Fall 2023 Newsletter: Heartbreak + Hope + Holding Us Together

MVP Friends,

These past few weeks have been intense, emotional, heartbreaking, horrifying. 

Even with everything going on, the MVP team is working hard to focus on our job: making sure we don’t have fascism in this country one year from now.

As much as our hearts are breaking, we are working, through our tears, to stay focused. Our extended community – left and center-left – feels more divided than ever.

In this excruciating moment, we are becoming more and more worried about next year because the polling looks bad and there’s a sense that the Democratic base will not be motivated to vote, donate, or volunteer at the unprecedented levels required.

All of this on top of a “funding drought” (that we warned in our September Bat Signal memo) could become a Canada-sized wildfire and hinder our ability to prevent fascism in 2024. Now this crisis has set our very house ablaze. MVP is doing everything in our power to hold our family together through this horrifying period – left and center-left, Jewish Americans and Arab Americans, people and communities in real danger from anti-Muslim racism and antisemitism, all of our people. 

You are our beloved community: our donors, partners, volunteers, and friends. MVP is not just an organization. We know thousands of you personally and our hearts break with your heartbreak. Regardless of our views on the Middle East, we all need each other now more than ever to prevent facism in this country.

Beyond 2024, we must recommit ourselves to the deep, long-term, purposeful repair work to finally rebuild, reimagine, and remake our country and world to prevent future crises, and to ensure our survival as a species. We are in this for the long term. Regardless of anything else, this is our work to do as humans on this planet.

We created this newsletter as a small reminder of the shared work we have to do together, regardless of our differences, and to share a bit of hope with you. 

Below you’ll find inspiring policy wins, elections next Tuesday; and a Post-Election Debrief that we’d love for you to join (RSVP). 

2024 is around the corner – early voting begins in less than 11 months. 

With this fierce urgency in mind, MVP is staying focused on rallying our community to do our three big jobs together: 

1. Stop fascism (read why it’s time to use that word). 
2. Secure a Blue Trifecta (Democratic presidency & Congress).
3. Build community voting power to transform states over time.

With care for you and your loved ones,

Billy Wimsatt, MVP Executive Director
(On behalf of the MVP team)

In This Newsletter:

1. ELECTIONS NEXT WEEK: Join MVP’s Post-Election Debrief
2. POLICY WINS: Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania
3. PARTNER SPOTLIGHT: Worried About the Youth Vote? 
4. EVENT RECAPS: Win the Midwest + North Carolina Briefing
5. MVP VOLUNTEERS: Yalies vs. DeSantis + Dance-a-Thon + Sustainers
6. REAL TALK ON 2024: What Will It Really Take to Win?

ELECTIONS NEXT WEEK

Join MVP’s Post-Election Debrief

We have pivotal state elections (VA, OH, PA, KY, MS + more) next Tuesday that will build momentum toward a Blue Wave in 2024.

RSVP to join us next Thursday (11/9) to debrief and gear up to win in 2024. 

(Check out what MVP partners are doing to win)

Credit: Down Home North Carolina

POLICY WINS

Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania

From LGBTQ+ rights to voting rights, housing equity, and more, MVP local partners and allies are winning tangible improvements in people’s lives at the state and local level. There are no off-years.

Read the update and get inspired »

Credit: Freethink • Video profile of two MVP Partners: Forward Montana and Rise

PARTNER SPOTLIGHT

Worried About the Youth Vote? 
Check Out Forward Montana + Rise (GA, MI, PA, WI)

If you’re concerned about the youth vote in 2024, you’re not alone. Young voters are our political salvation. Seriously. But recent youth polling numbers are scary. They need major investment, not only in registration and voting, but in understanding why they need to vote. 

Luckily, there is an entire nationwide network of youth-based MVP partner organizations, ready and eager to engage and organize these voters — they just need the funding to scale up.

To see what this organizing looks like, check out this inspiring 7-minute video profile of two MVP partners: Forward Montana (working in one of the toughest Senate races of 2024) and Rise (working in four top battleground states: Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin).

