meetings and Live Events

Political Affairs Team member Jessica Nguyen attended a virtual town hall meeting for Occoquan, Virginia

Grace Harlan, Political Affairs Team, bird-dogged Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) while live with National Security Action!

Adriane Phi, Nonprofit Leadership Team, met with Rick Larson’s (D-WA) staff member JZ Golden

Momina Chaudhry, Political Affairs Team, presented to a Religion and Human Rights Class

Ceara Stewart and Alicia Gonzalez, Political Affairs Team, met with a staffer of Rep. Jacobs (R-NY) to discuss the Youth, Freedom, and Security Act

Carson Taylor, Political Affairs Team, bird-dogged Instagram live video for #teamjoetalks with Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT)

Anna Ryu, Political Affairs Team, attended a letter writing event with Swing Left Philadelphia

Nisaa DuFourm, Nonproft Leadership Team, bird-dogged Rep. Madeleine Dean’s (D-PA) virtual town hall on Facebook Live

Nelly Harb, Regional Director, bird-dogged Rep. Dwight Evan’s (D-PA) virtual town hall

Christy Johnson, Advocate, met with Senator Josh Hawley’s (R-MO) District Director, Ben Gruender

Cori Dill, Political Affairs Team, bird-dogged Kamala Harris (D-CA) on her Instagram Live with Lizzo

Caleb Kebede, Political Affairs Team, presented to Rotary Club

Siddhant Urunkar, Political Affairs Team, bird-dogged Representative Tom O’Halleran (D-AZ)

Nonprofit Leadership Team member, Samantha Picaro, attended Tom Malinowski’s (D-NJ) Facebook event named “Congress in your Kitchen”

Recognition

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

- - Capital Achievement Award (raised $2,000 or more):
    - PR/Marketing Team: Alexa Bates
    - Political Affairs Team: Peter Gobeille
    - Content Team: Elizabeth Stankovits, Jack Silvers
    - In-Office Team: Annie Baur
  - Chief Closer Award (raised $1,000 or more):
    - Political Affairs Team: Rachel Greenspan, Elissa DeTellis, Kevin Schmidek, Micaela Mittleman, Nelson Kappas, Anna Ryu, Bernardo Pinto, Grace Harlan, Liam McNett, Matthew Donovan, Samuel Nall, Jamie Ziah
    - Content Team: Isabella Thorpe, Josie Collier, McKenna Black, Margherita Bassi, Chhavi Mehra, Ritika Saligram, Eliza Cochran, Henry Comes-Pritchett, Jeff Keare, Leina Gabra, Matthew Otey, Sydney Leiter, Samantha Friborg
    - PR/Marketing Team: Tessa Rodgers, Kyle McKee, Luopeiwen Yi, Mackenzie Sager, Molly Deegan
    - HR Team: Katherine Starkey, Belen Lopez Guerra
    - Nonprofit Leadership Team: Adriane Phi, Nisaa DuFour, Jessia Avila
  - Bird Dog Award:
    - Political Affairs Team: Megan Marie Owens
    - Nonprofit Leadership Team: Nisaa DuFour, Jessia Avila
  - President’s Circle:
    - Nonprofit Leadership Team: Raynna Jackson, Elleigh Spragg, Nisaa DuFour
    - Political Affairs Team: Cori Dill, Nicholas Belofsky, Nehal Tibrewal, Megan Marie Owens, Mason Cantrell, Anna Ryu, Matthew Donovan, Jasmine Thomassy
    - Content Team: Beti Sharew
  - Public Outreach Award (50 or more people mobilized):
    - Political Affairs Team: Rachel Greenspan, Megan Marie Owen, Melissa Myrtaj, Lydia Lee, Jessica Nguyen
    - PR/Marketing Team: Cortarius Polk
  - Articles of the Month:
    - Refugees in Jordan: NGOs Helping During COVID-19 by Grace Harlan
    - Poverty in Bhutan: How Hazelnuts Are Helping by Dalton Dunning

