As we march towards the end of the budget session, we need to keep the momentum going and make sure that our priorities are in the final adopted budget. Keep the conversation going by tweeting at your local State Senators and Assemblymembers. Let them know that we need them to support the our campaign budget priorities on COLA, minimum wage, and nonprofit infrastructure as they debate the budget in conference and session. You can find your local State Senator and Assemblymember on Senate website and Assembly website. Everything you need to participate including tweets, hashtags, and handles can be found by clicking here to automatically download the toolkit.

Human services are the foundation of our communities, providing critical interventions all New Yorkers, including after-school programs, supportive housing, job training, community centers, and more. This is why it is urgent that you email and call your local State Senator and Assemblymember to support our budget priorities to be included in the One House budgets.

You can find your local State Senator and Assemblymember on the Senate website and Assembly website.

Email your local State Senator and Assemblymember with the draft email below:

Dear Senator/Assemblymember (insert name),

Hi, my name is (your name) and I am from (your organization) which is a member of the Strong Nonprofits for a Better New York Campaign. We are advocating for key investments in human services:

• COLA (Cost of Living Adjustments);

• Minimum Wage Funding; and

• Nonprofit Infrastructure Investment.

We hope that Senator/Assemblymember (insert name) will support our asks to be in the One House Budget. If you have any questions about the Strong Nonprofit campaign and our budget priorities, please feel free to email info@strongnonprofitsny.org.

Call your local State Senator and Assemblymember with the phone script below:

Hi, my name is (your name) and I am from (your organization) which is a member of the Strong Nonprofits for a Better New York Campaign. We are advocating for key investments in human services:

• COLA (Cost of Living Adjustments);

• Minimum Wage Funding; and

• Nonprofit Infrastructure Investment.

We hope that Senator/Assemblymember (insert name) will support our asks to be in the One House Budget. If you have any questions about the Strong Nonprofit campaign and our budget priorities, please feel free to email info@strongnonprofitsny.org.

Call to Action: Contact Your State Legislators to Sign-on to Budget Letter

(Deadline: Friday, February 15th)

As part of the campaign's advocacy, Senator Roxanne Persaud and Assemblywoman Kimberly Jean-Pierre have agreed to be champions in leading a sign-on letter amongst their colleagues within their own legislative chamber to the Senate President and the Speaker of the Assembly in support of our budget priorities. You can help make sure our budget priorities are in the budget by using the language below to email your local State Senator to send and call your local State Assemblymember to sign-on to a budget letter in support of the Strong Nonprofit Campaign's budget priorities for FY20 by Friday, February 15th.

You can find your local State Senator and Assemblymember on Senate website and Assembly website.

Email your local State Senator:

Dear Senator (insert name),

Hi, my name is (your name) and I am from (your organization) which is a member of the Strong Nonprofits for a Better New York Campaign. We are advocating for key investments in human services:

• $140 million for a cost-of-living-adjustments for human services workers;

• $25 million for adjustments to human services contracts to implement the minimum wage; and

• $100 million for nonprofit infrastructure.

We hope that the Senator will send a budget letter to the Leader Stewart-Cousins in support of our asks to be in the One House Budget Bill. You can find a draft of the letter here. If you have any questions about the letter or the campaign, please feel free to email info@strongnonprofitsny.org.

Call your local State Assemblymember: Hi, my name is (your name) and I am calling from (your organization) which is a member of the Strong Nonprofits for a Better New York Campaign. We are advocating for key investments in human services:

• $140 million for a cost-of-living-adjustments for human services workers;

• $25 million for adjustments to human services contracts to implement the minimum wage; and

• $100 million for nonprofit infrastructure.

We hope that the Assemblymember will sign-on to a letter to the Speaker in support of our asks. The letter is being led by Assemblymember Jean-Pierre and you contact Elizabeth Sutton by February 15th to sign-on. Thank you for your support of human services. 

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact info@strongnonprofitsny.org.

