Note from the President: Who’s coming to lobby in Washington, D.C. with me and The Borgen Project’s Board of Directors? We will be selecting three to attend Congressional meetings and watch the magic happen first hand. This is an all expenses paid trip to participate in 12-14 lobbying meetings per day on Capitol Hill.
Eligibility Requirements: Any volunteer or intern who has met one of the following requirements by March 31st will be entered into a drawing for an all expenses paid trip to D.C. to lobby for the world’s poor:
Completed two Congressional meetings in their state
OR Mobilized 50 people to email Congress through The Borgen Project’s Action Center. Please send in your list of names and email addresses by the March 31st deadline.
– Clint Borgen
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Political Updates
Advocacy emails sent through The Borgen Project Action Center: over 3,900 emails in February 2017 vs. 2,200 emails in February 2016
Lobbying meetings held in February 2017: 22
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Warren’s Address
Listen to Warren with the latest updates from D.C.
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Lobbying Meetings with Congress
Here’s an interview with Antonina “Nina” Mangiola talking about her experience with lobbying Congress. Nina has held 6 meetings with Congressional leaders. Nina is currently a Regional Director, a former member of our Political Affairs team, and achieved the President’s Circle award.
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YouTube Messages to Congress
Political Affairs team member, David Mills (with a little help from Sponge Bob and friends), sends a YouTube message to PA Senators Casey and Toomey in support of the READ Act.
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PR/Marketing team member, Gabriel Jin, takes a “classical” approach in his YouTube message to NY Representative Carolyn Maloney in support of the Protecting Girls’ Access to Education in Vulnerable Settings Act.
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Mobilizing Others to Contact Congress
Carson Hall, an HR team member, mobilized an email and a phone swarm to contact Congress.
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Fellow HR team member, Gabrielle Gilbertson, made sure that she and her friends were nice and cozy while contacting Congress during their email swarm.
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Content Team Updates
Here are the latest Content Team statistics.
February 2017 Borgen Blog February 2016 Borgen Blog
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February 2017 Borgen Magazine
February 2016 Borgen Magazine
[hr] HR Team Updates
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A very big welcome to all of our new team members.
Here are some of our HR statistics for the month of February.
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Bird-Dog Award: Julie Weinheimer, Political Affairs team Chief Closer Award: Samantha Ng, PR/Marketing team President’s Circle: Jaclyn Orlando, Political Affairs team
Check-out the Our Team Members page and read about some of our team members’ and their success stories with The Borgen Project.
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Getting the Word Out
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Kayla McKinney, a member of the PR/Marketing team, had her fundraising event announcement published in The Keystone Newspaper.
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Nandini Tivakaran, a member of our Advocate team, gave a presentation about Foreign Aid to her classmates.
Nandini Tivakaran, Advocate
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Let’s Talk Fundraising!
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Justin’s all smiles…showing his support for The Borgen Project!
Justin Witkin, Regional Director
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Note from the President: Needless to say the attempt by the White House to ban refugees from entering the U.S. is disheartening beyond belief. As someone who has spent time in Muslim refugee camps, it’s almost laughable to think that many of the families I’ve met with through the years are deemed security threats. It’s also worth noting that most refugees coming from the countries on the travel ban are people who are fleeing ISIS and the various terrorist groups the U.S. is concerned about. These are people who can (and have been) our greatest allies in dealing with terrorist groups. On a positive note, wholly crap there’s a lot of American’s getting politically active and turning to advocacy! There’s amazing momentum right now and I highly encourage you to utilize it and engage others in your advocacy efforts.
– Clint Borgen
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Political Updates
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4,600 emails to Congress in January 2017 v. 2,500 emails in January 2016.
13 lobbying meetings with Members of Congress.
Speaking of emails, we had some amazing mobilizing in the hours leading up to the House of Reps. vote on the READ Act and Digital GAP Act. Close to 900 emails went out in just a few hours! Great work everyone! Read more about the passage of the READ Act and the Digital GAP Act. We want to build on this momentum by urging the Senate to take up their companion versions of these bills. Keep the emails coming!
Warren’s Address
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Listen to Warren with the latest updates from D.C.
