April 2024
The Work We Do
We don’t just hope elections will go well, we do the work to make it so.
– Simon Rosenberg
Airlift’s main work is to raise money for progressive grassroots organizations to turn hard-to-reach marginalized community members into engaged and reliable voters. We count on our partners to work year-round to mobilize folks around issues that matter in their daily lives, and to connect the dots between people’s aspirations and the importance of politics and voting. Since these tireless organizers live in and know their communities, they are the trusted messengers who can break through all the noise and disinformation to persuade discouraged and disenfranchised people that their voices matter. Airlift Partners inspire us daily, and we are proud to support their vital work.
These groups have also taught us a thing or two. We may not be out knocking quite so many doors, but we have learned from them the importance of meeting people where they are, connecting around shared values, listening, and having real conversations with real people. Whether we donate money, phone bank, text, send postcards, talk to our favorite aunt in a red state, or persuade the young adults in our lives to vote, we are all grassroots activists. What we do matters. Within our own circles of family, friends, neighbors, colleagues, fellow birdwatchers, bicycle enthusiasts–you name it!--we, too, are the trusted messengers who can break through to others in the course of our daily lives.
We Can All Be Trusted Messengers
Editor’s Note: As noted, Airlift’s Partner Groups inspire and instruct us on the essence of grassroots activism. We’re glad they do the heavy lifting, but we all play a part–from supporting their work through our donations to being activists and trusted messengers in the course of our own lives within our own circles. David Ford sat down with Alison Whittaker and Lizzy Hersey, two treasured Airlift volunteers who exemplify the power of person-to-person organizing in their everyday lives as trusted messengers. Here’s his report:
“What can I do for the election this year?” That’s the question on everybody’s mind–at least when the fear-peddling, click-baiting media don’t just make people feel there’s nothing that can be done. There’s lots to do, as Lizzy and Alison can attest. And not because they’re political junkies who’ve been in the organizing trenches for years and years. Alison and Lizzy are long-time friends who met in nursing school. Now retired, they share interests, enthusiasm, and the gift of gab. They also share a horror of what’s happened to our country since Trump came down that escalator, and are determined to make a difference. So they happened to go to a local meeting filled with like-minded people, and that’s how they discovered Airlift.
Alison and Lizzy are both experts at spreading the word for Airlift, for progressive politics, and for tackling our country’s political future with realistic optimism. In this day and age, when internet misinformation and foreign governments try to shake Americans’ faith in democracy, the person who is a trusted messenger becomes a crucial part of political discourse. Lizzy and Alison are trusted messengers within their communities. It’s a power we all have, helping to bring more and more people into the fold so we can win elections and secure the future we want.
It begins with listening and talking to find out what matters in people’s lives. How are they doing? How are they thinking about the election and voting? Are they interested in learning what they can do? Even extroverts like Alison and Lizzy don’t always find it easy to engage.
For one thing, they both live in the Bay Area, so people they meet are likely already progressive. Asking people if they are registered to vote is often met with an eye-roll and an annoyed “of course.” The choir doesn’t need more persuasion.
Still, there are plenty of opportunities to get people engaged. Lizzy recalls when her godson was visiting: “He’s 27, lying on the couch, and we were talking about all the problems facing the country. Then he goes, ‘Actually I’ve never voted.’ My daughter, who knows me well, interjects, ‘Whoa. Don’t say that!’ But I just kept my calm and said, ‘OK.’”
Lizzy then thought about how Airlift Partners speak with potential voters, always starting with questions like “If you could wave a magic wand, what would you wish for in your community?” “Asking questions and listening to the answers always gets people to open up,” Lizzy says, so that’s what she did with her godson. She continued,
“He’s one of those young people that complains about Biden being old. That really raises my blood pressure, but I just have to be calm about it! So I just took the angle of what’s at stake and the choice we face. I didn’t really have to convince him at all. Because I didn’t give him a reaction that could antagonize him. I just said ‘OK what are you thinking about this time?’ And he said, ‘Of course I’m gonna vote,’ and I said, ‘Good that’s great.’”
Alison shared a similar experience:
“There was this young woman at the assisted living facility where I was visiting my mother. She was probably in her 30s and she was wearing very colorful scrubs in bright blue, with fabulous matching eye make-up. So of course we bonded over that! She had come here from Jamaica and 10 years ago got her citizenship. When I asked her about voting, she told me she’s never voted. My old self would’ve been like a fire hose. Instead, I asked what issues are important to her. Then we talked about women’s reproductive rights. That turned things around–she’ll vote for the first time this November.”
