Diminishing goals

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Two months ago CSGV had a fundraising goal of $10,000.

Last month they had another fundraiser with a goal of $5000:

From: Chelsea White
Sent: Monday, January 27, 2014 12:10 PM
Subject: FW: Visa is Funding the Gun Lobby

I wanted to make sure you saw Josh’s email from Friday and give you a first look at one of the satirical ads we will be running to educate Visa employees about their company’s affiliate (credit) card program with the NRA, which is funding lobbying detrimental to the safety of our communities.
Here’s the first ad:

CSGVVISAAd

Thanks to supporters like you, we have already raised over $1,200 dollars, which is a great start toward our goal of $5,000! Can you make a contribution to help us out?

Click here to donate $20 or whatever you can give right now.

Thank you for backing this important campaign,

Chelsea White
Director of Development
Coalition to Stop Gun Violence

———- Forwarded message ———-

From: Josh Horwitz
Date: Fri, Jan 24, 2013 at 3:35PM
Subject: Visa is Funding the Gun Lobby
To: Chelsea White

Dear Chelsea,

4,780 petition signatures and 275 calls to the head of Government Relations later, and VISA is definitely starting to feel the heat.

Everyday people like you have been clear that VISA’s support of NRA lobbying activity through their affiliate card program is irresponsible and offensive.

But while we know they’ve received our message, the people responsible for this decision at VISA are still refusing to budge. That’s why the next step in our campaign is to go bigger and make sure everyone at VISA knows about the embarrassment this program is bringing their company.

We want to launch a Facebook ad campaign targeting VISA employees that will educate everyone in the company about the tremendous harm being done by the NRA VISA card.

Will you make a contribution today to help us fund Facebook ads exposing Visa’s toxic relationship with the NRA?

Our ads will target all VISA employees across the country—from the administrative assistants all the way to the CEO. You can imagine the water cooler talk that will result when the ads start showing up on their computer screens:
“Can you believe we are funding NRA lobbying against background checks?!”

“Who’s in charge of this program anyway?”
Visa won’t be able to hide its dirty little secret anymore.

We want to raise $5,000 for this campaign. Can you pitch in $20 today?
A Fortune 500 company should not be promoting and paying for an extreme, pro-gun agenda that is causing untold suffering in neighborhoods across America. Thank you for working with us to put an end to the NRA VISA card.

Sincerely,
Josh Horwitz
Executive Director
Coalition to Stop Gun Violence

I already addressed their pathetic VISA campaign here. But the bigger point is that they are hoping to collect just $5000 compared to $10000 in the previous fundraiser. That’s like the equivalent of 20 entries to Boomershoot or a very poor outcome for a Friends of the NRA event. Boomershoot usually gets 65 to 70 entries. And furthermore, assuming they continue decreasing their goal by a factor of two every month, they should be down to collecting money for a dinner for two by the end of this summer.

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18 thoughts on “Diminishing goals”

  1. Rather interesting how much influence some groups have despite seemingly being non-entities. Then again, when one turns the rock over, you see a web of interconnectivity. David Horowitz’s site Discoverthenetworks.com is useful for seeing who is connected to whom, and how.

  3. I wonder what they do with the money they collect? I prefer to give my “anti-gun” (just joking) money to the groups that work on arts/sports programs for inner-city youth. Keeping kids out of gangs and keeping people busy cuts down on crime.

    • Well, given that almost ALL US gun violence can be tracked back to “youthful offenders” in inner-city gangs, I’d say that is an entirely reasonable, logical, and potentially effective program, Ubu. (Credit where credit’s due, after all.)

      I think there are MORE effective programs (reforming the penal system so violent predators _go_away_, reforming drug prohibition laws so as to drive the illegal drug dealers out of business, quit making the most vulnerable the most helpless, and destroying the appeal of the thug culture), but there’s no reason the answer cannot be “all of the above”.

      • Indeed.
        Given how much of the establishment works against what Ubu is describing (even though they claim to be on the same political side and claim to have the same overall goals) this is a hard thing to do. But it’s worth while.
        For example, it’s hard to claim that you’re trying to help inner city kids when you’re busy pushing policies that ensure they will be unemployed.

      • Snoop Dogg’s football league http://snoopyfl.net/ is a great place to donate money. They even allow older guys (ex-felons) the opportunity to help out the teams coaching, etc. It’s amazing how much this program has done for young and old!

        http://826la.org/ offers creative writing classes, etc. They also own the Time Travel Mart http://826la.org/store/. Where else can you buy Anti-Cloning Fluid or a Robot Replacement Arm?

        Anyway, there’s a bunch of good charities out there. If you want to prevent violence, I think these are really the way to go. Kids who have nothing better to do are usually the ones who get into trouble.

  4. Wow – they generated a whole 275 calls? I’ll bet they get ten times that if they change the card design to pattern that folks don’t like.

  5. OBTW – Where’s the MAIG or MDA or CSGV credit card? Or don’t they collectively make a big enough dent for Visa to bother setting them up with an affiliate program?

    Heck – I’ll bet Joe could probably set up a Boomershoot affiliate. “Each purchase supports the development of bigger booms!”

    And speaking of which – are you going to invite the ‘Hawks’ “Legion of Boom” to your event this year? 🙂

    • I had to look up “Legion of Boom” to figure out what you were talking about. So, no, I have no plans for that.

      🙂

  6. If I had a need for a credit card I do believe I’d get that one. Just to piss them off. Supporting the NRA would just be gravy.

  7. Hell, I’d have to check my records but in the past two years I think I’m over a grand in donations to SAF and ILA just by myself.

    Maybe CSGV needs to put more nobly posed bald eagles on their fundraising envelopes?

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  9. I could stand on the corner with a bucket labeled “NRA” for an hour and beat that.

  10. Who and where do I call the Visa outfit to voice my opinion on the subject? I’ve had an NRA Visa card since about when they first came out. I know I had it when at the convention in 2004. It’d be nice to let Visa know that I appreciate their partnering with the NRA.

  12. It’s curious that Visa has these cards, when not long ago they got in hot water for canceling the merchant account of a gun accessory maker.

    • The cards are for individuals to use for every purchase and the amount that actually “funds the NRA” is vanishingly small.

      If I were their PR guy and called on it I’d blather about how Visa is all about serving individual Americans and the NRA has a long history of working for gun safety and the shooting sports while simultaneously explaining that some businesses do not meet their high standards of corporate responsibility or some such eyewash.

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