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

Getting the Word Out

Informational Events

The Borgen Project by Statyn Coppage, PR/Marketing Team

One-Mile Campaigns & Mobilizing

Political Affairs Team member Brianna Alvarez

PR/Marketing Team member Lucas Swanson

Content Team member Adrianna Tomasello

Political Affairs Team member Julia Roseneck

PR/Marketing Team member Kei-Lin Gatling

Political Affairs Team member Momina Chaudhry

Content Team member Karli Stone

Regional Director, Diego Tambazidis

Political Affairs Team member, Jessica Nguyen

PR/Marketing Team member, Paige Hankins

PR/Marketing Team member, Kayla Garcia

HR team member, Sartaj Grewal

HR team member, Kevin Malibiran

HR team member, Katherine Starkey

HR team member, Ke’Shawn Vaughan

PR/Marketing Team member, Lindsay Flinn

Swarms

Belen Lopez, HR Team, hosted a swarm from Peru

Regional Director, Kaitlyn Piechnik

Letters to the Editor

Content Team

Jonathan Helton in the Chester County Independent
Hannah Carroll in the Post and Courier
Michael Strau in The Independent
Kiahna Stephens in The Denver Post
Alyssa Hogan in the Telegram
Jazmin Johnson in the Tri-City Herald

Political Affairs Team

Megan Marie Owens in the Post-Gazette
Michael Roberts in Newsday
Bailey Grijalva in the Seacoast Online
Momina Chaudhry in Bakersfield.com and for a second letter
Ellen Mahoney in Roanoke.com
Katherine Tannous in Chapelboro.com
Zoe Owens in the Union Recorder and in the Metro West Daily News
Isabela Watson in The Riverdale Press
John Baker in the Cape Gazette and the Delaware State News
Nelson Kappas in the VC Star and Thousand Oaks Acorn
Sherise Tracey in the South Florida Sun Sentinel
Nick Belofsky in Cleveland.com
Grace Harlan in the Groton Herald

In-Office Team

Annie Baur in The Seattle Times

HR Team

Elizabeth Rippel The Express

PR/Marketing Team

Tressie Evans in Fair Planet
Abby Duran in 9 to 5 Magazine
Carson Taylor in the Holland Sentinel
Nicole Iradukunda in The Courier and the Northern Iowan
Ann Yu in the Daily Camera
Elizabeth Gierhart in The Columbus Despatch
Jawad Bhuiyan in Campusphilly, The Press of Atlantic City and Philadelphia Weekly
Lindsay Flinn the Williamson Herald
Ryan Gamez in the Laramie Boomerang and the Casper Star Tribune
Andrea Fajardo in Antelope Valley Press
Madison Thomas in the Daily Camera
Molly Deegan in The Trumbull Times
Cade Pustelnik in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, the Mercury News and the Half Moon Bay Review
Emily Coghill in the Iowa State Daily and a second letter
Allison Steele in The Racquet Press

Nonprofit Leadership Team

Jessia Avila in the Southern Maryland News
Nisaa DuFour in The Philadelphia Tribune

Outreach & Mobilizing Materials

Created by Paige Hankins, PR/Marketing Team

Created by PR/Marketing Team member Jeremy Hogeweide. View the full series on our Instagram.

Created by Political Affairs Team member, Abigail Kaye

Created by Nonprofit Leadership Team member, Jessia Avila

Created by PR/Marketing Team member, Zhilin Jiang

Created by PR member, Sarah Belasco

Created by PR member, Briana My-Lan Nguyen

Created by PR/Marketing Team member, Robert Rogers

Created by PR/Marketing Team member, Lissette Cabral

Created by Content Team member, Heather Babka

Created by PR/Marketing Team member, Statyn Coppage

Created by PR/Marketing Team member, Amanda Hammon

Created by PR/Marketing Team member, Emma Floberg

Alicia Gonzalez, Political Affairs member, created materials for Instagram

Fundraising

Political Affairs Team member, Anna Ryu, created and packaged thank you cards for her fundraising campaign.