The intrepid team of Alison and Lizzy have also helped many donors hold Airlift@Home fundraisers, both in-person and online. When the two went on a yoga retreat last Fall, they invited all the participants to one of Airlift’s Frontline fundraisers. Their new friends not only showed up and donated, some of them have continued to engage. Lizzy even recruited a band she sings with to play at an Airlift fundraiser, and now the band members are enthusiastic about politics and Airlift!
Most of us, including Alison and Lizzy, don’t relish the idea of asking for donations. As Lizzy notes, “I just recently sent out letters to all my old friends asking them to donate to Airlift. You know I feel obnoxious. It’s very hard. You’re attached to the outcome, you know. I mean if they don’t donate it’s really hard to not take it personally.”
But teamwork and talking it through saved the day. Alison stepped right in, saying that Lizzy’s friends will be happy she asked. Airlift sells itself, particularly when they explain how much more effective it is to fund organizations who have neighbor-to-neighbor conversations within their own communities. People are glad to help, and want to know that their money is going where it will do the most good.
Teamwork and trusted messengers–that’s the ticket to victory.
Expand Your Creative Skills and Support Airlift Too!
David Ford and Mark Kenward, award-winning directors, performers, writers, and teachers, are excited to offer another chance to work on your creative efforts while doing something to help support positive change in America!
Mark Kenward, April 17, In-Person or
David Ford, April 18, Online
Schedule a session to work on whatever project you want by making a donation of at least $100 to Airlift. In-person sessions will be held at Mark Kenward’s home studio in the Oakland Hills. The address and directions to Mark’s home (or a Zoom link to David’s online session) will be sent when you sign up.
It’s a great way to get a new project started or move an old one up a notch.
Winning the Youth Vote
Dan Pfeiffer
April 30, Tuesday
5 pm PT / 8 pm ET
Enjoy Astute Analysis, Humor, and Wisdom on Wisconsin
Back by popular demand, Dan Pfeiffer, former Deputy Communications Director for President Obama and current Pod Save America (PSA) co-host, will join us to talk about what makes Wisconsin a key tipping state in the 2024 election, and how winning the youth vote is key to victory there. Fans of Dan rely on his insights in The Message Box, his podcast PSA, and his bestselling books about our current political landscape.
Be Inspired by What Youth Are Doing
We’ll also be joined by organizers from Leaders Igniting Transformation (LIT), Airlift’s Wisconsin partner group. LIT has done an amazing job engaging with Wisconsin’s youth, with robust high school, college, and post-education programs, particularly in Black and Brown communities. They’ve played a key role in victory after victory in Wisconsin, and are poised to do so again through their work in nurturing the next generation of progressive voters.
Welcome to Our Newest Partner Group!
Michigan is vital to winning the White House, Senate, and House in 2024, as well as furthering the progress made on the state and local level with big wins in 2022. That’s why Airlift decided to add We the People Action Fund to our 2024 portfolio. Born out of the Flint Water Crisis, WTP-Action Fund organizes multi-racial, working class people throughout Michigan, from Detroit to rural areas of the Upper Peninsula. They were instrumental in securing Michigan’s blue trifecta – Democratic governorship and majorities in both houses of the legislature – in 2022 by flipping a rural district. That’s just one example of WTP-Action Fund’s astonishing success in engaging left-behind communities and winning elections to bring material improvements to people’s lives.
Grassroots Organizers are the Frontlines –Donors are the Supply Lines!
Here’s Robert Hubbell of Today’s Edition on why supporting grassroots groups is the best investment you can make, especially in the battleground states. Click and watch the video below:
Let’s keep our grassroots partners supplied with enough to WIN the Presidency, House, Senate, and down-ballot races this fall. Here’s how:
Donate by Check. Set up automatic payments to Airlift with the Bill Pay service at your bank, or send a check directly to: Airlift, PO Box 617, Corte Madera CA 94976
Make it Monthly–Your Own Anxiety Relief Program! Becoming a monthly donor means our partners can count on having resources right through to the election. Besides, you’ll feel better.
For Tax-Deductible Giving. Although non-tax-deductible 501c4 gifts allow our partners the most flexibility for political action, tax-deductible 501c3 donations are welcome too. Email Ruth Jaeger at ruth@airlift.fund.
Spread the word! Tell your friends and family about Airlift and our events. Share this newsletter and our website.
FIELD NOTES
Pennsylvania Stands Up has tirelessly advocated for Whole Home Repairs, and now this hugely successful program is going national! Read more.
Down Home North Carolina’s Watauga County Chapter tackles the housing crisis: Read more.
Leaders Igniting Transformation (LIT) engages Wisconsin’s youth in the nitty-gritty of electoral politics, from developing candidate questionnaires, interviewing candidates, creating LIT’s statewide Youth Voter Guide, and getting out the vote for LIT’s 2024 electoral program:
Michigan’s We the People demands funding for elderly and disabled Detroiters in the City Council budget:
