Since starting as Executive Director at America Walks four years ago, I have had a really simple fundraising theory: commit to meaningful campaigns, we’ll figure out the money as we go!
What do I mean by commit? Here are three examples of campaigns we launched before securing any dedicated source of funding for them:
Week Without Driving in 50 states, with over 500 organizations, 700 elected officials and thousands of organizations participating in 2024, tripling 2023 participation
The first ever nationwide convening of freeway fighters, leading to the Communities over Highways Call to Action supported by over 200 national, state and local organizations
A robust public Safer Vehicles campaign for the federal government to require vehicle designs to protect pedestrians, and for cities to upgrade their public fleets
And the strategy is mostly working. In addition to supporting grassroots action, we’re also generating more media coverage to reach the public, and more pressure on elected officials.
But I italicized “mostly” for a reason. The difference between “mostly” and “fully” working is where you come in! Unrestricted donations from individuals like you give us the freedom to pursue opportunities like the ones described above. Without hesitation.
Let’s be clear, we love the large (for us) grants from wonderful partners that fund training, education and assistance programs. They build the movement. But how we spend that money is necessarily constrained, and staff time must be dedicated to those grant deliverables.
America Walks refuses to be just the sum of our grant deliverables. We’re committed to pursuing actions that have the biggest real world impact. And we’re not going to wait for a big funder to get on board before we launch campaigns that respond to the moment we are in.
That’s what your donation does for us. It gives us the confidence to experiment, innovate, and build momentum that can attract more support. It shows the grassroots passion that foundations and major donors can swing in behind. In other words, your support has leverage!
I have to be honest – since day one I’ve worried that the theory of fundraising I shared above won’t work. And even though so far it is mostly working, I am still worried that we won’t hit our goals.
But here’s the deal. Given everything our communities face I always felt the bigger risk was playing it too cautious. That we had to act on the issues people were passionate about and count on donors to see the merits. With the campaigns described above, we’re doing it.
So please consider throwing in with us, and help us catalyze action at every level of government for healthier and more equitable communities.
Mike
