Dear Indivisibles,
It’s Leah again, Indivisible’s co-founder and co-Executive Director.
Usually I email you along with my husband and co-founder, Ezra, in our
monthly letters to you, or you might follow me on [ [link removed] ]Twitter.
I’m reaching out today to talk to you a little about Indivisible’s work
and fundraising in the era of the coronavirus. I’ll start with talking
about some of our priorities this month, then about the changes we’ve made
to our tactics and approaches in response to the virus, and then (you
guessed it) ask for your support.
What we’ve done in March and what's to come in April
At the end of February, we had a pretty solid plan for what we’d be doing
in March here at Indivisible. We were preparing for a few primaries where
we’d made [ [link removed] ]endorsements (hooray for [ [link removed] ]Marie Newman!), focusing on
taking back the Senate with the [ [link removed] ]Payback Project, looking forward to
Super Tuesday, preparing for the general election, including launching
Organizing Together 2020 with partner organizations, and thinking about
the Supreme Court. Local Indivisible groups were doing a lot of
capacity-building work for this fall’s elections, doing recruitment for
peer-to-peer texting programs and hosting in-person meetings and planning
sessions for 2020.
That all seems like a long time ago, now, when it’s hard to think about
much else but the coronavirus. But the truth is, none of those priorities
have become any less important. For the foreseeable future, we’ll be
trying to juggle both the short term priorities related to the coronavirus
with also making sure that we’re not falling behind on the important
organizing we need to do as we look toward Election Day. So don’t be
surprised if you’re hearing about all kinds of things from us.
How the coronavirus has changed our work
Of course on top of the changes to our messages and strategic priorities
that I outlined above, the spread of the coronavirus has had a big impact
on the how of our work.
* Office Space: We closed our physical office in Washington, DC, on
March 9th (I’m writing to you from a folding table in my apartment),
and we’re asking our staff in DC and across the country to social
distance and work from home as much as possible.
* Groups and Organizing: In-person meetings between our organizing team
and Indivisible Group Leaders are happening via Zoom, Google Hangouts,
and Skype instead, and we’re turning in-person events to virtual ones
or rescheduling them. One bright spot: if anything, attendance is
growing. Over 800 people attended our [ [link removed] ]National Activist Call on the
coronavirus on March 20th. Our training team is also hard at work:
we’re dubbing next month “Virtual Activist April” and focusing our
trainings on how to keep doing the work and building community without
physical proximity.
* Voter Contact: Person-to-person contact has always been a huge part of
Indivisible’s organizing work, and we’re still focused on that, but
instead of knocking doors, we’re providing tools for groups to expand
their from-home phonebanking and textbanking programs. Our Payback
Project textbanking is still going strong: we’re approaching 1 million
Payback Project texts sent. And stay tuned -- later this week we’ll be
reaching out with a new way of contacting voters called “VoteFWD.”
* Contacting members of Congress: Contacting members of Congress has
always been a high priority for Indivisibles, and that hasn’t changed,
though we’ve shifted away from any in-person meetings. We’re pushing
people to make calls about the coronavirus relief bills: Indivisibles
have made over 20,000 calls and sent nearly 13,000 emails to their
members of Congress asking them to take action on the coronavirus.
[ [link removed] ]You can click here to find our most updated scripts and asks.
* Flattening the curve: Outside of our “usual” work, we’re also doing
everything we can to flatten the curve and support relief efforts.
We’re sharing things like [ [link removed] ]relief organizations you should support
and continuing to include [ [link removed] ]handwashing directions in as many
messages as we can.
We’re not slowing down our advocacy, but we’re also committed to doing our
part to [ [link removed] ]flatten the curve, and we’re asking you to do the same in your
life however you can. Feel free to reach out to us if you’d like ideas
about how.
What this means for our budget
Here’s what we know: we’re not planning to slow down our work, but some of
the changes we outlined above are going to mean unexpected costs. We don’t
know all of those costs yet, but here’s some of what we’re looking at
right now:
* Spending more on texting and phonebanking tools. Sending more
peer-to-peer texts and making more phone calls in lieu of knocking on
doors comes with added expenses.
* Spending less on in-person events and trainings. Right now we’re
pausing all of our in-person events, which means spending less on
things like booking venues and travel.
* Spending more on virtual events and trainings. Even though we’re
canceling in-person events, we’re not slowing down our training
calendar. Indivisible National and some groups are regularly maxing
out the capacity of free video-conferencing tools, so we’re investing
in paid tools with higher capacity and more features. We’re also
spending more on closed caption services and other accessibility
features.
* Many things won’t change! The vast majority of our work goes on,
online or off. We’re still funding organizing, hosting a website,
sending emails and mass text messages, paying staff, providing support
to groups in every congressional district, and a lot more to fund our
work to win this year. Some of the details are changing, but our
overall goals and work are the same as they’ve always been.
But of course, that’s just the things we have some control over. The big,
scary question for Indivisible in the coming months is what we don’t know
yet. How will this change our work? How will it change our movement’s
ability to do that work, and to help us fund it? The coronavirus is
clearly having an economic impact, but we don’t know for how long or how
great the impact will be. We’re committed to staying grassroots-funded:
that’s always been our model, and always will be. We don’t know yet how
hard that could become.
I know for many people in our movement, this is a scary economic time.
Many folks have had their work hours cut, or have stopped working
entirely, at a time when costs are going up. If you’re worried about your
economic security, please don’t give to us right now. Your own situation
is your priority, and ours.
But if you have a little to spare, please consider [ [link removed] ]clicking here to
make a donation to Indivisible Action, or [ [link removed] ]here to make a monthly gift.
Your gift will help us plan for the coming months and give us the
flexibility to adjust as the situation changes.
On a more personal note, I want to acknowledge that this pandemic has
touched many Indivisibles and their loved ones directly, including those
of us here at National. This has been a very difficult time, particularly
in the last few days, and it’s going to stay difficult for a long time. As
always, if there’s anything we can do to help you and support you, please
reach out. We hope that beyond our specific work, the Indivisible movement
can provide a safe and socially-distanced support community. Thank you for
being a part of this movement with us. Wash your hands, and stay safe.
In solidarity,
Leah
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