We Have Power

We Have Power is founded on the idea that if we each commit to a small action, together we will each make a big impact.

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  • October Issue

    DONATE: Hurricane Relief via SBP 

    Hurricane season— including the deadly Hurricane Helene— has already devastated thousands of Americans, and likely will continue to do so in the coming weeks. This month, use your power by donating to SBP, a national social impact organization dedicated to helping communities shrink the time between disasters and recovery by rebuilding homes, increasing preparedness and resilience, and improving systems to better serve the needs of all Americans, everywhere. SBP has a 4 Star, 100% rating on Charity Navigator.

    CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO SBP!

    ABOUT SBP

    SBP started in the months after Hurricane Katrina. Liz McCartney, a teacher, and Zack Rosenburg, a lawyer, left their homes in Washington, D.C. to volunteer in support of the recovery effort in New Orleans. In March 2006, they co-founded SBP in the St. Bernard Parish southeast of New Orleans, where Katrina left 68,000 people homeless and at their breaking point. Some neighborhoods in New Orleans did not suffer major flooding, but St. Bernard Parish was almost completely submerged.

    Since those early years, hundreds of thousands of generous volunteers, AmeriCorps members, investors, donors, and tireless employees have helped SBP become a national leader in disaster resilience and recovery. Utilizing the Toyota Production System and trained AmeriCorps members, SBP has rebuilt homes for more than 6,300 families with the help of 150,000 volunteers in 14 communities across the U.S. and the Bahamas since 2006.

    Source: SBP

    VOLUNTEER: Vote!!! 🗳🇺🇸

    USE YOUR POWER!

    This month, make your plan to VOTE on ⁦Tuesday, November 5, 2024⁩!

    MAKE YOUR VOTING PLAN


    CLICK HERE to find your state’s election website; there you can find more information on voting either by mail or in person.

    ENCOURAGE OTHERS TO VOTE WITH YOU

    Reach out to your friends and family and encourage them to vote! 

    BE AN INFORMED VOTER 

    Here are resources for you to learn about the candidates before choosing whom to vote for:

    WE HAVE POWER’S PRESIDENTIAL ENDORSEMENT

    Your vote is your own. You should vote for whoever you think best represents your political beliefs. 

    That said, We Have Power endorses Kamala Harris for President. We believe that Kamala Harris’s platform best aligns with our focus on fighting for civil rights and combating climate change. 

  • September Issue

    DONATE: National Suicide Prevention Month

    USE YOUR POWER!

    September is Suicide Prevention Month – in honor of this, this month you can donate to The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). CLICK HERE TO DONATE!

    ABOUT AFSP

    Established in 1987, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) is a voluntary health organization that gives those affected by suicide a nationwide community empowered by research, education, and advocacy to take action against this leading cause of death. AFSP is dedicated to saving lives and bringing hope to those affected by suicide, including those who have experienced a loss. AFSP creates a culture that’s smart about mental health by engaging in the following core strategies:

    • Funding scientific research
    • Educating the public about mental health and suicide prevention
    • Advocating for public policies in mental health and suicide prevention
    • Supporting survivors of suicide loss and those affected by suicide

    Led by CEO Robert Gebbia and headquartered in New York, with a public policy office in Washington, DC, AFSP has local chapters in all 50 states, DC, and Puerto Rico, with programs and events nationwide. Learn more about AFSP in its latest Annual Report. 

    Source: AFSP

    VOLUNTEER: International Wrongful Conviction Day 

    USE YOUR POWER!

    October 2nd, 2024 is International Wrongful Conviction Day. CLICK HERE to learn how to use your power this month to get involved! 

    Some options to get involved include: 

    ABOUT INTERNATIONAL WRONGFUL CONVICTION DAY

    International Wrongful Conviction Day is a day to raise awareness of the causes and remedies of wrongful conviction and to recognize the tremendous personal, social, and emotional costs of wrongful conviction for innocent people and their families. Wrongful Conviction Day began as an effort of the Innocence Network, an affiliation of organizations dedicated to providing pro-bono legal and investigative services to individuals seeking to prove innocence of crimes for which they have been convicted, working to redress the causes of wrongful convictions, and supporting the exonerated after they are freed.

    Source: Wrongful Conviction Day

  • August Issue

    DONATE: World Humanitarian Day

    USE YOUR POWER!

    This month, in honor of the UN’s World Humanitarian Day, donate to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

    DONATE HERE!

    ABOUT WORLD HUMANITARIAN DAY & OCHA

    On 19 August 2003, a bomb attack on the Canal Hotel in Baghdad, Iraq, killed 22 humanitarian aid workers, including the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello. Five years later, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution designating 19 August as World Humanitarian Day (WHD).

    Each year, WHD focuses on a theme, bringing together partners from across the humanitarian system to advocate for the survival, well-being and dignity of people affected by crises, and for the safety and security of aid workers. 

    WHD is a campaign by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

    Source: UN WHD

    VOLUNTEER: Kids in Need Foundation 

    USE YOUR POWER!

    Kids across the country are going to return to school this month– but not all kids and classrooms have the supplies they need to thrive. Use your power this month to support back-to-school success via the Kids in Need Foundation! There are two ways you can do so: 

    • DONATE SCHOOL SUPPLIES! – CLICK HERE to read about how to donate school supply products! 
    • HOST A SCHOOL SUPPLIES DRIVE! – CLICK HERE to read Kids in Need Foundation’s School Supply Drive Toolkit, which explains how to host a school supplies drive! 

    ABOUT KIDS IN NEED FOUNDATION

    The Kids In Need Foundation®’s mission is to ensure that every child is prepared to learn and succeed in the classroom by providing free school supplies nationally to students most in need. Their mission supports students and teachers through their National Network of Resource Centers, supplying classroom supply boxes via their Supply A Teacher program, developing community school supplies giveaway programs through the School Ready Supplies program, and equipping students to go back to school after a natural disaster through the Second Responder® program.

    Source: Charity Navigator

  • July Issue

    DONATE: The Arc – for Disability Pride Month!

    USE YOUR POWER!

    In honor of Disability Pride Month, donate to The Arc! The Arc is the largest national community-based organization advocating for and with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and serving them and their families. 

    CLICK HERE TO DONATE!

    Please note: The Arc focuses on supporting people with IDD, which is just one part of the diverse disability community. Happy Disability Pride Month to all members of the disability community!

    ABOUT THE ARC

    The Arc promotes and protects the human rights of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and actively supports their full inclusion and participation in the community throughout their lifetimes. Since its start in 1950, The Arc has advocated for the passage of state and federal legislation on behalf of people with disabilities and established a broad network of state and local chapters that range from small voluntary groups to large, professional organizations. To learn more about The Arc’s core values and guiding principles, click here!

    Source: The Arc

    VOLUNTEER: Contact Congress to Support Supreme Court Term Limits

    USE YOUR POWER!

    Lawmakers in the Senate and the House have introduced legislation that would implement 18-year term limits for Supreme Court justices. Term limits for the highest court in the country would advance a simple principle: in a democracy, no one should have power for life. 

    As the U.S. Supreme Court starts to deliver another year of critical decisions affecting millions of Americans, trust in the judiciary has reached historic lows. Enacting 18-year term limits is a key step toward restoring accountability, safeguarding the court’s critical role for democracy, and protecting the interests of everyday Americans.

    CLICK HERE for instructions and a call script to CALL your Representative and Senators and tell them to pass Supreme Court term limits legislation!

    ABOUT BRENNAN CENTER FOR JUSTICE

    This term limit legislation is endorsed by the Brennan Center for Justice. The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law is a nonpartisan law and policy institute that seeks to improve our systems of democracy and justice. They work to hold our political institutions and laws accountable to the twin American ideals of democracy and equal justice for all. The Center’s work ranges from voting rights to campaign finance reform, from ending mass incarceration to preserving Constitutional protection in the fight against terrorism. Part think tank, part advocacy group, part cutting-edge communications hub, they start with rigorous research. They craft innovative policies. And they fight for them – in Congress and the states, the courts, and in the court of public opinion.

    Source: Brennan Center for Justice

  • June Issue

    DONATE: LGBTQ+ Pride Month!

    USE YOUR POWER!

    In honor of Pride Month, donate to one of the below organizations that support LGBTQ+ people and/or their rights! 

