Hi Eddie—I wanted to make sure you saw my recent message.
Dear MoveOn member,
This is Robert Fox, MoveOn's chief operating officer.
As the person who oversees MoveOn's finances and operations, I rarely send you emails. But I'm writing to you now because I want to be forthright about what's happening behind the scenes at MoveOn.
I'll cut right to the chase: May has been a rough fundraising month for us—the worst month since Donald Trump was elected president. And it comes just as we've added 14 staff to join our small and lean team to help win November's elections.
A huge chunk of MoveOn's funding comes from people who make monthly donations. These extremely dedicated supporters allow us to be fiercely independent, answering to no corporation, political party, politician, or powerful individual. Over 70,000 people give monthly. But not enough new monthly donors have signed up this past month, leaving us $45,833 behind our monthly goal.
This kind of thing is natural. Sometimes, understandably, people just want a break from politics—and they don't want to respond to another email in their inbox. And the fire hose of terrible news from Trump, his administration, and Congress can be exhausting and overwhelming. I budget carefully to be able to ride out these cycles of activist energy ebbing and flowing.
But that doesn't mean that we can just sit on our heels when there's a slow month. I need to tell you plainly what's happening—and ask you to help.
(The single best way to help close our funding gap—and make sure we remain strong through election season—is to click here now and become a committed monthly donor. If 3,819 MoveOn members join our base of monthly contributors now, we will totally close this month's gap, and we'll be on much stronger ground for this entire election season. But if you can't chip in monthly, then please click here right now, because we still need your help.)
I'm especially concerned about MoveOn's fundraising shortfall because of the polling numbers that we're seeing. Trump's approval rating is higher than it's been since his first two months in office, and Democrats have lost most, if not all, of their advantage in the race for Congress this November.1,2
The numbers are shifting—toward Trump and the Republicans. Months ago, pundits were talking about a "blue wave" election. Now, it's a 50-50 toss-up, which isn't a big surprise given how divided our country is.3
We've been here before—in 2016—and we know how that turned out. That's why we have to be smarter and fight harder than ever before and build an elections campaign to lift up and give the edge to progressive candidates in races across the country who inspire and motivate voters—a campaign that will win in November no matter what Trump and his Republican Party throw at us and no matter how low he stoops to sow division in our country.
That's why MoveOn is running the largest grassroots elections program in our history. Our campaign is ambitious and innovative, using groundbreaking technology to engage, persuade, and turn out voters. But if we don't close MoveOn's financial shortfall this month—and if the pace of our grassroots fundraising continues to lag—I'll have to meet with our executive directors, Anna and Ilya, and propose cuts to our work.
I have a lot of pride in how efficient MoveOn is with our resources. Our overhead is low, and our budget is lean. But we can't end Republican control of Congress this November and put a check on Trump and his Republican enablers on exhaust fumes.
Eddie, we need your support. Will you help close MoveOn's $45,833 a month shortfall by starting your monthly donation today? Your ongoing support will help ensure that we don't have to make cutbacks and can do what we know is necessary to ensure that we win on November 6—and put our country on a path where all can thrive.
Yes, I'll chip in $5 a month and help fill the gap!
No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
Thanks for all you do.
–Robert
Sources:
1. "How popular/unpopular is Donald Trump?" FiveThirtyEight, accessed May 30, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/40076?t=9&akid=208192%2E10220574%2EPfcNZ5
2. "2018 Midterm Elections," Reuters, accessed May 30, 2018
http://act.moveon.org/go/40077?t=11&akid=208192%2E10220574%2EPfcNZ5
3. "Clues From the Upcoming California Primary," University of Virginia Center for Politics, May 24, 2018
http://act.moveon.org/go/40078?t=13&akid=208192%2E10220574%2EPfcNZ5
Want to support our work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day by day and year by year, to resist Trump's agenda, contain the damage, defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation's pendulum back toward sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must never give up on. And to do it we need your ongoing support, now more than ever. Will you stand with us?
No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
PAID FOR BY MOVEON
This email was sent to Eddie Alfaro on May 31st, 2018. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. To remove yourself from this list, click here.
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