Indivisibles,

It’s December! Hanukkah! Christmas! Kwanzaa! Airing of Festivus grievances! And a deluge of fundraising emails from your favorite organizations (and troublingly, also those organizations that mysteriously acquired your email address). I want to make this email a bit different.

As co-executive director of Indivisible, part of my job is to help direct people to how they can meaningfully contribute to the effort to defeat MAGA and save democracy. Often that’s doing a real-world thing -- calling a member of congress, orchestrating an event, holding a meeting, writing an op-ed, or signing up to knock on doors. 

Sometimes that’s giving some money -- and this is one of those times.

I think this deal could work for both of us. Fundraising emails like this are a big part of how we can continue having organizers around the country supporting Indivisible groups; it’s how we ran voter contact in Wisconsin to take back the court and in Ohio to pass an abortion right constitutional amendment; it’s how we’ll pay for organizing and election work in key states next year to take back the House, hold the Senate, replace Kyrsten Sinema with Ruben Gallego, and defeat Trump.

But here’s something that always annoys me. Every year I give to my local NPR station on the first day or so of their end-of-year fundraising drive. I feel good! And then, they keep asking for money for the next two weeks. Dammit, Steve Inskeep, I already gave! 

It’s not NPR’s fault -- that’s just how radio works. But we can do something different here at Indivisible.

I don’t write a ton of fundraising emails, but I’m sending this one because I want to make you a deal: If you can find a minute to respond and help, we won’t send you any more fundraising emails for the rest of this year.

Here’s the reality: the broader pro-democracy movement is feeling financial pain right now. I don’t write “GIVE NOW OR WE’LL EXPLODE” emails. But I do try to be open and honest in these emails, and the truth is that Indivisible is facing a real fundraising shortfall this year. This isn’t unique to Indivisible -- you may have seen news across the progressive ecosystem that fundraising is down this year. Organizations are restructuring, cutting programs, and doing layoffs. And it’s coming at a particularly bad time -- at the exact moment we’re gearing up for 2024. I don’t want to leave votes on the table, but it’s not like we have a secret pile of money to pay for organizers and voter contact. 

We have you! I hope!

But rather than clog your inbox with repeated appeals for money, I want to make this better for everyone. Yes, we need money to run our operation to defeat Trump, rebuild the Democratic trifecta, and codify abortion rights and pass democracy reform. Yes, our single largest source of funding comes from grassroots donors. No, we don’t take money from corporations or politicians. So, yes, we do really need you.

Many hands make light work. The challenge we have is simple: We’ve got to raise about $250,000 this month to hit our targets and avoid scaling back our ambitions for taking on MAGA next year. That means based on an average donation of $50, I need 5,000 pro-democracy folks around the country to raise their hand and say in unison “Here’s your damn $50! Now stop sending me fundraising emails!” Nothing would be sweeter music to my ears. That may sound like a lot, but it’s a small fraction of the number of people reading this email. If you do it, you’ll be a big part of getting us there (and if you can afford more, amazing. Some people give $1, some $500, it all adds up!).

So if you can take 30 seconds to make an end-of-year investment into humiliating Donald Trump next year, Indivisible won’t bug you for money again this year. Enjoy your hot chocolate by the fire. Take a break. Recharge your batteries. And get ready to make 2024 MAGA’s final year of relevance in American politics. 

No money? Throw us some encouragement. This is a fundraising email, but we’re not a big money operation. We’re organizers and social media mavens and policy nerds and writers and campaigners trying to make the world safe for democracy. This has been a trying year for that. And next year is going to be a doozy. We’ll be recharging our own batteries at the end of the month, and if you’d like me to pass on any notes of encouragement to the Indivisible team, reply to this email. We need all the good cheer we can get. We’re in this together. We’re gonna get through this together. We’re going to win together.

In solidarity,
Ezra Levin

Ezra Levin Co-Executive Director Pronouns: He/him