    • The Trevor Project – The Trevor Project is the world’s largest suicide prevention and mental health organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer & questioning (LGBTQ) young people. The Trevor Project offers a suite of 24/7 crisis intervention and suicide prevention programs, including TrevorLifeline, TrevorText, and TrevorChat as well as the world’s largest safe space social networking site for LGBTQ youth, TrevorSpace. Trevor also operates an education program with resources for youth-serving adults and organizations, an advocacy department fighting for pro-LGBTQ legislation and against anti-LGBTQ rhetoric/policy positions, and a research team to discover the most effective means to help young LGBTQ people in crisis and end suicide.
    • Rainbow Railroad – Rainbow Railroad is a global not-for-profit organization that helps at-risk LGBTQI+ people get to safety worldwide. Based in the United States and Canada, they’re an organization that helps LGBTQI+ people facing persecution based on their sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics. In a time when there are more displaced people than ever, LGBTQI+ people are uniquely vulnerable due to systemic, state-enabled homophobia and transphobia. These factors either displace them in their own country or prevent them from escaping harm.
    • The National LGBTQ Task Force – Founded in 1973, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Foundation (NGLTF) works to build the grassroots power of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. They do this by training activists, equipping state and local organizations with the skills needed to organize broad-based campaigns to defeat anti-LGBT referenda and advance pro-LGBT legislation, and building the organizational capacity of their movement. Their Policy Institute, the movement’s premier think tank, provides research and policy analysis to support the struggle for complete equality and to counter right-wing lies. As part of a broader social justice movement, they work to create a nation that respects the diversity of human expression and identity and creates opportunity for all.

    VOLUNTEER: Write Letters to encourage Voter Registration! 

    USE YOUR POWER!

    This month, write nonpartisan letters via Vote Forward to help encourage potential voters to participate in our democracy by registering to vote! 

    CLICK HERE to sign up for the Voter Registration Campaign! 

    CLICK HERE to learn how Vote Forward’s letter writing campaigns work!

    ABOUT VOTE FORWARD

    Vote Forward is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization that empowers grassroots volunteers to send handwritten letters encouraging fellow Americans to vote. The majority of their letter-writing campaigns are nonpartisan campaigns, supporting their core 501c(3) and 501c(4) social-welfare mission, which focus on mobilizing potential voters in communities that have historically been marginalized in the political process—such as people of color, women, and young voters. They also support 501(c)(4) partisan campaigns to encourage likely-Democratic voters to turn out in strategic states and districts. 

    Vote Forward began in 2017 as an experiment conducted by Scott Forman in Alabama, where he sent 1,000 letters to encourage voters in the special U.S. Senate election. Encouraged by the success of that test, Scott and a small group of friends and colleagues built the first version of this platform to allow volunteers to take easy and effective action in future elections. From the very beginning, they’ve developed and refined their letter-writing tactic by conducting rigorous research, principally randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Vote Forward has tested the effectiveness of its letters on voter turnout more than 20 times over the past six years, and measured a positive impact nearly every time. Learn more about their experiments here.

    Source: Vote Forward

  • May Issue

    DONATE: IRC Displaced Mother Baby Kits 

    USE YOUR POWER!

    In honor of Mother’s Day this month, donate to IRC to support displaced new mothers and their babies! 

    CLICK HERE to donate a baby kit!

    In places like Syria, war and bitter temperatures have left families in dire need. For new mothers, it’s difficult to care for their newborns in such conditions. IRC’s newborn baby kits are filled with warm hats and blankets for the winter, as well as diapers, clothing, and other essentials that provide critical support to displaced moms.

    ABOUT IRC

    The International Rescue Committee (IRC) helps people affected by humanitarian crises—including the climate crisis—to survive, recover and rebuild their lives. Founded at the call of Albert Einstein in 1933, the IRC is now at work in over 50 crisis-affected countries as well as communities throughout Europe and the Americas. They deliver lasting impact by providing health care, helping children learn, and empowering individuals and communities to become self-reliant, always seeking to address the inequalities facing women and girls.

    Source: IRC

    VOLUNTEER: Contact your representative to support humanitarian aid in Gaza

    USE YOUR POWER!

    Tell Congress: Demand a cease-fire and humanitarian access for Gaza. CLICK HERE to contact your representative (via American Friends Service Committee’s website)! 

    Gaza has been under attack since Oct. 7. Since then, over 34,000 Palestinians have been killed, 70% of them women and children. Another 10,000 are estimated to be buried under the rubble. Over 2 million people have been displaced from their homes, and over 80% of all homes and structures in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed. 

    As a result of months of attacks and blocked medical and humanitarian aid, Gaza is now facing famine and people are dying of starvation and thirst. Hospitals have been bombed and cannot meet needs. Humanitarian organizations, hampered by Israeli restrictions, can only provide a fraction of the aid required to meet massive needs.

