We usually reach out to you with a sense of bursting optimism. We have a can-do spirit at CCAN like no group I know of. In the face of polluters who would contaminate our air and wreck our climate, we say, “Bring it on!” And then we fight. And in our 18 years, we’ve beaten the polluters up and down this region, countless times. 

But we’ve never faced an enemy like COVID-19. Like many of you, the virus has left us unsure how to best do our work. We’ve felt lost and off balance as the economy crashes around us and so many people are hurting. So, since mid-March, we’ve simply done what comes naturally to us: We’ve reached out to help everyone we can, we’ve gotten creative, and we’ve gotten to work. 

We’ve let our staff know that they will have whatever sick time they need during this crisis. We’ve raised thousands of dollars for the Capital Area Food Bank in DC. We’ve assisted high school students in Maryland as they demand free speech rights during the pandemic. And we’ve organized thousands of Virginians in demanding Governor Ralph Northam follow the science before reopening the state – no matter what the protestors yell outside his doorstep.

But now… CCAN needs your help.  

In this uncertain time, to those who are able, we are asking for the certainty of your financial support. Would you sustain our work towards a healthy climate and society with a monthly gift of $5, $10, $15, or more? Will you chip in today so we have the resources we need all year?

Of course, not everyone can give money right now. We understand that. In fact, if you’ve lost a job or been furloughed, don’t even think about it! We feel your hurt. Many of you have given us your time instead — and your creativity and your bravery. The climate movement needs all of that every month too. We rode bikes with many of you on May 1, for example, safely distanced. We encircled the US Capitol building as part of the #Shutdown DC action, demanding new jobs and safety for workers. We’ll be in touch with more actions like that across the region soon.

But if you can give money right now, here’s why we ask. In this new world we find ourselves inhabiting — where in-person organizing is increasingly replaced with organizing by Zoom, video recordings, and text messages – this new world costs money. Novel and effective “digital tools” are not free. By making a donation, especially a dedicated monthly gift, you help us thrive in this new world.

And thrive we must. Our goal for the rest of 2020 is simple: Rebuild our economy with jobs that go to the people who lost their jobs first and who need them the most. Clean-energy jobs, of course. We’ll be on Capitol Hill advocating for stimulus dollars that benefit vulnerable families, not polluting corporations. We’ll be in Annapolis and Richmond demanding our governors abandon dangerous and dirty fracked-gas pipelines for good while streamlining the fast construction of wind and solar farms that create sustainable jobs.

If you’re able to pitch in, please make a donation right now to help us heal our region and our country. Make a one-time gift or, better, sign up for our Monthly Giving Circle. COVID-19 has knocked all of us off balance. With your gift, we’ll work even harder to rebalance our communities and global climate.

And know this: Justice and fairness will continue to be at the center of everything we do at CCAN. This virus has further uncovered our national disgrace of haves and have-nots, of racism and unequal access to health care and educational resources and sustainable incomes. When 63 percent of college graduates have the digital privilege of working from home and only 20 percent of high school graduates can do so, we have a problem. When 40 percent of households making $40,000 per year or less have experienced a job loss – 40 percent! – then injustice has run wild. And when black and brown residents of this country are dying from COVID-19 at 3 times the rate of white Americans, then none of us can rest until we are all treated with equal fairness. 

And at the center of this all is the deep injustice of a crashing global climate. Temperatures have not stopped rising just because the world has paused to grapple with a pandemic. Indeed, climate change will make everything worse in the future, including the rise of new infectious viruses.

So, with your financial help, CCAN will stay true to our core mission and fight back. The writer and activist Bill McKibben has called CCAN the best regional climate change organization in the…world! After 18 years of hard work, we are still here and we aren’t going anywhere. Carbon emissions may have gone down abruptly worldwide with the pandemic, but we know from the last economic downturn that we can’t count on those climate gains. We intend to keep rising up higher and higher as a movement to ensure our economic recovery is a just one.

With your help, the outcome will never be in doubt no matter how uncertain today might feel.

Sincerely, 

Mike Tidwell
Executive Director
Chesapeake Climate Action Network