Tell the Governor to fund the human services workforce! Governor Cuomo has built his platform pushing for women’s equality, yet has refused to make critical investments in the salaries of our workers, 80 percent of whom are women. We are asking women who work for non-profit organizations that provide human services to sign this letter, ask the Governor to fulfill his promise on delivering for women across New York by investing in non-profit human services organizations.

We are working with coalitions across the State on this effort to make sure that we can show the Governor not only that this is a critical issue that must be addressed, but also how vast and involved women are in human services organizations. Please take a few moments to share this with your networks and encourage women involved with non-profit human services organizations to sign on.

Below is sample language for your own outreach email. The deadline to sign-on is February 25th, 2019.

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Nonprofits and coalitions across the State are coming together to demand better wages for the human services workforce – 80% of whom are women! Governor Cuomo has built his platform pushing for women’s equality yet has failed to make the necessary investments in non-profit human service organizations who employ mostly women. We know how dedicated you are to your work and want to ensure the Governor sees the true impact of this workforce. Women in non-profit human services organizations are asked to sign-on to this letter asking the Governor to fulfill his promise on delivering for women across New York by investing in non-profit human services organizations. This is a critical issue that must be addressed and each and every sign-on makes a difference by showing the Governor that women in human services are united on this issue.

Please share this with your networks and colleagues, asking women who work for non-profit human services organizations to sign-on by February 25th, 2019.

As our campaign prepares for the 2019 Legislative and Budget Session, we are asking you to meet with your local State Senator and State Assemblymember in district, throughout December, to discuss our budget priority on ensuring that the statutory COLA (Cost-of-Living-Adjustment) is not taken out of the budget and for the Legislature to join us in our advocacy. (Due to the recent November elections, the composition of the legislature has changed. Please refer to an updated list of State Senators and Assemblymembers.)

A statutory COLA for human services providers with state agency contracts exists in the state budget, but is consistently taken out. Deferring the human services COLA means that human services contracts have not seen a salary increase in 8 of the last 10 years, totaling well over half a billion dollars in withheld salary adjustments. That is why we are asking the Legislature to join us in calling on Governor Cuomo to keep the statutory COLA in this year’s state budget.

This winter is a perfect opportunity to meet with State Senators and Assemblymembers before they head of to Albany in the new year. You can find talking points (internal information), the one-pager (general COLA information to be handed to legislator) and a fact sheet (more detailed information on COLA if they request it) on the campaign website for your meetings. If you need assistance scheduling the meetings or have any questions about the materials, please feel free to contact the campaign at info@strongnonprofitsny.org.

Nonprofit human services build strong communities, and we need your help to put a human face on these critical services.

Are you an elected official?  Tell us how nonprofits make your district strong.

Are you a nonprofit leader or front line worker?  Tell us how you and your nonprofit make your community strong.

Are you a program participant?  Tell us how nonprofits make you strong.  

You can find everything you need to participate (instructions, script, instructional video, etc.) here.  

We hope to collect as many videos as possible  to use in response to the State of the State, and as a precursor to the executive budget.  Send your videos to info@strongnonprofitsny.org.  

You can find the schedule of hearings here, along with the contact person to request to testify. 

If you want to submit written testimony instead, just email it to wamchair@nyassembly.gov within 7 days after the hearing.  Everything you need for written or in-person testimony is here! 

Testifying about other items?  No problem!  If you can drop in a mention of your support for these items into your testimony, that will help us to make the case to legislators that there is broad based support for these items that span across subsectors of human services.

As you know, Strong Nonprofit’s budget asks were left out of Governor Cuomo’s Executive Budget—luckily there is still time to correct this.  Use this link to quickly customize an email to Governor Cuomo urging him to include Strong Nonprofits in his thirty day amendments.  Share with your colleagues, staff, and clients—this is only impactful if we have an overwhelming number, and it takes just a few moments of your time.  Please take action by Wednesday, February 5th.