Dear Friends,
This year, the Fellowship of Reconciliation is reorganizing our staff into a regional support model, in which we'll have organizers in five regions of the U.S. supporting local activists and campaigns. FOR will also be welcoming a new executive director, to be named soon.
 We're doing this in order to better support you and the grassroots peacebuilding work you're doing.
But we need your help in order to complete the transition.
Send a donation to FOR and make an investment, so that we can invest in you and our growing network of local chapters and affiliates.
FOR's investment in grassroots peacebuilding
As you will remember, FOR is waving a fond farewell to Executive Director Mark Johnson at the end of this month. And as we prepare to welcome a new executive director, we need to establish a strong foundation to shift into a new regional support model for our new fiscal year, beginning July 1.
To do this, we need to raise $10,000 by the end of June.
 Join me by investing in FOR with a donation and together we can reach our grassroots goal.
It's a tall order, but I've seen FOR supporters rise to the challenge multiple times this year.
At the start of the year, we reported that your perseverance and dedication had finally paid a huge dividend. Hundreds of faxes sent to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2010 by FOR supporters about Colombia's human rights record resulted two years later in the State Department withholding millions of dollars in proposed aid to army units accused of extrajudicial killings. Your messages to Secretary Clinton were based on FOR's 2010 report on U.S. military aid to Colombia, funded and published with your support.
In February, FOR supporters helped fund the launch of Young, Pacifist, and Proud, bringing together a collective of remarkable young emerging leaders to strengthen nonviolent, multi-faith, multi-cultural, and "arts of resistance" organizing. That core group (photo above) is now developing a model to significantly grow the YPP initiative in 2014.
 In March, FOR members participated in the Interfaith Moral Action on Climate demonstration at the White House, demanding legislative action to combat climate change. FOR Executive Director Mark Johnson was arrested as part of faith-based civil disobedience for the planet. Thus far, with your support we have helped prevent the White House from greenlighting the Keystone XL Tar Sands pipeline project.
In April, FOR chapters and affiliates around the nation mobilized to protest armed drones, prompting a response from the president to create "guidelines" for drone attacks and shifting the national conversation.
In May, FOR built on the gun violence prevention efforts of grassroots activists and chapters, who had successfully defeated a college-campus concealed weapons bill in Arkansas, promoted gun buy-back efforts in Oregon, and participated in a national faith call-in day on gun violence. Joining the National Gun Victims Action Council and the Episcopal Peace Fellowship, FOR endorsed the "Tell and Compel" campaign calling on Starbucks and other companies to ban guns from their premises, an effort that gained national coverage on MSNBC, ABC, and The New Yorker.
 Now this month, we have learned that Rep. John Lewis has authored a graphic novel, March: Book One, to help keep the lessons of the civil rights movement alive. Congressman Lewis, a long-time FOR member, and his co-author, Andrew Aydin, were inspired to take on this project by FOR's historic Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story -- both its historic role in the movement and its continuing use today. Your support helped us republish Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story and promote it to a wider audience in the U.S. and worldwide.
Invest in FOR so we can invest in you
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Andrea Briggs, Chair, FOR National Council
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It has been a great honor for me to serve as chairperson of FOR's National Council for the past three years. Now, as we approach FOR's Centennial Celebration in 2014-2015, at the Council's meeting later this month a new chairperson will be chosen to succeed me. I am very excited about the future of this amazing organization, and I am proud to pledge my support to help FOR raise $10,000 this month.
I'm investing in FOR so that FOR can invest in more grassroots peace work. Will you join me?
Make a donation today to support FOR members' work for active nonviolence and social justice.
Thank you for the many ways you organize for peace, justice, human dignity, and active nonviolence.
Peace,
Andrea Briggs
National Council Chair
Fellowship of Reconciliation
P.S. We only have three weeks to make our goal for a full grassroots organizing launch. Please invest in FOR today with your donation. Thank you! |