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Mobilizing Efforts
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Camille Parenteau – HR Team member, mobilizes her friends to call Congress.
McKenna Lux, Regional Director, spoke to a local Democratic Party Club about The Borgen Project’s work.
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Listen to Caitlen Sellers – Political Affairs team member, speaks with Kelly Gilmour, Political Team Manager, about her lobbying experience with a Staffer from Senator Burr’s office (Pictured above).
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Content Team Updates
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Thanks to the content produced by our writers, journalists and editors, the results speak for themselves! Incredible start to the year.
January 2017 Magazine Stats
Versus January 2016 Magazine Stats
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HR Team Updates
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We’d like to wish all of our new team members a very big, warm welcome to the team.
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Our HR team has been kept busy, with applications for our internship and volunteer programs continuing to rise. Thank you all for ensuring the teams will be of record-breaking sizes again this year.
Chief Closer Award (raising $1,000 or more): Farhan Ahmed – Advocate and Emma Wilcher – Political Affairs team member.
Political Outreach Award (mobilizing more than 50 people in a month): Michael Kay and Caitlen Seller, Political Affairs team members.
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Getting the Word Out
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PR/Marketing team member, Timothy Bladel, gets his letter to the editor printed in the Quad-City Times.
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Below check out Emma Lin – PR/Marketing team member’s One-Mile Campaign at Washington Square Park in New York City.
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Let’s Talk Fundraising!
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Cassie Lipp – Content team member, organized a concert in aid of The Borgen Project, in Cincinnati. The night was a huge success, bring Cassie over her fundraising goal.
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Here is a taster of Emily Marshall’s amazing fundraising event. Emily is a Writer on our Content Team.
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Hey everyone, I can’t thank the 2016 team enough for an amazing year! We’ve been going through the stats for last year and it’s incredibly impressive what you accomplished in 12-months! The new Congress is off and running. Legislation that didn’t pass last year will be reintroduced with new bill numbers. We came mighty close to getting the Education for All Act passed in December, but we should be able to move it through this session. There’s some exciting legislation in the works. We’re hoping to lend our muscle to the refugee crises this year and we’ll hopefully have info for you shortly. You passed three bills last year and I’m looking forward to another high-impact year!
– Clint Borgen
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Political Updates
The Borgen Project had 383 Congressional Meetings in 2016.
We met with 88% of the Senate.
Emailed 93% of Congress.
Had almost 40,000 emails sent to Congress through our Action Center.
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Warren’s Address
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Listen to Warren with the latest updates from D.C.
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Caitlin Sellers – Political Affairs team member, meeting with Senator Tillis’s office, Charlotte, NC.
Ryan Montbleau – Regional Director, gives a class presentation.
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Listen to the fab PSA Neil Decenteceo – Regional Director, has lined up for some popular South Florida radio stations for 2017!
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Emma Li – Advocate, gets a swarm going!
Shine Kang – Regional Director, tables an even in Hawaii.
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Content Team Updates
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2016 was an amazing year for the Content Team, with our web traffic goal shattered!
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HR Team Updates
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We’d like to wish all of our new team members a very big, warm welcome to the team.
2016 saw big advances in recruitment to our internship and volunteer roles, with members of The Borgen Project in 532 cities, and 49 of the 50 states.
Chief Closer Award (raising $1,000 or more): Elizabeth Aguiar – Advocate
Victoria Aftandilian – PR Team member and Judith Indalecio – Political Affairs Team member join the President’s Circle, having met with all 3 of their representatives.
Political Outreach Award (mobilizing more than 50 people in a month): Ivy Zhou – PR Team member.
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Let’s Talk Fundraising!
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In December, it was all about the food! From bake sales to Fire Department breakfasts:
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Camille Parenteau – HR Team member, gets busy baking!
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Kelsey Mantilla – HR Team member, goes for seasonal baking:
Oreo cheesecake cupcakes
Rice Crispie Grinches
Cake truffles/pops without the pops as they didn’t want to stay on!
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Zack Machuga – Content Team member, holds a breakfast fundraiser at the Bradford Volunteer Fire Department in Bradford, NY, raising $500!
