Race-Class Narrative-Based Small Donor Pitch

In 2018, we have a huge opportunity to [summarize strategy here]

If you think most political campaigns waste money, you’re not wrong. Most of the almost two billion dollars campaigns will raise this year will go to bland and marginally effective broadcast TV commercials — and to the consultants that make them. If you’re giving to big, issue-based nonprofits, while they may be doing important work, unfortunately they’re part of the same broken campaign system.

Our campaign is doing something different. We are basing our core messages on the the Demos Action/ASO Communications/Ian Haney Lopez Race Class Narrative. This research was begun in the summer of 2017 to understand how Americans feel, think, and reason about race, in order to move them towards a desire for cross-racial solidarity in service of a progressive future on racial and economic issues. It has been proven effective in numerous polls since then.

It’s shocking that the right wing has used the most divisive issues they can come up with - making our immigration system as cruel and unfair as possible, controlling women’s bodies, limiting voting rights, expanding the incarceration state - while ignoring the real problems facing American families.

You know what the real problems are. Our healthcare system is still a hot mess. Climate change isn’t going to go away even if right wing representatives pass policies ignoring it. The economy is finally recovering, but we’re still seeing the slowest wage growth in this part of the business cycle in recorded history. Budgets for schools continue to get divided and cut. Whether you’re poor or rich, we’re all on the ever-accelerating treadmill of a system that’s out of control.

It doesn’t have to be like this. Politics is at heart an imagination battle, and we have imagination on our side. Our dreams are not impossible. We’ve joined together to make life better for ordinary people before, in fights for civil rights, better working conditions, higher wages. By joining together in alliances -- black, white and brown -- all of us together can build a better future.

We all can imagine a world at peace. We all can imagine a country where everyone has a home and a health care system that’s there when we need it. We can imagine everyone having healthy food and time to get home from work to eat it.

We are making it easy to join exactly the winning alliance that can deliver on these dreams. We want you to donate, but please go beyond that. Get involved in our campaign. Follow us on social media and join our amplification team, at least. The best way to deal with election anxiety is campaign work! We’ll be in touch about getting you more involved.

Let’s live like we're living in the first days of a better nation. It starts with us.

[Insert specific pitch here]

Thank you!