    ABOUT AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE

    Guided by the Quaker belief in the divine light of each person, AFSC works with people of all faiths and backgrounds to challenge unjust systems and promote lasting peace. In 1917, AFSC was founded in Philadelphia in response to an urgent need for conscientious objectors to find alternatives to military service during World War I. Since 1917, AFSC has been on the forefront of some the most important social movements in working for a more just, peaceful world, including racial justice in the US, opposing Japanese internment during WWII, advocating a peaceful end to the Cold War, and humanitarian aid in several global conflicts. 

    Source: AFSC

  • April Issue

    DONATE: RAINN – for Sexual Assault Awareness & Prevention Month

    April is Sexual Assault Awareness & Prevention Month; donate to the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization, RAINN (Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network), which provides victim services and carries out programs for public education and public policy. 

    DONATE HERE!

    ABOUT RAINN

    RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) is the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization. RAINN created and operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline (800.656.HOPE,online.rainn.org y rainn.org/es) in partnership with more than 1,000 local sexual assault service providers across the country and operates the DoD Safe Helpline for the Department of Defense. RAINN also carries out programs to prevent sexual violence, help survivors, and ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice.

    Source: RAINN

    VOLUNTEER: Citizen Science Month

    April is Global Citizen Science Month! Get involved by contributing to a Citizen Science Project through SciStarter! 

    CLICK HERE TO GET STARTED!

    What is Citizen Science? 

    Citizen science enables people from all walks of life to advance scientific research. From sharing photos of nature to help scientists document biodiversity, to browsing images on your computer to help speed up research about Alzheimer’s disease, to using your phone to help track microplastic and air quality, each of these Acts of Science is important. Nobody knows everything, but everybody knows something, and together, we can help solve local, regional, national, and global challenges!

    Watch the below video to learn more! 

    ABOUT SCI STARTER

    SciStarter is a globally acclaimed, online citizen science hub where thousands of projects, searchable by location, topic, age level, etc., have been registered by individual project leaders or imported through partnerships with federal governments, NGOs, and universities. As a research affiliate of North Carolina State University (NCSU) and Arizona State University (ASU), and a popular citizen science portal, SciStarter hosts an active community of more than 170,000 registered SciStarter members and millions of additional site visitors. 

    Source: SciStarter

    What is Citizen Science? Watch the Video Below! 

    ORGANIZATION SUGGESTIONS!

    If you have any suggestions for causes or organizations YOU would like to see in upcoming newsletters, please contact us at now.wehavepower@gmail.com.

    We’d love to hear from you!

  • March Issue

    DONATE: Women’s History Month

    March is Women’s History Month! In honor of that, this month you can choose to donate to one of the organizations below that support (cis and trans) women!

    We Have Power would like to acknowledge that many (cis and trans) men and non-binary people benefit from the important work of the below organizations as well!

    • Planned Parenthood – The mission of Planned Parenthood is to provide comprehensive reproductive and complementary health care services, to advocate public policies which guarantee these rights and ensure access to such services, to provide educational programs which enhance understanding of individual and societal implications of human sexuality, and to promote research and the advancement of technology in reproductive health care.
    • National Institute for Reproductive Health – NIRH is an advocacy organization that fights for just and equitable access to reproductive health care in states and cities nationwide. For more than 40 years, NIRH has been partnering with communities to build coalitions, launch campaigns, and successfully advocate for policy change. NIRH’s strategy is to go on the offensive and focus on communities where change is needed and where we can make a difference.
    • National Women’s Law Center – The National Women’s Law Center fights for gender justice—in the courts, in public policy, and in our society—working across the issues that are central to the lives of women and girls. They use the law in all its forms to change culture and drive solutions to the gender inequity that shapes our society and to break down the barriers that harm all of us—especially women of color, LGBTQ people, and low-income women and families. For 50 years, they have been on the leading edge of every major legal and policy victory for women.
    • She Should Run – She Should Run is a nonpartisan nonprofit working to dramatically increase the number of women considering a run for public office. Women are underrepresented at all levels in the 500,000+ elected offices across the U.S. That is why She Should Run is driven by a vision of seeing 250,000 women run for local, state, and federal offices by 2030.
    • End the Backlog – End the Backlog is a program of the Joyful Heart Foundation, a national nonprofit organization founded by producer, director, actress, and advocate Mariska Hargitay with the mission to transform society’s response to sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse; and support survivors’ healing. The effort to End the Backlog is the cornerstone of Joyful Heart’s policy and advocacy work. They focus on shining a light on the rape kit backlog in the United States. Their goal is to end this injustice by identifying the extent of the nation’s backlog and best practices for eliminating it.
    • Women’s Refugee Commission – The Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC) is creating a better world for refugees. WRC’s mission is to improve the lives and protect the rights of women, children, and youth displaced by conflict and crisis. They research refugee needs, identify solutions, and advocate for programs and policies to strengthen their resilience and drive change in humanitarian practice.