Lucas Woodling – Content Team member, cooking up a storm! Lucas cooked and served his friends a homemade orange chicken and fried rice dinner, in exchange for a donation. to the cause.
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Just to make you smile!
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Thank you to Addison Evans – Content Team member, for making us smile!
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Good News! The Education for all Act passed in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee! We were also pleasantly surprised when the committee passed the AGOA Enhancement Act, which contains language pulled from the M-CORE Act.
Good Work! I had lots of meetings with Senate offices in November regarding the Education for All Act and it was amazing how many Congressional staffers mentioned that they’ve been hearing from Borgen Project folks in their state regarding the bill. I know you don’t always hear back when contacting Congress, but I can confirm that they are hearing you!
Good Riddance! We’re down to a matter of days to get these passed in the Senate. We’ve pulled off unlikely end of year victories before and I want you to be part of history with me. When these bills pass I want you to feel ownership and pride that you emailed and called Senate offices and you mobilized (x number) of people to email their senators in support of it. Let’s get loud!
In November, we had 3,700 emails to Congress. For the full year, we are at 36,000 emails, 60% more than 2015.
In 2015, we had 3,149 individuals email Congress. Between January and November this year, more than 8,600 people emailed Congress through The Borgen Project’s Action Center.
We are excited to announce that The Borgen Project held 43 lobbying meetings in November, bringing our total to 369 meetings since the start of the year. We have now exceeded our annual goal of 340 meetings! Well done everyone!
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Warren’s Address
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Listen to Warren with the latest updates from D.C.
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Shakeela Jackson, Advocate, meeting with Martha Zoller, policy director of Senator David Perdue.
Matt Moore and Ken Brooke at Rep. Amodei’s office Reno, NV.
Saloni Gupta, Advocate, meeting with Senator Patty Murray’s staff.
Great video from Tessa McLinden, Political Affairs intern, highlighting the importance of the Reach Every Mother and Child Act.
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Content Team Updates
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Our goal for 2016 was 1.8 million visitors to borgenproject.org. As of the 1st of December, with one month to go, we have had nearly 2.3 million visitors! Last year we had 1.6 million. An additional 700,000 people dropping by the site for a visit this year is amazing. Great job everyone!
The Blog has reached a milestone of over 10,000 articles published. Super exciting!
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HR Team Updates
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We’d like to wish all of our new team members a very big, warm welcome to
The Borgen Project.
Our recruitment goals for 2016 were to triple the number of applicants and hired staff, compared to the 2015 intakes.
In November 2015 we had applications from 544 interested candidates. Last month, 2,009 candidates applied, not just tripling, but quadrupling our application rate!
Chief Closer Award (raising $1,000 or more): Mandy Otis, Katie Vanderburg.
Political Outreach Award (mobilizing more than 30 people in a month): Tessa McLinden, Mohammad Sultani and Kristen Guyler.
Julia Weinheimer, Antonina Mangiola and John Muscolini join the President’s Circle, having met with all 3 of their representatives.
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Adrienne Leon – PR/Marketing Intern, presenting to her class at University of Washington
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Let’s Talk Fundraising!
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Amanda Warren talks to Dean Sydor who has raised over $1,200 to date! Dean successfully completed his political affairs internship and is now pursuing the Regional Director role. Amazing!
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Use your Talents!
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Caroline Williamson, Editor, has been busy …..
“I’ve been knitting since I was in 1st grade, and recently created my online Etsy shop, to sell what I make. I decided to donate all profits during my internship to The Borgen Project.”
Caroline has now successfully completed her internship and has raised $505.
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Maeva Rigaud, PR/Marketing intern, held a tabling session, informing, while fundraising.
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Which Would You Read First?
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In a recent survey, 96% of congressional aides reported that if the member of Congress was undecided on an issue, personalized letters would influence his or her position. With thousands of bills going through congress, letters are also effective means for getting a bill noticed by the leader and staff.
Handwritten letters are considered to have a much greater impact, being more likely to catch the attention of your representative, among the thousands they receive.
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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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100%
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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Are you new to calling Congress? Worried about making the calls? It’s as easy as…
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.
