Quote of the Day: "When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer 'present' or 'not guilty.'" -- Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) 26th US President

Subject: What You and Downsize DC accomplished in August

August is always a struggle because so many people go on vacation, but your Downsize DC Army still made progress. 

First, donors to the Downsize DC Foundation funded the creation of an Amicus brief in a major campaign finance case being heard before the Supreme Court. We're pleased to report that the brief was filed. Copies are now in the mail to the donors. And now... YOU can read it too. It's posted on the DownsizeDC.org blog, along with some details on the case.

Second, we launched a new improved version of the DownsizeDC.org website. It will now be much easier for you to use our system to send a letter to Congress. If you haven't tried it yet please make a point of doing so when we send out our next action item tomorrow.

Third, we built the Consumer Centered Health Care coalition website, and recruited members to it.

Fourth, and this is thrilling, your Downsize DC Army reached another milestone, passing 28,000 members late last week. Each new DC Downsizer amplifies YOUR voice.

We're excited by this progress . . .

It took 176 days to go from 24,000 to 25,000 members. But then just 59 days to go from 25,000 to 26,000. It only took a mere 16 days to go from 26,000 to 27,000! And this last increment took 43 days.

To keep our growth trendline going up we're striving to do the next 1,000 increment in fewer than 38 days.

And the best way you can help grow the army and amplify your voice is with a generous donation or a monthly pledge.

We made progress on our other growth numbers, even if it wasn't as much as we'd hoped for...

* We registered 621 new users for our Educate the Powerful System, 1,066 less than in July
* We sent 42,639 letters to Congress, 8,163 less than last month

But we've had a fabulous Summer overall. In total, for June through August, we . . .

* Recruited 2,648 net new members to the Downsize DC Army
* Registered 2,918 new users for the Educate the Powerful System
* Send 136,731 letters to Congress

We're also grateful to August donors who helped us improve the number of individual donations -- 41 in August vs. 32 in July. But we missed the mark on new monthly pledges -- 13 in August vs. 20 in July.

Are you pleased with this progress?

Well, we've got more planned, and in the coming weeks, we're going to unveil some new growth tools and marketing approaches, all of which Downsize DC financial donors are making possible.

By the way, we've also improved the contribution form on our website . . .

If you're logged-in to our site the secure donation form will automatically show most of your information. You can edit the information in the form if you need to, but otherwise you can just fill in the details of your donation -- and leave a comment, if you wish.

You can start a monthly credit card pledge for as little as $5 a month (which is just 17 cents per day) using the new improved form on our secure server.

If you do, please let us know if its okay to advertise your support here:

NEW MONTHLY PLEDGERS IN AUGUST: Glen Ihrig, Gary J Leidy, David Bergland, Gary T Gorski, Don J Crites, 8 unlisted -- 13 total

Or, you could make a one-time donation. Please let us know on our secure contribution form if its okay to advertise your support here:

NEW ONE TIME DONORS IN AUGUST: Sharon Mears, John Matthews, Patricia Barnum, Brian Travis, Sarah Franke, Dirk Doebereiner, James Wahler, Meredith Weaver, Stephen Moffett, Matthew Whitlock, Dan Litwin, Russell Kominski, Veronica Arnold, Michael Bayback, Ann & Todd Secoy (in memory of Julia Bitner), James Marranca, Kay Samalin, David Hyatt, Douglas Steinschneider, Lily Riker, Nicholas C. Beason, Mr. Marlin, Edward J. Krieger, Lynnette Thompson, 17 unlisted -- 41 total

That's it. Tomorrow we get started on a big September.

Thank you for being a part of the growing Downsize DC Army.

Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.