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Indivisibles,
Hi! I’m Julia Leonard. I’m the Director of Digital Communications here at
Indivisible. My team and I oversee our emails, text messages, social
media, direct mail, and advertising programs -- so basically, lots of what
you see coming from “Indivisible Team” every day.
I’m emailing you today to lift the curtain on our digital (nonprofit speak
for “online”) program, and specifically, on our grassroots fundraising
work and why we ask you to donate. If you’re someone who doesn’t like lots
and lots of details, this isn’t the email for you -- instead, maybe check
out [ [link removed] ]our recent Twitter thread on what we’re up to!
Why we fundraise from the grassroots
Indivisible, like any organization, needs money to run. Donations cover
everything from the grants we give to local groups to support their
programming, to TV and newspaper ads, to healthcare for me and my
colleagues (thank you!), to website hosting, to megaphones and water
bottles for events. All of those things are a part of our overall
strategic plan and how we accomplish [ [link removed] ]our core advocacy goals. All in
all, Indivisible Project (we’re a 501c(4) nonprofit) needs to raise
$167,347 this month to fund all of it.
Now, we want to be really thoughtful about when and who we ask for money,
so we’ve developed [ [link removed] ]our strict fundraising philosophy that, among other
things, prioritizes unrestricted donations from small dollar donors. (By
the way, we also reject money from donors who want to direct what we’re
doing, no matter how much they’re offering, and we reject all money from
corporations, full stop!)
Most importantly, we raise money from the grassroots because we do
everything with the grassroots. While we do take some high dollar gifts
(nonprofit speak for “large donations”) and some money from foundations,
grassroots donors as a group are our single largest “donor” and we want to
keep it that way!
Why December is important
You probably heard a lot early this month about “Giving Tuesday”
(nonprofit speak for the Tuesday after Thanksgiving) and are maybe seeing
some organizations announce “End of Year Matches” and things like that.
That’s because for whatever reason, grassroots donors tend to really
“check in” (nonprofit speak for “pay attention”) at the end of the year.
It’s true for us, and it’s true for most other organizations. So, we build
that into our projections!
The downside of that trend, though, is that there’s not a lot of margin
for error at the end of the year. If I’m off by a little in February or
June, we can usually make up ground later and still hit our annual goal.
But if I’m off in November, we don’t have much time to fix things. That
means that when I say we’re planning to raise $167,347 in December, we
really do need to hit that goal to go into next year strong. Right now,
here’s what my December online fundraising projection looks like:
[4]Chart of fundraising sources. Email 36.3%; Ads 15.1%; Recurring 46.6%;
Text Messaging 2.0%.
The good news is recurring donations (nonprofit speak for “monthly
donations”) are almost half of our projection, and we’re right on track. A
HUGE thank you to everyone who’s a monthly donor (if you’re not one yet,
you can [ [link removed] ]set up a monthly donation here). That money is really important
because it’s reliable, which means we can plan ahead with more certainty.
But that still leaves us about half of our money to raise this month, and
most of that comes from emails like this one. To be precise, we’re hoping
to raise $67,477 from our emails this month to stay on track to fund
everything I outlined above. ([ [link removed] ]If you’re bored of reading this and want
to just donate, here’s a link!)
What does this all fund?
As I’m sure you’ve gathered by now, we’re not sending these emails just
for the sake of it -- we really need to raise this money in order to run
our massive programs. At the same time we develop a fundraising budget for
the year, our program teams develop their own budgets. For example, the
Organizing Department figures out how many events they want to host and
how many trainings they need to run (and how much buffer they need for
unforeseen developments!), and the policy and digital advertising experts
collaborate about where they’ll want to run ads to pressure certain
members of Congress and senators.
In the next couple of paragraphs, I’ve outlined a few of our short and
long-term priorities and how our fundraising program supports them.
Passing President Biden’s Agenda
Progressives have been at the forefront of ensuring President Biden’s full
agenda is passed -- essential victories for the American people next year
and for the future. And Indivisible has been at the forefront of that work
-- you don’t have to take my word for it. Here’s Rep. Grace Meng thanking
us for the work!
[7]Reply to a tweet from Indivisible Guide from Grace Meng, reading "Thank
you @IndivisibleTeam and all the volunteers."
But Build Back Better’s not quite past the finish line yet. We’re
expecting the Senate to vote early in January, and we need to ensure every
single Democratic senator (ahem, Sinema and Manchin) votes for President
Biden’s Build Back Better package. That means preparing for one last huge
push in a few weeks, including ads, call tools, and so much more.
Saving Democracy (no pressure)
Knock on wood, at the same time, the Senate will return to the democracy
legislation! We’d hoped that this would be passed months and months ago.
This bill was numbered H.R. 1 for a reason: It was the Democrats’ top
priority.
Still, just because it’s taken longer than expected, that doesn’t mean
we’re giving up. Over the next month we’ll be continuing to put pressure
on Sens. Sinema and Manchin, the last two Democratic holdouts, as well as
encouraging folks who seem on the fence (last week, we ran an ad in
Delaware when Chris Coons didn’t seem as committed as we need him to be.)
It’s not exaggerating to say that both Build Back Better and the democracy
package would be long-dead if progressive activists hadn’t kept up the
drumbeat all year. We’re proud to be a part of that, and we're proud that
we’re able to fund tools and resources to make that all possible.
This is where I ask for money
You know you’re not getting out of this email without an ask (nonprofit
speak for “when we ask you to do something”).
I’m proud to be doing the work that keeps Indivisible funded so that our
organizers, group leaders, and activists can focus on what they do best:
activism. And I hope you will be too. [ [link removed] ]Please, if you can chip in even
$10 to fund the movement, support Indivisible Project, and make sure we
have the resources to inform, educate, and organize next year and beyond,
make your gift right away. Here are some handy one-click links:
If you've saved your information with ActBlue Express Lane, your donation
to Indivisible Project will go through immediately:
[ [link removed] ]Donate $10 >>
[ [link removed] ]Donate $25 >>
[ [link removed] ]Donate $50 >>
[ [link removed] ]Donate another amount >>
It’s as true of our fundraising as it is of organizing and advocacy: We
literally could not do any of this without your help. Indivisible has
always been and will always be driven by people -- individual people
who’ve shown up, spoken out, and helped out. Thanks for being here, on
this team, with us.
And thanks in advance for your help investing in the future of this
movement.
In solidarity,
Julia Leonard
Director of Digital Communications, Indivisible
P.S. -- I’m the one who reads replies to this email address (the good, the
bad, and the ugly). So if you have questions, please feel free to reply to
me! I may not have answers to every question, but I’ll do my best.
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