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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Great job fundraising everyone! We raised more in the 3rd Quarter (July 1st – Sept. 30th) than in Quarter 1 and Quarter 2 combined! Summer is usually a strong fundraising period, but to see everyone rally together and raise over $96,000 in a single quarter is extremely impressive. To put that in perspective, $205,000 was raised in total for 2015.
Year-to-date stats look great for all aspects of the organization. I couldn’t be prouder of the work you’re doing!
In the final stretch of the year, we need strong mobilizing efforts, especially for the REACH Act and Education for All Act (passed the House in September). Ideally every leader is receiving seven or more emails from constituents. We have less than three months left to improve newborn health and get millions of kids in school. Let’s turn up the heat and make sure every member of Congress is aware of these bills and feeling pressure in their district to cosponsor them.
I enjoyed meeting our Champion Mobilizer last week. When Ayusha began her internship in mid-August, the competition to see who could mobilize the most people was already half finished. Undeterred, she utilized the 15-days she had left and mobilized 67 people to email their Congressional leaders. Watch the video below to learn her mobilizing strategy. – Clint Borgen
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Political Updates
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Lobbying Meetings
Total September Meetings = 19
Year-to-date Total = 290
Annual Goal = 340
% of Annual Goal = 85%
Advocacy
Total September Emails = 3,618
Year-to-date Total = 28,294
Annual Goal = 24,000
% of Annual Goal = 118% [ANNUAL GOAL EXCEEDED!]
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Key Bills: The bipartisan Reach Every Mother and Child Act now has 200 cosponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives! 25 Congressional leaders signed on to the bill during the month of September. The Senate version of the common-sense, life-saving bill now has 25 cosponsors.
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Warren’s Address
Listen to Warren with the latest updates from D.C.
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Lora Sniderman talks lobbying
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The Holy Grail!
After meeting with his representative, Michael Bukur receives confirmation that his congressman is cosponsoring the Reach Every Mother and Child Act.
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Content Team Updates
In September 64,789 people visited The Borgen Magazine. This is a massive increase compared to the same time period in 2015, with only 35,500 visitors.
borgenproject.org had 227,614 visitors. That’s our second highest month this year!
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HR Team Updates
A very big, warm welcome to all of our new Borgen Project interns and volunteers! We hope that you have a memorable experience as part of our team. Another incredible month of recruitment from the HR team, moving us ever closer to our goal of tripling our staffing levels for 2016 compared to 2015.
RD’s & Advocates
Content Team
Political Affairs
In-Office
HR Team
PR
Total Applicants
September
122
352
182
7
311
187
1161
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Recognition Awards:
This month 2 of our interns have managed the incredible feat of raising over $1,000. Well done and a very big thank you to Clay Haglund and Dean Sydnor.
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And the Winner Is….
In August, we launched our mobilizing contest, where the person who mobilized the most people to email congress won a trip out to the Seattle Office. Ayusha Shrestha, an exchange student from Nepal, won the Top Mobilizer Award. Ayusha attends Kennesaw State University and is a Political Affairs Intern for The Borgen Project in Georgia. In 15 days, Ayusha mobilized 67 people to email Congressional leaders in support of the Reach Every Mother and Child Act.
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Mobilize, Mobilize, Mobilize!
Political Affairs intern, Shine Kang tabling an event on campus whereby she mobilized the vast majority of her fellow students.
Political Affairs intern, Nicole Arata getting her friends in on the action and calling congress!
Kayla Mehl, a writer on our content team, came up with this simple but very effective mobilizing technique.
Maiya from PR team, who has currently raised $1,155, talks about her fundraising experiences with Amanda Warren.
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Political Affairs intern, Aurelia Carrillo hosted a fundraising event selling raffle tickets and sold beverages at a gathering in her home town.
Always a winner – wine tasting evening! Miki McClellan, editor, hosts a corker of an evening, bringing her fundraising total to over $500!
Summary: In the notes section of your tracker for this week, please summarize the monthly update.
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“I went on their website and looked for when they were going to meet. I knew from the site, but also from my dad, that they allow the public to give comments during part of their meetings. The meetings are open to the public and when you get to the meetings, you just sign your name on a sign-in sheet for city governance.” – Lester Stone II
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Guest Speaker from the Volunteer Team
Listen to Ajay’s tips on lobbying Congress and his overall experience as a Borgen Project Political Team member.
