Giving Tuesday (11/26/23)
We hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, surrounded by the warmth of good food, cherished company, and moments of connection.
Amidst the profound challenges the world presents, there's much to be thankful for within our MFD community. Our electoral accomplishments over the past five years are not only significant but hard-earned, and as importantly, we've become a close-knit, caring, inclusive, passionate, and dedicated group of activist friends. Our bonds now extend far beyond the realm of politics. While other activist groups have come and gone over the last five years, MFD has not only endured but grown in size, welcoming members from across the United States and even beyond. The cultivation of this all-volunteer community is a labor of love, demanding hours of effort each week, often behind the scenes, and it also requires financial resources.
As we approach Giving Tuesday on November 28th, a day dedicated to supporting organizations that enrich our lives and align with our values, we encourage you to consider making a donation to Markers For Democracy. We anticipate that 2024 will be our busiest year yet with important races up and down the ballot and control of the White House, U.S. Senate, the House of Representatives, many state chambers, and school boards in the balance. Your support now will make it possible for us to continue to bring you programming, including critical postcarding campaigns. We are an all-volunteer community with no paid staff. All donations will go to support our programs. Your contribution, regardless of the amount, will play a crucial role in sustaining our remarkable community.
When we first began our journey of writing postcards in New York City five years ago, we passed a basket around the farm table at Le Pain Quotidien, asking participants to contribute towards the costs of providing postcards, stamps, and markers. While our meetings have shifted to Zoom and our numbers have grown substantially, so have our expenses. Members benefit from various resources, including a weekly newsletter, website, Slack platform, and Zoom account for hosting postcarding sessions and special events. Additionally, there are costs associated with in-person events and special postcarding initiatives, such as stamps, unique postcards, and shipping. Our Indivisible/ActBlue partnership helps cover a portion of these expenses, and we count on donations from our community to make up the rest.
There are two ways you can donate:
Our Indivisible ActBlue account covers some MFD operations and is restricted to federal postcarding campaigns.
Our Zelle account, using the email "donationsmfd@gmail.com", covers MFD operations and our state and local postcarding campaigns (including some stamps and postcards). Having non-restricted funds gives us more flexibility in taking on a wider variety of down-ballot initiatives like school board races. (When you make a Zelle donation using the above email address you will notice that it is registered with Zelle as "Susan".)
Note that the Zelle and ActBlue funds go to our operating expenses. Our other fundraising is through our Markers For Democracy Giving Circle which supports Democratic candidates running in state legislative elections through The States Project. We just finished fundraising for 2023 and celebrated victory with Democratic majorities in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly. Our giving circle will soon start raising funds for Arizona and Pennsylvania in 2024.
We often speak of "joining hands" in activism, and we would be immensely grateful if you would also join us in making a donation, in any amount, to support our incredible Markers For Democracy community.
In Gratitude,
The Markers For Democracy Team