The Human Rights Campaign’s iconic equal sign has gone viral. On the first day of oral arguments in marriage equality cases before the Supreme Court, hundreds of thousands of Facebook users have changed their profile pictures to the red equal sign as a show of support for marriage equality. Stay current on the Supreme Court hearings and find out how you can stand for marriage here.
We wanted to personally thank Representative Earl Blumenauer for his continued support for animal rights!
He has added his name as co-sponsor of the Animal Fighting Spectator Prohibition Act (H.R. 366) that helps prohibit spectator support for animal fighting events. This bill helps close the loopholes that allow for such events to continue through knowing attendance and bringing a minor to such events.
To help add your representatives name as co-sponsor of the bill, send your message through the Humane Society of the United States.
Winning Mark is helping a coalition of Oregon’s leading progressive organizations lead the way on voter engagement. We recently built the Our Oregon Mobile Voter Guide for Our Oregon. Previously available for iOS only, the app is now available for Android devices as well.
The app uses advanced geo-location technology to deliver election information based on recommendations from progressive organizations, which is uniquely relevant to each user. As Winning Mark’s Jeff Lennan puts it: “The mobile voter guide is a supremely versatile use of smartphone and tablet technology. It allows a deeper level of conversation and activism by organizations and their supporters. That conversation will translate to votes this election and deeper engagement during the legislative session and beyond.”
Yesterday we got very sad news of the untimely death of Rob Ingram. He died of a heart attack at the age of 38. His path from a gang-affected youth to a respected community leader and activist was inspirational; the impact he had on some of Portland’s most at-risk kids was even more so. Here is more about his life and work: Rob Ingram: Death of Portland leader who had a passion for helping young people stuns community.
I worked with Rob briefly on gang and youth violence issues. Seeing his commitment and energy certainly made me reflect on the responsibility we all share to get off the sidelines when we have the opportunity to intervene in the lives of people in need – especially with young people for whom a word, a gesture or a little love can make a life-changing difference.
Below is a mail piece that Rob was kind enough to appear in for one of our campaigns. In the headline, he says “I could use a hand here.” In his too-short life, Rob did a lot of heavy lifting for all of us. Look at the people around you and make what difference you can. Wherever he is, Rob could really use that hand now.
For most non-profit organizations, building and updating a website can be a daunting task. Organizations often have little time and even less money. As Oregon’s leading LGBTQ rights organization, Basic Rights Oregon (BRO) has shown with their recent website update that with a little bit of web savvy and know-how you can go a long way. With a of budget of $5,000, they were able to make a cost effective upgrade that looks great and didn’t break the bank.
Is your organization looking to make a meaningful web upgrade? Read through these pointers from Basic Rights’ Director of Finance and Administration, Dan Yonker. Is there anything you would add?
Basic Rights Oregon has three main organizational programs: Marriage Equality, Trans Justice, and Racial Justice. Additionally, they have years of content and a vibrant social community which helps them receive new and repeat traffic each month. When planning the revision of their website, it was crucial to take all of these aspects into account. Some website goals Dan shared with us included:
During the month of October 2010, Winning Mark embarked on a campaign to secure 5,000 new Facebook fans for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon. More specifically, the goal was to gain pro-choice voters as fans and to get the word out about the 2010 election and progressive candidates.
This Facebook campaign was undoubtedly a success: we beat our goal and PPAO gained 7,137 new Facebook fans.