A very big, warm welcome to all of our new Borgen Project interns! We hope that you have a fantastic internship with us. August was another bumper month of recruiting for the HR team, seeing yet more recruitment records broken. In August 2015, we received applications from 201 candidates. Here’s the breakdown of August 2016, a very different picture. Well done team!
RD’s & Advocates
Content Team
Political Affairs Team
In-Office Positions
HR Team
PR Team
Total Applicants
August
279
419
285
10
389
350
1732
That being said, we are still struggling to recruit to the following states, so if you know of anyone in the area or have any bright ideas as to how we can reach out to these states, do let us know: Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, Nevada, New Mexico and Mississippi.
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Recognition Awards:
This month 14 of our interns have managed the incredible feat of raising over $1,000. Well done and a very big thank you to Mary Friedman, Carrie Clower, Leigh Scaglia, Lona Sniderman, Mark Rasmussen, Madasen McGrath, Kristyn Rohrer, Charlie Tomb, Connor Borden, Emma Foster, Madison Peterson, Abigail Szkutak, Maiya Weber and Amy Pettigrew!
Taking things one step further, Katherine Schauer achieves the Capital Achievement award, raising over $2,000!
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Mobilizing: It’s easy, it’s what we’re about, get to it!
Kathleen, an editor on the Content Team, has managed to turn a day out at the beach into a fundraising opportunity! Having reached out to members of her community to donate in exchange for her to clean up the local beach, Kathleen also then advertised the event by speaking about it and The Borgen Project on local radio.
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15 Minutes of Fame!
Tanya Thomas, an HR intern from Canada, has raised the bar wth her media outreach. During her 12 weeks with us, she appeared live on Canadian TV, was interviewed on the radio and could be found in print in her university’s online publication. This is what can be achieved just by reaching out.
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State of the Union March 2017
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Note from the President: Who’s coming to lobby in Washington, D.C. with me and The Borgen Project’s Board of Directors? We will be selecting three to attend Congressional meetings and watch the magic happen first hand. This is an all expenses paid trip to participate in 12-14 lobbying meetings per day on Capitol Hill.
Eligibility Requirements: Any volunteer or intern who has met one of the following requirements by March 31st will be entered into a drawing for an all expenses paid trip to D.C. to lobby for the world’s poor:
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Political Updates
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Warren’s Address
Listen to Warren with the latest updates from D.C.
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Lobbying Meetings with Congress
Here’s an interview with Antonina “Nina” Mangiola talking about her experience with lobbying Congress. Nina has held 6 meetings with Congressional leaders. Nina is currently a Regional Director, a former member of our Political Affairs team, and achieved the President’s Circle award.
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YouTube Messages to Congress
Political Affairs team member, David Mills (with a little help from Sponge Bob and friends), sends a YouTube message to PA Senators Casey and Toomey in support of the READ Act.
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PR/Marketing team member, Gabriel Jin, takes a “classical” approach in his YouTube message to NY Representative Carolyn Maloney in support of the Protecting Girls’ Access to Education in Vulnerable Settings Act.
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Mobilizing Others to Contact Congress
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Content Team Updates
Here are the latest Content Team statistics.
February 2017 Borgen Blog
February 2016 Borgen Blog
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February 2017 Borgen Magazine
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HR Team Updates
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A very big welcome to all of our new team members.
Here are some of our HR statistics for the month of February.
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Recognition
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Congratulations to the following team members who have achieved Borgen Project Honors and Recognition in February:
Bird-Dog Award: Julie Weinheimer, Political Affairs team
Chief Closer Award: Samantha Ng, PR/Marketing team
President’s Circle: Jaclyn Orlando, Political Affairs team
Check-out the Our Team Members page and read about some of our team members’ and their success stories with The Borgen Project.
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Getting the Word Out
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Kayla McKinney, a member of the PR/Marketing team, had her fundraising event announcement published in The Keystone Newspaper.
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Nandini Tivakaran, a member of our Advocate team, gave a presentation about Foreign Aid to her classmates.
Nandini Tivakaran, Advocate
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Let’s Talk Fundraising!
