Hyam Kramer
Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
I've
spent 20 years doing fundraising for a wide variety of social change organizations. Being
a part of defining moments in progressive history has been one of the most
rewarding aspects
of my work. Whether it's figuring out how to raise money and support
for saving the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or preserving the tenets
of Roe v. Wade, or taking a stand to protect civil liberties in the
aftermath
of September 11th, or campaigning for the rights of political prisoners
all over the world, I am so proud of what I can help achieve through
our work of communicating with the public one person at a time.
Social movements and social change can happen anywhere, even in your
own backyard. In Massachusetts, where I live, the state Supreme Judicial
Court
recently delivered a landmark ruling for gay and lesbian equality by
holding that same sex couples have the same right to legally marry as
anyone else.
On the day of the court's ruling, I attended the celebration rally at
the Old South Meeting House in Boston. Surveying the packed auditorium
where
other social movements like the American Revolution and the Abolitionist
Crusade had been launched, I was truly moved by the display of raw emotion
and jubilation heralding the dawn of a new day for GLBT Americans. But
I was also tempered by the knowledge that an array of conservative organizations
were already gearing up to amend the US Constitution to prevent enlightened
marriage laws from ever taking hold. That evening, resolved to help make
a difference, I wrote a fundraising script for the Human Rights Campaign
(HRC), one of Telefund's long-term clients, to raise money, recruit new
members and build political power for their campaign to secure true equality.
The new script has been a big hit -- fundraising and new member recruitment
for HRC over the telephone has increased significantly -- fortifying
HRC's resources for the difficult political fight ahead.
Hyam Kramer has worked with progressive non-profit organizations and their fundraising programs for 20 years. Hyam oversees all financial, legal and administrative functions of the company.