Political Affairs Member, Brianna Alvarez, sold old clothes to Plato’s Closet and created an Etsy shop to bedazzle bottles

Political Affairs Member, Alexandra Morales, washed cars for friends and family in her area

HR team Member Maria Catalina Pérez, hosted a bake sale

Nonprofit Leadership team member, Gabie Buechner, sold her artwork

HR team member, Anais Celini, rented out an MMA gym and hosted “Fight” for the Underdog

Political Affairs team member, Brianna Alvarez, auctioned her nieces’ artwork

PR/Marketing Team member, Molly Deegan, created stickers

Regional Director, Melia Reyther-Espinoza, made stamps

HR team, Carlie Suggs, baked cookies and sold out for one of her fundraising tasks

PR/Marketing Team member, Briana Nguyen created artwork

Political Affairs Team member, Brianna Alvarez sold her old clothes

PR/Marketing Team member, Miyo Solange Park, made mugs and stickers sold on Redbubble

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.

TikTok

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

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

Instagram

Social Media Outreach

Kei-Lin Gatline, PR/Marketing Team, pitched to @femaleinspiring (27k followers) who shared the graphic on their feed.

Emma Goins, PR/Marketing Team, pitched to @TaylorHickson (20.7k followers) who shared this picture and link on their Twitter

PR/Marketing Team member, Madeline Kauffman, got her story reposted by influencer/actress, Noa Fisher, @noalehf (22.2k followers) on Instagram

Nonprofit Leadership Team member, Lucia Lupotti, got her post about the Girls LEAD Act posted by the verified account @the_female_lead (1.1 million followers) on Instagram

PR/Marketing Team member, Ayden Schwartz, got a story reposted by @Westlakestudentactivism on Instagram

PR/Marketing Team member, Cortarius Polk, got a story reposted by @socialjusticeparenting (11.6k followers) on Instagram

PR/Marketing Team member, Christian Line, got a story reposted by @nickischwallz (21k followers) on Instagram

PR/Marketing Team member, Molly Deegan, got a story reposted by @activism.afac

PR/Marketing Team member, Tiffany Lou, got a story reposted by @queerbrownvegan (59. 2k) on Instagram

PR/Marketing Team member, Aden Kaye, got a story reposted by @cole.hover (15.5k followers) on Instagram

PR/Marketing Team member, Murphy Sullivan, got a story reposted by @fairtrademarkus (10.2k followers) on Instagram

PR/Marketing Team member, Lindsay Flinn, got a post from @thefemaleactivists (16.9k followers) on Instagram

Upcoming Election

We asked Borgen Project team members why they vote. Here were some of their responses:

Why Vote?

The work we do and how successful we are in passing poverty reduction legislation is dependent on the elected officials in office. Make your voice heard and be ready to vote on Tuesday, November 3rd.

“I vote for a better future. I vote for compassionate reasons. By and large: I vote for my family, my friends, and my community so that collectively things might change for the better. ” – Zachary Szymanski, RD/Assistant Manager, Detroit, MI

“I vote because it’s a right that we should value and honor. Not everyone is fortunate enough to have the privilege to vote but because we have this voice we must use it. I vote because I believe our voice matters and needs to be heard!” – Brianna Alvarez, Political Affairs Intern, NY

“I vote because change depends on it. I vote so that future generations continue to live better and have increased opportunities and resources. By voting, we can recognize the problems that exist and commit to plans and solutions.” – Alicia Gonzales, Political Affairs Intern, Buffalo, NY

Team members took to Instagram to voice support for the cause. Don’t forget to tag @theborgenproject in your content on Instagram

Videos

Keeping Girls in School Act by PR/Marketing Team member, Gabrielle Reed

Debunking Global Poverty Myths by PR/Marketing Team member, Molly Deegan

What is: The Borgen Project by PR/Marketing Team member, Arianna Staton

Kamala Harris, Please Support The International Affairs Budget by PR/Marketing Team member, Briana My-Lan Nguyen