Win the Midwest 2023 Video

EVENT VIDEO RECAPS

Win the Midwest + North Carolina Briefing

There are so many of us who believe we can put our country on a better path. Here are recaps from just two of several recent MVP-related gatherings:

1. In September, we gathered in Chicago for Win the Midwest, a meeting of organizers and donors dedicated to building multiracial governing coalitions across the Midwest. Watch this 7-minute video and try not to be inspired.
2. In October, we gathered on Zoom for Turn North Carolina Blue in 2024, a special briefing on MVP partners’ plan to win the presidency, governorship, and more, by knocking 3.8 million doors in 2024. Among the featured speakers was NC Attorney General and Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Josh Stein. Enjoy the recording »

MVP VOLUNTEER SHOUT-OUTS

Yalies vs. DeSantis + Dance-a-Thon + Monthly Sustainers

MVP is blessed to have an incredibly dedicated community of volunteer donor organizers. We are seriously in awe of their creativity, ambition, and effectiveness… Three recent examples:

• This Sunday (November 5th), a group of Yale alums negatively inspired by their classmate Ron DeSantis are organizing a virtual launch for their campaign to raise $100,000 for MVP!
• Also Sunday, our MVP Bay Area Hub is organizing “Dance for Democracy” — a dance-a-thon to raise $75,000 for MVP. As of this writing they’re about to hit $60,000! They welcome all Bay Area folks to join their ongoing efforts. Email [email protected] to connect.
• Our Western Mass Hub leaders have all become MVP monthly sustaining donors, and just launched an effort to get their networks to join them. As they write, “Progress doesn’t happen overnight.” Check out their letter.

Not a real headline. But this is the 2024 scenario we are fighting for: A Blue Wave up and down the ballot.

REAL TALK ON 2024

What Will It Really Take to Win?

Welcome to November 2023.

Let’s talk about November 2024.

When it comes to the 2024 elections, most of us right now are either tuned out – or freaking out… rightfully so.

Biden is old and unpopular — it sounds harsh and shouldn’t matter, but it does.

Trump is polling shockingly well — which is horrifying, but true.

According to a series of widely-respected polls, key Democratic voting blocs like young people and voters of color are not excited about Biden right now. If they stay home, we lose. Game over. 

And then there are committed donors like us. Many of us donated like our lives depended on it in 2020, and again in 2022. And now we’re thinking, “Really?! Do we really have to do this all over again?!” 

We’re like the tired, reluctant action heroes being called back for the high-stakes third film in the trilogy.

Many of us are exhausted. Many of us are outraged, or shocked, or numbed, by what’s happening in the Middle East. The last thing we want to do right now is think about the 2024 elections.

But while we grapple with our feelings, the MAGA movement is gaining ground. 

2024 is going to come down to a few thousand votes in a few states. If we lose focus, we will wake up next November in the Nightmare Scenario we’ve spent the last three years trying desperately not to think about. 

Unfortunately, this is not fear-mongering — just the candid reality.

But all is not lost. All we have to do is summon our strength again. We have already come this far. We must answer the call once again to save the democracy we hold dear. We have the power to secure a Blue trifecta that allows us to pass federal voting rights, un-gerrymander the whole country, tame dark money in politics, and usher in bold, robust majorities for decades to come.

At MVP, we yearn for the day when the next big election is not “the biggest election of our lifetimes.” If we play our cards right, we could actually get there over the next 10 years. 

So what do we do? 

Good news: You don’t have to obsess about politics daily – that’s our job.

But what you can do is simple: Give big and give early so MVP partners can do their jobs and run the most effective 2024 Get Out The Vote operation our movement has ever seen.

Give big and give early, so no matter what happens on November 5, 2024, you will know that you left it all on the field.

Coverage of MVP’s memo, “Sending Up the Bat Signal”

What gives us hope? Donors are starting to step up.

Our September “Bat Signal Memo,” put out an urgent call to recognize the funding drought – and urge donors to start investing now to win 2024. The memo got picked up by the New York Times, Guardian, and created a buzz in funding circles. We’re happy to report: We are hearing a growing chorus of donors stepping up. MVP has moved more money to our hundreds of local partners in the past two months than in the entire first six months of the year! 

We still have a long way to go. We invite you to join us.

We’ve even come up with a formula to take away the guesswork on timing your dollars for their greatest possible impact. Our 50-25-25 Giving Strategy lays out a simple timeline to follow: Give 50% of your total 2023-2024 giving budget now, 25% by next March, and 25% by July. 

Simple, clear, and effective.

Simply put: Every dollar today yields more votes than a dollar closer to Election Day. 

Early money means robust, year-round operations. Better trained and prepared staff. This translates into more voter registrations; more in-depth voter contact and education; higher voter turnout, both Early Vote and Election Day; and crucial election protection efforts to ensure voters’ rights, count every vote, and defend fair results.

A final word: MVP is here to help! 

You don’t have to do this alone. You can contact us directly at [email protected] with any and all thoughts or questions. We’re here to be an honest broker for you as our donor community, and we’d love to partner with you to think through any strategic questions you might have — and ultimately to help you make and execute a Giving Plan you are proud of. Here are some options to get started.

In this with you for our shared future,
– The MVP Team

p.s. Want to dial up the hope and turn down the doom in your daily newsfeeds? Follow MVP on: Substack, Facebook, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, Instagram, Threads, + Bluesky.

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