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Jaclyn Orlando, Political Affairs team member, and friends enjoy pizza and drinks at her February fundraising event.[one_half first]
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Justin’s all smiles…showing his support for The Borgen Project!
Justin Witkin, Regional Director
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State of the Union February 2017
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Political Updates
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Speaking of emails, we had some amazing mobilizing in the hours leading up to the House of Reps. vote on the READ Act and Digital GAP Act. Close to 900 emails went out in just a few hours! Great work everyone! Read more about the passage of the READ Act and the Digital GAP Act. We want to build on this momentum by urging the Senate to take up their companion versions of these bills. Keep the emails coming!
Warren’s Address
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Listen to Warren with the latest updates from D.C.
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Mobilizing Efforts
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Camille Parenteau – HR Team member, mobilizes her friends to call Congress.
McKenna Lux, Regional Director, spoke to a local Democratic Party Club about The Borgen Project’s work.
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Listen to Caitlen Sellers – Political Affairs team member, speaks with Kelly Gilmour, Political Team Manager, about her lobbying experience with a Staffer from Senator Burr’s office (Pictured above).
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Content Team Updates
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Thanks to the content produced by our writers, journalists and editors, the results speak for themselves! Incredible start to the year.
January 2017 Magazine Stats
Versus January 2016 Magazine Stats
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HR Team Updates
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We’d like to wish all of our new team members a very big, warm welcome to the team.
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Our HR team has been kept busy, with applications for our internship and volunteer programs continuing to rise. Thank you all for ensuring the teams will be of record-breaking sizes again this year.
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Recognition Awards:
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This month, the following people have achieved Borgen Project Honors and Recognition.
Chief Closer Award (raising $1,000 or more): Farhan Ahmed – Advocate and Emma Wilcher – Political Affairs team member.
Political Outreach Award (mobilizing more than 50 people in a month): Michael Kay and Caitlen Seller, Political Affairs team members.
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Getting the Word Out
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PR/Marketing team member, Timothy Bladel, gets his letter to the editor printed in the Quad-City Times.
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Below check out Emma Lin – PR/Marketing team member’s One-Mile Campaign at Washington Square Park in New York City.
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Let’s Talk Fundraising!
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Cassie Lipp – Content team member, organized a concert in aid of The Borgen Project, in Cincinnati. The night was a huge success, bring Cassie over her fundraising goal.
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Here is a taster of Emily Marshall’s amazing fundraising event. Emily is a Writer on our Content Team.
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State of the Union January 2017
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Note from the President:
Hey everyone, I can’t thank the 2016 team enough for an amazing year! We’ve been going through the stats for last year and it’s incredibly impressive what you accomplished in 12-months! The new Congress is off and running. Legislation that didn’t pass last year will be reintroduced with new bill numbers. We came mighty close to getting the Education for All Act passed in December, but we should be able to move it through this session. There’s some exciting legislation in the works. We’re hoping to lend our muscle to the refugee crises this year and we’ll hopefully have info for you shortly. You passed three bills last year and I’m looking forward to another high-impact year!
– Clint Borgen
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Political Updates
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Warren’s Address
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Listen to Warren with the latest updates from D.C.
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Caitlin Sellers – Political Affairs team member, meeting with Senator Tillis’s office, Charlotte, NC.
Ryan Montbleau – Regional Director, gives a class presentation.
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Listen to the fab PSA Neil Decenteceo – Regional Director, has lined up for some popular South Florida radio stations for 2017!
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Emma Li – Advocate, gets a swarm going!
Shine Kang – Regional Director, tables an even in Hawaii.
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Content Team Updates
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2016 was an amazing year for the Content Team, with our web traffic goal shattered!
HR Team Updates
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We’d like to wish all of our new team members a very big, warm welcome to the team.
2016 saw big advances in recruitment to our internship and volunteer roles, with members of The Borgen Project in 532 cities, and 49 of the 50 states.
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Recognition Awards:
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This month, the following people have achieved Borgen Project Honors and Recognition.
Chief Closer Award (raising $1,000 or more): Elizabeth Aguiar – Advocate
Victoria Aftandilian – PR Team member and Judith Indalecio – Political Affairs Team member join the President’s Circle, having met with all 3 of their representatives.
