Sample letter #1
Dear ----,
I'm writing to ask you to donate to a project that is exciting me very much!It is a Documentary Film about Fred Ross, Sr. who trained hundreds of organizers, including people you know, such asCesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. Fred, Sr. initiated a process that turned them into the leaders we revere today! Fred epitomized “Organizing” - not by being a leader, but by helping DEVELOP leaders.
Fred, Sr. dedicated his life to fighting racism, discrimination, and other injustices by organizing working men and women to help themselves by building powerful grassroots organizations.He understood that while sporadic protests can draw attention to long-neglected problems,in order to create long-term positive change, what is required is the day-to-day intentional work of creating a power base.As we know, nochange can happen unless people have a say in the key decisions that shape their lives and working conditions.Fred’s groundbreaking organizing efforts improved the lives and livelihoods of thousands.
There has never been a time when foundational organizing principles were more needed than today. So this Documentary Film is being designed to serve as a guide for successful organizing. Fred Ross Sr.taught people how to channel their anger and frustrations into powerful actions that can win concrete victories.Just as Fred Ross Sr. modeled it for us, we want to mobilize people to challenge police brutality, fight racism, and safeguard voter registration and voter turnout.
My personal link to Fred Ross Sr. is through my work in the late 80’s as a fundraiser and organizer for Neighbor to Neighbor, founded by Fred Ross Sr.’s son, Fred Ross Junior! We successfully used Fred Sr.’s methods of door knocking, house meetings, and pressuring Swing Votes, to stop Congress from funding the Contras in Nicaragua.
To inspire a new generation of activists to organize for systemic change, award-winning documentary filmmaker Ray Telles, and Fred Ross Jr., are making a documentary to show how collective action can combat racism, bigotry, and greed.
I am seeking your support for this documentary film that honors the immense contributions of Fred Ross Sr., but also strengthens trainings for workers and community members to become activists, leaders, and elected representatives. Watch the five-minute trailer to get a feel for the film’s historical depth, and the urgent relevancy of Fred Sr.’s life work today. https://youtu.be/YRUJ8jJ5V5Y
I hope you will be inspired todonate$30 or $100,or any amount you can, to fund the completion of this important film. I believe the film will be a tool we can use to transform our communities.
Thank you so much for considering this request.
Sample letter #2
Dear ______,
I'm writing to ask you to donate to a project very dear to me and my vocation, a documentary about the organizer Fred Ross, Sr.
Why Fred Ross? My dad said his work in the migrant camps of the New Deal were the high point of America's moral response to the Great Depression.
Wasn't that a long time ago? It was just the very beginning. When I was growing up, my family esteemed Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. Fred knocked at their doors and started the process that made them the leaders we revere today. He epitomized the vocation of organizing -- not by being a leader, but by helping DEVELOP leaders.
He was the inspiration for a suburban kid like me to do organizing the way I have. His methods of door knocking, house meetings, and leadership development have guided my work in Black neighborhoods of Baltimore and housing developments in Worcester and Lynn, and with SEIU home care and child care providers.
This film will help inspire a new generation of labor and community organizers who see the cause of justice in the struggles of low-wage workers and low-income communities, and the cause of humanity in their empowerment as activists, leaders, and elected representatives.
Watch the five-minute trailer of the film to get a feel for the historical depth and urgent relevancy of his story.
And please donate $100 or what you can to fund the completion of the film, so you and others can use it to train and inspire people in the HOW-TOs of true organizing.
Thanks so much!
Sample letter #3
Dear …….
We have all heard about Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, but few of us know Fred Ross Sr., the man who trained and guided them to become the amazing organizers they were. Cesar Chavez once said about Fred: “ He did such a good job of explaining how poor people could build power, I could even taste it: it’s like digging a hole - there’s nothing complicated about it.” In this precarious moment in our country’s history, it has become urgent to recall the teachings of a man who understood that inequality leads to injustice - and that positive change only thrives if addressing injustice also includes long-term change. We are writing to ask you for your support for an exciting project! Please help us to tell the story of legendary organizer, educator and agitator, Fred Ross Sr.
To inspire a new generation of activists to organize for systemic change, award-winning documentary filmmaker Ray Telles, and Fred Ross Jr., are making a documentary to show how collective action can combat racism, bigotry, and greed. Fred’s groundbreaking organizing efforts improved the lives and livelihoods of thousands. After World War II, in the face of KKK activity, Fred organized Civic Unity Leagues in California’s Citrus Belt. He brought Mexican - Americans and African Americans together to battle segregation in schools by building their Voting Power, and holding elected officials accountable. In Orange County, CA, he organized parents to fight rampant segregation in the local schools, and successfully integrated local school boards across the Citrus Belt through Voter Registration drives and civic engagement.
Perhaps the most dramatic outcome of his early work occurred when Mexican- American parents sued the Orange County school districts and prevailed - laying the foundation for the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown vs Board of Education which finally declared segregation in public schools to be unconstitutional!
Fred Ross, Sr. learned that winning systemic change requires identifying, recruiting, and developing grassroots leaders, who will go on to build enough power to prevail. Leaders like Dolores Huerta, Cesar Chavez, Ed Roybal, Cruz Reynoso, Herman Gallegos, and many others who changed the lives of millions in the U.S. and across the globe, were developed by Fred Ross Sr.
By telling Fred’s story we can highlight his strategies to create a groundswell of outreach and organizing that will engage activists at local, state, national and international levels.
As we witness growing divisions and their corrosive impacts infiltrating every sector of society, the lessons learned from Fred Ross, and the ways they can be applied to remedy today’s injustices, are more important and relevant than ever. The Time is Now!
Online contributions can be made at www.fredrossproject.org and please make checks payable to CREATIVE VISIONS and write “Fred Ross” in the memo section. Mail the check to CREATIVE VISIONS, c/o Grace Breuer, 1047 Ford Drive, Nipomo, CA 93444
Sample letter #4
Hi All,
Lately, I've been helping with a documentary film project that I would like you to support. A very timely one. Below is the link to the Project. Fred Ross was there at many crucial moments but never in the limelight. His working life spanned the 30's to the late 80's. He was in the California Labor Camps during the Depression before Steinbeck. After WW2 he brought Japanese-American families out of the Camps to resettle in California. A very unpopular thing to do at the time. Fred then went on to pivotal roles in Community and Farm Labor Organizing on the West Coast. If I could describe him as I remember him it would be like if Dorothy Day was a Master Sergeant.
It's time now to bring him forward. Not for nostalgia but for inspiration and a good reminder of how organizing is done. The Young workers in the service industry are restless. I'm thinking about Starbucks and Amazon and all the other service workers, maybe our present-day Wobblies. This will be a movie for them. If anyone else would like me to talk about this project, say to your friends or family, let me know.
Thanks, as always,