    VOLUNTEER: Vote Forward

    In preparation for the 2024 Election in November, write letters through Vote Forward to encourage voters to get out there and vote! Vote Forward has tested the effectiveness of its letters on voter turnout more than 20 times over the past six years, and measured a positive impact nearly every time.

    CLICK HERE to find out how to get started! Once making a quick and easy Vote Forward account, you will be able to “adopt” letters to write, and you will be given more instruction.

    Vote Forward has two different kinds of Campaigns you can contribute to:

    • Write letters to voters in a “Social Campaign” to support Vote Forward’s core social mission of helping to increase the participation of historically underrepresented communities in the electorate (in a nonpartisan effort to get out the vote)
    • Write letters to voters in a “Political Campaign” to help encourage Democratic-leaning voters to turn out in strategic states and districts.

    ABOUT VOTE FORWARD

    Vote Forward is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization that empowers grassroots volunteers to send handwritten letters encouraging fellow Americans to vote. Vote Forward began in 2017 as an experiment conducted by Scott Forman in Alabama, where he sent 1,000 letters to encourage voters in the special U.S. Senate election. Encouraged by the success of that test, Scott and a small group of friends and colleagues built the first version of this platform to allow volunteers to take easy and effective action in future elections. The majority of their letter writing campaigns are 501(c)(3) nonpartisan (“Social”) campaigns, which focus on mobilizing potential voters in communities that have historically been marginalized in the political process—such as people of color, women, and young voters. They also support 501(c)(4) partisan campaigns (“Political”) to encourage likely-Democratic voters to turn out in strategic states and districts. From the very beginning, they’ve developed and refined their letter-writing tactic by conducting rigorous research, principally randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Vote Forward has tested the effectiveness of its letters on voter turnout more than 20 times over the past six years, and measured a positive impact nearly every time. Learn more about their experiments here!

    Source: Vote Forward

    ORGANIZATION SUGGESTIONS!

    If you have any suggestions for causes or organizations YOU would like to see in upcoming newsletters, please contact us at now.wehavepower@gmail.com.

    We’d love to hear from you!

  • February Issue

    DONATE: ACLU – American Civil Liberties Union

    This month, use your power to donate to the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union)! The ACLU is a guardian of liberty, working daily in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.

    DONATE HERE!

    ABOUT THE ACLU

    The ACLU protects American values by conserving America’s original civic values – the Constitution and the Bill of Rights – and by defending the rights of every man, woman, and child in this country. The ACLU believes that every person in this country– Rich or poor, straight or gay, black or white or brown, urban or rural, pious or atheist, American-born or foreign-born, able-bodied or living with a disability– should have the same basic rights. And since their founding in 1920, they’ve been working hard to make sure no one takes them away.

    Source: ACLU

    VOLUNTEER: Join the NMDP Donor Registry to Help Those with Blood Diseases!

    This month, use your power by joining the NMDP Donor Registry! Become a potential lifesaver to patients battling blood cancers or other blood diseases who need a blood stem cell donor.

    Every year, 18,000 patients are diagnosed with life-threatening blood cancers or other blood disorders that could be cured or treated with a blood stem cell transplant. But 70% of them don’t have a fully matched donor in their family. They depend on NMDP℠ to find an unrelated donor. That life-saving donor could be you!

    GET STARTED HERE!

    ABOUT NMDP

    Be The Match®, operated by the National Marrow Donor Program® (NMDP), is a nonprofit organization that’s dedicated to helping every patient get the life-saving transplant they need. As trusted leaders in advancing treatments for those facing life-threatening blood cancers, they provide the ground-breaking research, innovative technologies, patient support and education that save lives. They have facilitated more than 120,000 blood stem cell transplants and 6,714 transplants last year to give patients hope for a future.

    Source: NMDP

    Watch this video to learn more about NMDP:

    ORGANIZATION SUGGESTIONS!

    If you have any suggestions for causes or organizations YOU would like to see in upcoming newsletters, please contact us at now.wehavepower@gmail.com.

    We’d love to hear from you!