Political Outreach Award (mobilizing more than 50 people in a month): Ivy Zhou – PR Team member.
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Let’s Talk Fundraising!
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In December, it was all about the food! From bake sales to Fire Department breakfasts:
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Camille Parenteau – HR Team member, gets busy baking!
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Kelsey Mantilla – HR Team member, goes for seasonal baking:
Oreo cheesecake cupcakes
Rice Crispie Grinches
Cake truffles/pops without the pops as they didn’t want to stay on!
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Zack Machuga – Content Team member, holds a breakfast fundraiser at the Bradford Volunteer Fire Department in Bradford, NY, raising $500!
Lucas Woodling – Content Team member, cooking up a storm! Lucas cooked and served his friends a homemade orange chicken and fried rice dinner, in exchange for a donation. to the cause.
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Just to make you smile!
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Thank you to Addison Evans – Content Team member, for making us smile!
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State of the Union December 2016
Note from the President:
– Clint Borgen
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Political Updates
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Warren’s Address
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Listen to Warren with the latest updates from D.C.
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Shakeela Jackson, Advocate, meeting with Martha Zoller, policy director of Senator David Perdue.
Matt Moore and Ken Brooke at Rep. Amodei’s office Reno, NV.
Saloni Gupta, Advocate, meeting with Senator Patty Murray’s staff.
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Great video from Tessa McLinden, Political Affairs intern, highlighting the importance of the Reach Every Mother and Child Act.
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Content Team Updates
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HR Team Updates
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We’d like to wish all of our new team members a very big, warm welcome to
The Borgen Project.
Our recruitment goals for 2016 were to triple the number of applicants and hired staff, compared to the 2015 intakes.
In November 2015 we had applications from 544 interested candidates. Last month, 2,009 candidates applied, not just tripling, but quadrupling our application rate!
Amazing work from everyone on the HR team.
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Recognition Awards:
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This month, the following people have achieved Borgen Project Honors and Recognition.
Chief Closer Award (raising $1,000 or more): Mandy Otis, Katie Vanderburg.
Political Outreach Award (mobilizing more than 30 people in a month): Tessa McLinden, Mohammad Sultani and Kristen Guyler.
Julia Weinheimer, Antonina Mangiola and John Muscolini join the President’s Circle, having met with all 3 of their representatives.
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Adrienne Leon – PR/Marketing Intern, presenting to her class at University of Washington
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Let’s Talk Fundraising!
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Amanda Warren talks to Dean Sydor who has raised over $1,200 to date! Dean successfully completed his political affairs internship and is now pursuing the Regional Director role. Amazing!
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Use your Talents!
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Maeva Rigaud, PR/Marketing intern, held a tabling session, informing, while fundraising.
Which Would You Read First?
State of the Union November 2016
Note from the President:
– Clint Borgen
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Political Updates
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100%
Volunteers in all 50 States have sent advocacy emails to their representatives! Fantastic work everyone.
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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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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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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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State of the Union October 2016
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Note from the President:
– Clint Borgen
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Political Updates
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Lobbying Meetings
Advocacy
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Key Bills: The bipartisan Reach Every Mother and Child Act now has 200 cosponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives! 25 Congressional leaders signed on to the bill during the month of September. The Senate version of the common-sense, life-saving bill now has 25 cosponsors.
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Warren’s Address
Listen to Warren with the latest updates from D.C.
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Lora Sniderman talks lobbying
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The Holy Grail!
After meeting with his representative, Michael Bukur receives confirmation that his congressman is cosponsoring the Reach Every Mother and Child Act.
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Content Team Updates
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HR Team Updates
A very big, warm welcome to all of our new Borgen Project interns and volunteers! We hope that you have a memorable experience as part of our team. Another incredible month of recruitment from the HR team, moving us ever closer to our goal of tripling our staffing levels for 2016 compared to 2015.
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Recognition Awards:
This month 2 of our interns have managed the incredible feat of raising over $1,000. Well done and a very big thank you to Clay Haglund and Dean Sydnor.
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And the Winner Is….
