Dearest friends, family, and community,

As you read this, an army of energy lobbyists are preparing to descend on the global negotiations for a new climate change treaty. Their objective is not to build a more just or sustainable future, but to profiteer from the climate crisis and pass the buck to the next generation.

But across town and around the world, everyday people like you are taking a stand and telling another story of local food, renew

able energy, and social equality. Educators, farmers, young people, mothers, and community leaders are telling a new story of just transition away from fossil fuels—gathered in church basements, demonstrating in public squares, and speaking truth in the halls of power. This is the story that affirms life and respects the rights of people. This is the story of ecological justice. And this is the story you chose when you support smartMeme with your donation.

With your support, smartMeme has built a gifted team of thinkers, doers, and dreamers who are on the ground, doing the honest work of social change day in and day out, from coast to coast. We are a lean, diverse network with creative methods that reframe public debates and get results for economic justice and environmental protection. And we’re counting on your donation to shift the story for progressive causes in 2010.

SmartMeme delivers powerful impact on a shoestring budget, directly training over 500 frontline activists and collaborating with over 75 diverse groups in 2009 alone, including:

• Developing a cross-cutting alliance of grassroots groups across California to defend the human right to water and protect watersheds that are threatened by global climate destabilization and water-greedy industrial agriculture companies

• Designing and teaching an innovative curriculum for leading economic justice organizations blending framing and storytelling with online video and social media tools

• Gathering the nation’s next generation of climate change leaders for a retreat on framing social justice strategies for the Copenhagen climate talks, and beyond.

SmartMeme makes all of this (and more) happen for cents on the dollar of the corporate PR machines we fight.

As a mission driven non-profit, smartMeme does not receive funding from corporations, or even large foundations. We are powered by YOU, the everyday people who believe in change put your dollars where your dreams are: with the courageous spirit of innovation and social progress, one footstep at a time.

Now is the time to walk with us. Our goal is to raise $30,000 this holiday season. $5000, $500, $100, $50…or a smaller amount each month as a smartMeme sustainer will directly support critical campaigns, training grassroots leaders, and wide-scale distribution of the 2010 edition of our strategy manual. Your donation is an essential step to build the movement for ecological justice and progressive social change in 2010.

Supporting smartMeme is an act of strategy. SmartMeme is dedicated to innovating social change methods to build a more effective movement and advancing a larger vision of systemic social change. Your gift to smartMeme is a force-multiplier with rippling impacts.

Ask your self, what would you give for ecological justice? Can you put a price on empowerment, ecology, and equality? What can you put aside each month for a better future?

The ecological footprints we leave behind are the choices we make everyday: the way we live, what we buy, and what we give. Together, our footprints create the courageous march of progress that defines (and redefines) history.

Please join us on this journey today by making a generous gift to support smartMeme’s important mission, and change the story for a better future. Thank you for your support, and for all you do…step by courageous step.

With one foot in front of the other,

Doyle Canning & Patrick Reinsborough, smartMeme Co-Directors

PS: Have you seen our new online video, Changing the Story of Climate Crisis?! Meet some amazing ecological justice leaders and give secure online today: smartmeme.org/climate

PPS: A special welcome & shout out to incoming smartMeme board members Autumn Brown, Maryrose Dolezal, Myla Ablog, Nupur Modi, and Shana Mc-Davis Conway! Support their leadership! Become a smartMeme sustainer for 2010: smartmeme.org/give

THANK YOU, AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Tags: 2009, donation, gratitude, smartMeme news, thanks

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 at 4:13 pm and is filed under happenings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.