Paid for by NDN.
Helping NDN Prosper and Grow in This Exciting New Era
by NDN
November 13, 2008
As someone visiting our website and blog, I hope you have seen how hard we've worked, and how important our contribution has been to this exciting new moment. Browsing these pages, you can see our ideas, commentary and analysis. Our political analysis on big, developing trends - the emergence of a new post-Southern Strategy electoral map and a new, very 21st century coalition; the importance of new demographic groups like Hispanics and Millennials; the transformative power of new media and technology tools - has been spot on. More than three years ago, Rob Shapiro and Simon Rosenberg wrote that the decline of median income of a typical American family would eventually make the struggle of every day people in this new age of globalization the defining issue in American politics. Our ideas on what to do about this critical issue have been widely picked up, and some have ended up in the agenda of the next President. We were early and powerful advocates of ideas that have become mainstream now - the need to invest in our nation's infrastructure and to ensure that whatever happens in this new bailout, we must keep people in their homes and address the deterioration of the nation's housing market. In the past year, we've launched two new exciting initiatives - a new forum on the future of U.S.-Latin American Relations, and a new Green Project - that have already become consequential players in these vital areas. Our proposal to change America's policy toward Cuba is now the position of the President-elect. And of course, we continue to work diligently to create the conditions that will allow us to pass legislation to fix our broken immigration system next year.
With the help of thousands across the country these last few years, NDN has emerged as one of the most innovative and influential think tanks on America's center-left. We've conducted dozens of public events across the countries with hundreds of Senators, Members of the House, policy experts, private sector leaders and other non-profits. We've been cited in and helped shape thousands of media stories, including in all the major TV, radio and print publications, and are regularly featured in the emerging blogosphere - in all cases in both English and Spanish. We've provided hundreds of public and private briefings to Senators; to leaders of the netroots; to foreign heads of state; on everything from credit default swaps to the use of Facebook in modern advocacy, and have now spoken to live audiences totaling well into the tens of thousands. Our work was described as having "politically clairvoyance...a rare ability to see what was coming before it broke across the horizon" by one of the top journalists in America, and one of our team was named one of the 50 most influential people in Washington by a leading national magazine. Our top Fellows have produced two critically acclaimed books in just the past year. We launched a new 501(c)(3) affiliate, the New Policy Institute, which has already conducted a major voter Spanish-language mobilization media campaign and has begun producing a stream of powerful papers and events.
And what we are perhaps most proud of is that our influence and reach is not because of our size, our money or our embrace by a few powerful politicians, but because our ideas and analysis have been prescient, ahead of the curve, influential and most importantly, correct; exactly what one would hope for from an independent think-tank like NDN.
But as satisfied as we are about our accomplishments these past few years, we realize that all of that work was just a warm-up for what is now to come. With our allies now more firmly in control of the American government than at any time since the 1960s, it is time to do more than talk, than to write, than to analyze - it is time to lead. Which is why we hope you will join us and contribute to NDN today, right now, to help us take advantage of this extraordinary moment, and make sure that our powerful voice plays an important role in the critical debates to come.
Your support will help us continue to do our impactful work. But if you support NDN today, it will also allow us to do three things, immediately, that will help us ensure a very strong year for NDN next year:
Expand our team - There has never been a better time to bring in passionate talented people into NDN. Whether in operational positions in our DC office, or thinkers wherever they are located across the country, more Americans want to be part of solving the great challenges of our day than any time in recent American history. With your support, NDN can not just hire people, but hire exceptional people inspired by this historic year. At the beginning of this month, NDN brought on two new Los Angeles-based Fellows, Morley Winograd and Mike Hais, the authors of the critically acclaimed book, Millennial Makeover, what may be the definitive book about the new and powerful Millennial generation. Your support will allow us to bring in additional high capacity people and launch several new critical policy initiatives in late stages of development.
Build out our DC office - For those of you have been to our new event space just across the street from the U.S. Treasury and the White House, you know it has become one of the premiere gathering places for discussions, events and debates in DC. We were lucky to have landed such a remarkable gathering space in a great part of town. But there are a series of improvements we need to make in the space that will allow us to provide higher quality events and live Webcast them to our friends across the country. We estimate these improvements will cost about $50,000. Your support can make these improvements possible today.
Upgrade our Web site and Internet presence - Keeping an organization current with all the fast-changing tech developments is a challenge to any institution today. NDN is overdue in overhauling its Internet presence - from Facebook to our blog. Here too, we are looking to raise $50,000 in new monies to help make this possible.
It has been the support of people just like you throughout the years that that has allowed NDN to play such an important role at this critical time for the nation. But as exciting as this moment is, the challenges ahead of us are great, and we are at NDN, with your help, ready to meet them head on. Please join with us, today.