In August, we launched our mobilizing contest, where the person who mobilized the most people to email congress won a trip out to the Seattle Office. Ayusha Shrestha, an exchange student from Nepal, won the Top Mobilizer Award. Ayusha attends Kennesaw State University and is a Political Affairs Intern for The Borgen Project in Georgia. In 15 days, Ayusha mobilized 67 people to email Congressional leaders in support of the Reach Every Mother and Child Act.
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Mobilize, Mobilize, Mobilize!
Political Affairs intern, Shine Kang tabling an event on campus whereby she mobilized the vast majority of her fellow students.
Political Affairs intern, Nicole Arata getting her friends in on the action and calling congress!
Kayla Mehl, a writer on our content team, came up with this simple but very effective mobilizing technique.
Neil Decenteceo from the Political Team had his Letter to the Editor printed in USA Today.
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And in Other News…
Miss Washington USA getting behind the cause.
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Let’s Talk Fundraising!
Maiya from PR team, who has currently raised $1,155, talks about her fundraising experiences with Amanda Warren.
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Political Affairs intern, Aurelia Carrillo hosted a fundraising event selling raffle tickets and sold beverages at a gathering in her home town.
Always a winner – wine tasting evening! Miki McClellan, editor, hosts a corker of an evening, bringing her fundraising total to over $500!
Summary: In the notes section of your tracker for this week, please summarize the monthly update.
State of the Union for September 2016
Lobbying Meetings:
● Total August Meetings = 25
● Year-to-date Total = 265
● Annual Goal = 340
● % of Annual Goal = 78%
Key Bills:
● No new cosponsors for the month of August as the summer recess wraps up.
● Congress is back in session on September 6th, 2016
Mobilizing:
● Total August Emails = 4,696
● Year-to-date Total = 24,676
● Annual Goal = 24,000
● % of Annual Goal = 103% [ANNUAL GOAL EXCEEDED!]
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Role Reversal!
Normally it’s us Tweeting Congress, but Kyle Birns, from the PA team has been name dropped by his Congressman!
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Warren’s Address Update from D.C.
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Lester Goes to Town!
“I went on their website and looked for when they were going to meet. I knew from the site, but also from my dad, that they allow the public to give comments during part of their meetings. The meetings are open to the public and when you get to the meetings, you just sign your name on a sign-in sheet for city governance.” – Lester Stone II
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Guest Speaker from the Volunteer Team
Listen to Ajay’s tips on lobbying Congress and his overall experience as a Borgen Project Political Team member.
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Content Team Updates
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HR Team Updates
A very big, warm welcome to all of our new Borgen Project interns! We hope that you have a fantastic internship with us. August was another bumper month of recruiting for the HR team, seeing yet more recruitment records broken. In August 2015, we received applications from 201 candidates. Here’s the breakdown of August 2016, a very different picture. Well done team!
That being said, we are still struggling to recruit to the following states, so if you know of anyone in the area or have any bright ideas as to how we can reach out to these states, do let us know: Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, Nevada, New Mexico and Mississippi.
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Recognition Awards:
This month 14 of our interns have managed the incredible feat of raising over $1,000. Well done and a very big thank you to Mary Friedman, Carrie Clower, Leigh Scaglia, Lona Sniderman, Mark Rasmussen, Madasen McGrath, Kristyn Rohrer, Charlie Tomb, Connor Borden, Emma Foster, Madison Peterson, Abigail Szkutak, Maiya Weber and Amy Pettigrew!
Taking things one step further, Katherine Schauer achieves the Capital Achievement award, raising over $2,000!
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Mobilizing: It’s easy, it’s what we’re about, get to it!
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Day Out at the Beach or Fundraising Opportunity?
Kathleen, an editor on the Content Team, has managed to turn a day out at the beach into a fundraising opportunity! Having reached out to members of her community to donate in exchange for her to clean up the local beach, Kathleen also then advertised the event by speaking about it and The Borgen Project on local radio.
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15 Minutes of Fame!
Tanya Thomas, an HR intern from Canada, has raised the bar wth her media outreach. During her 12 weeks with us, she appeared live on Canadian TV, was interviewed on the radio and could be found in print in her university’s online publication. This is what can be achieved just by reaching out.
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