STRATEGIC ADVOCACY...YOU MIGHT SAY IT'S BEEN DONE BEFORE.
From ending segregation to providing women with the right to vote, nearly every wrong ever righted was achieved by advocacy. When the public is engaged, informed, and mobilized around an issue, that is the tipping point where justice occurs. The Borgen Project is delivering justice for the world's poor and working with leaders of the most powerful nation on earth to right the long-preventable wrong of 16,000 children dying each day from hunger.
The Borgen Project operates at the 10,000 foot level. We go big. We work with leaders of the most powerful nation on Earth to improve their response to the global poverty crisises.
WHY WE FOCUS ON CONGRESS & THE WHITE HOUSE
1. The World's Agenda-Setter: From the War on Drugs to the War on Terror, if it's on the agenda of U.S. leaders, countries across the globe take action. The Borgen Project works with U.S. leaders to utilize the United States' platform behind efforts toward improving living conditions for the world's poor.
2. Higher Impact + Systematic Change:
$6 billion: Amount the U.S. spends per aircraft carrier.
$4 billion: Budget of the largest relief agency on the planet (World Food Program).
The largest relief agency in the world has an impressive impact and assists over 100 million people per year, although needless to say far greater resources can be mobilized for the world's poor at the political level.
3. Policy Influences Poverty Rates: The domestic and foreign policies of the United States have a tremendous impact on creating or reducing poverty overseas. One report by Oxfam, found that the U.S. could help more impoverished people in Africa by doing away with subsidies to wealthy U.S. cotton farmers than it does with the minuscule amount of aid going to Africa.
4. Advocacy is Cost-Effective and Provides the Highest Impact Per Dollar: Our favorite three-letter word at The Borgen Project is ROI (Return on Investment). Particularly with our emphasis on low-cost, web-based methodology, The Borgen Project needs very little funding to change the world, and the impact we can have with minuscule resources never ceases to amaze us.
"History has shown that an informed, concerned, mobilized constituency is often a prerequisite to great social change."
- Patty Stonesifer, Former CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
The Unmatched Impact of Advocacy
In January of 2007, The Borgen Project joined several U.S. leaders and organizations to help save $1 billion that congress planned to cut from global health funding. The amount might seem minuscule compared to the $120 billion that was allocated to the Iraq War that year, but $1 billion in global health funding acomplishes the following:
We're in the business of getting the 535 people who serve in Congress to do more for the world's poor than they otherwise would.
FIGHTING "DEATH CUTS"
In 2011, the House of Representatives proposed cutting food aid by 46% ($947 milllion cut). If passed, these cuts would eliminate feeding programs to 15 million people suffering from hunger due to natural distasters. In addition, another 2.5 million children would lose their school meals, resulting in thousands of children dropping out of school. With Congress targeting the International Affairs budget, The Borgen Project is working to protect millions of people from death cuts.
PROTECTORS OF THE BLIP
Poverty-focused aid is a tiny blip of the U.S. federal budget, but that tiny blip improves millions of lives every year. The Borgen Project works to protect, improve and grow the blip.
U.S BUDGET
THE PER-DOLLAR IMPACT OF ADVOCACY
$5,000: Amount an aid agency needs to build one freshwater well that provides 250 people with clean drinking water.
$2,000: Amount we need to send The Borgen Project's unpaid President to Capitol Hill to meet directly with 70 congressional offices and build support for a bill that will provide 100 million people with access to clean drinking water (Water for the World Act). Watch a behind the scenes video.
...Advocacy in a Nut Shell: With the amount an aid agency needs to assist hundreds of people, The Borgen Project is able to shape policy that helps millions of people.
