Social Capitalists

RESULTS

Finalist's Statement

RESULTS is a nonprofit grassroots citizens advocacy organization with a strong lobbying focus. Our purpose is to:

• Create the political will to end hunger and the worst aspects of poverty through citizen action on public-policy issues.
• Empower individuals in exercising their individual and political power.

Helping to drive that mission is RESULTS Educational Fund, which provides citizen education and training, public events and community forums, media coverage, teaching trips, and research.

Together, RESULTS and RESULTS Educational Fund coordinate media, public education, and advocacy campaigns that focus attention on cost-effective solutions to hunger and poverty and support legislators in making those solutions a national priority.

We are committed to the following initiatives in the United States and abroad, which are key to ending hunger and the devastating effects of absolute poverty, while creating greater peace, abundance and stability worldwide:

• Empowering citizens: giving people the tools and training to make the end of hunger and poverty a priority of their nations
• Healthy families: working to eradicate the diseases resulting from poverty by ensuring that all families have access to adequate and affordable health care
• Education for all: ensuring basic education for all children, especially for women and girls in developing countries and at-risk children in the United States
• Economic opportunity: providing access to opportunity that helps families move out and stay out of poverty and create sustainable futures
• Sustainable development: working to provide access to safe water and sanitation and supporting policies that protect and empower local communities and the planet

We identify the most cost-effective and sustainable solutions to hunger and poverty and advocate for resources and policies that will enable those solutions to succeed. The key to RESULTS' success lies in a nonpartisan approach that emphasizes strong relationships with those in power.

RESULTS volunteer activists in more than 100 communities across the United States

• Learn the facts through Web site, materials, and updates that provide current information on poverty issues and legislation.
• Speak out to friends, family, community members, and Congress.
• Call and write members of Congress urging them to support legislation that ends hunger and poverty in the United States and throughout the world.
• Mobilize the media to express the public will for ending hunger, malnutrition, disease, and poverty.
• Organize a group of friends and allies in their congressional district to form a powerful voice for all children and citizens of the world.

In about 100 communities throughout the United States our volunteers come together monthly for a conference call that connects them with the entire RESULTS community to learn about the issues and hear from experts in the public and private sector. They also learn strategies and commit to taking action--letters, phone calls, meetings--that move our issues forward. The call concludes with a "laser talk"--clear and concise language on our current issue, which volunteers use in communicating our message to elected officials and the media. Volunteers meet monthly in local groups to plan strategy and practice powerful public speaking, attend regional training workdays and our annual International Conference, and are coached and supported through a structure of volunteer leadership supported by a dedicated staff.

Armed with knowledge of the issues and the ability to speak about them powerfully, RESULTS volunteers develop relationships with the media that influence public opinion and influence decision makers in Washington, DC, supported by RESULTS Educational Fund. Strategically supported by RESULTS, they write letters, make phone calls, and meet face-to-face with members of Congress.