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Dear Board of Directors,

Before the holiday weekend, I wanted to share some quick reflections from this week’s board meeting.

My first reflection is a small regret – we had too little time to strategize together given our unusually packed schedule and logistics. While we had an extraordinarily impressive guest list, I’m not sure we got the balance just right. I want to make sure we slot a little more time at our next meeting for internal discussions. I will look forward to your input.

One piece of great news from the Appropriators. The day after our meeting, both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees released their 302(b) allocations (these are the binding levels that set funding for all programs, including international). Both chambers rejected the Administration’s proposed cuts, and stood firm in support of development and diplomacy. Here is our statement<http://www.usglc.org/newsroom/usglc-ceo-statement-congress-stands-up-for-americas-interests-around-the-world/> – plus 3 quick points:


* Both chambers included level funding for the FY19 State-Foreign Operations budget, which means they added back the $4 billion OCO cut that was in the budget deal – this is great news.
* It should be noted that neither chamber met our ideal target of $60 billion, which would have included past supplemental funding for ISIS and famine relief.
* The Senate number is a tad higher – up $400 million from FY18 – but it’s remarkable that the House was also able to put forward such a strong level and fix OCO in their allocation. (Remember, historically the House comes in lower when the initial allocations are released.)

My reflections from the board meeting:

1. With Each Win, A Challenge Awaits. I don’t know if you felt this, but from Nick Ayers to Ivanka to Senator Jones to Mayor Landrieu to Majority Leader McCarthy – I was struck by our collective success, and by the challenges of moving up our ladder of engagement.

* On the one hand, it was wildly impressive to secure the meetings and each was very effective.
* Yet, it was also clear that skepticism or hesitation on our issues still exists. For example, Ayers was very animated on the issue of religious persecution, yet told me he is less persuaded by the value of PEPFAR; McCarthy was taken by PEPFAR, but still needs to be convinced that his caucus members are with us; Ivanka was “all in” with the economic empowerment stories, but less so on the humanitarian agenda.

2. Be Relevant. Given this, I was also struck with how sensitive we need to be to meet people where they are – and I don’t mean physically. We’ve got to be relevant to their interests and priorities, without changing our mission. For example, Ivanka was very focused on her domestic agenda, and we had to make the connection on how her work force interests related to the global stage. Another example, taking Ayers’ passion on religious persecution and connecting that to the broader humanitarian agenda. And when Senator Jones’ office was extremely nervous about the meeting, we had to underscore the Alabama connections. Ultimately, we really need to do our homework and listen.

And if we do this right – it works. Ivanka’s team told us it was off-the-record and then, as I wrote earlier, she not only tweeted out our meeting, but the White House’s @POTUS handle also retweeted her photos of our group.

3. Democrats – A Growing Challenge. Mayor Mitch was clearly channeling an anti-establishment and anti-Washington platform, and he certainly wanted us to hear it! While I don’t think this was our most successful meeting, it was very important to see what we are up against with some Democrats – namely, that international issues are not seen as a priority. And it’s not just the 2020 hopefuls, we’re also seeing this on the Hill – and as I reported, in many events we’re doing around the country. This challenge isn’t going to go away.

Next steps:

* Derek will send you a separate email about how you can help with the follow-up with Ivanka.
* We’ll be sending out the final opinion research slide deck next week and will continue to work on the message and how to integrate it into our work.

I really would welcome your feedback on any part of the meeting, our strategy, the polling, and our messaging. As always, your input is invaluable. Thank you again to my magnificent colleagues who created a fantastic 24 hours and to Carolyn, Dan, Sarah and especially Norm for jumping into with such strength as one of our new leaders!

Enjoy the holiday weekend and I look forward to hearing from you.

Warm regards,

Liz
Liz Schrayer, USGLC