Action Alert
 
You did it! You helped make history by placing the phone calls to your Senators. Late Thursday, the Senate – on a vote of 79-19 – passed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, including the Baucus-Grassley amendment to establish a Nonprofit Capacity Building Program.
 
Our work is not quite done, however. We need you to take two final actions.
 
First, the House of Representatives will be voting on this Monday, so please call your member of Congress to let them know you are a constituent who wants them to VOTE YES on HR 1388, the Serve America Act. For quick access to the phone number of your U.S. Representative, you can find it at www.councilofnonprofits.org/replocator <http://www.councilofnonprofits.org/replocator> .
 
Second, please contact your Senators to thank them for their vote in support of this bill. (For a listing of the 79 who voted yes, the third grouping on this link provides a complete listing by state: http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=111&session=1&vote=00115 .) Let them know you are proud of their actions, which led to a triumph for our democracy because the Senate demonstrated a true spirit of bipartisanship. Tell them you appreciated seeing America’s elected officials working together on a bipartisan basis to actually solve problems.

When done taking those two easy – yet very important – actions, please take some time to reflect on what we proved can happen when individuals, working collectively through our nonprofit associations, amplify our voices. By working together, we proved there is real force behind the tag line of the National Council of Nonprofits, to which you belong thanks to your membership with the California Association of Nonprofits (CAN). The tagline of the National Council of Nonprofits: National Voice ~ State Focus ~ Local Impact. Through your actions, you made it happen.
 
Your actions of contacting your Senators (and now your Representatives) also honored your proper role in government. When “We the People” came together to create a new government through the U.S. Constitution, we made clear that the people were the source of proper power. Abraham Lincoln echoed that concept in his Gettysburg Address, which identified the great task before us as Americans: ensuring “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” By contacting your elected officials to create the Nonprofit Capacity Building Program and pass the Serve America Act, you proved that government is still responsible to the people. Now we must build on this positive experience as we take more responsibility for our proper role with government.
 
Again, congratulations on a job well done, and thank you for your role in making American history.

Merdeth Clark

Chief Operating Officer

Ken Larsen

Director of Public Policy