ICAN’s 15 for 2015

Activism can be tax deductible!

For over 35 years, ICAN has been fighting for OUR SHARED VISION of prosperity for working families and the middle-class. It’s OUR future – our nation’s future and our family’s future – that’s at stake – not millionaires and CEO campaign contributors. During the past year, we have been busy, using our common-sense progressive voice on the issues that matter. See the list below for our 15 in 2015!

Donate today and your dollars will go to work immediately fighting for fair taxes; no benefit cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid; providing food security; ensuring that citizens get “their day in court”, and creating good jobs that pay a living wage…
…AND WE CAN’T DO IT WITHOUT YOU!

We’re making donating as easy as possible! You can make your secure on-line contribution by going to our webpage www.iowacan.org/educationfund for your tax deductible contribution or you can mail your contribution to

Iowa Citizen Action Network
941 – 25th Ave, PMB 335
Coralville, IA 52241

Again, we are so grateful for you and for your support that allows us to work hard every
day to live up to our mission and vision.

Here’s our 15 for 2015!

1. We Celebrated ICAN’s 35th Anniversary of uniting individuals, cultures, communities and organizations around a common progressive vision where there is justice for all. We had a great event, with local Main Street Alliance members catering and featured speaker Senator Bernie Sanders.

2. We partnered with our friends in labor and the progressive community to help host the very successful Working Families Summit in Ames with 500+ attendees attending workshops, listening to speakers and learning about ways to take action… plus we had our wonderful keynote speaker: Robert Reich.

3. We know courts matter for all Americans regardless of where they live, what issues they care about, and what their income is. At the Federal level we are a part of Why Courts Matter Iowa because we know we need a robust judicial system that is unbiased, diverse, and fair and with Senator Grassley as Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, we need to hold him accountable.

4. As part of the state level Justice Not Politics leadership team we are part of a diverse coalition of leaders, organizations and individuals formed in 2010 to protect Iowa’s courts against special interests who are injecting politics into the courts. Working through the power of a coalition, JNP educates the public on the importance of fair and impartial courts .

5. We joined together with The FACT (Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency ) Coalition to put on an advocacy training aims to unite various community members to strategize ways to create a fairer tax system that benefits everyone.

6. We were invited to be a part of the Justice and Disparities Summit addressing racial disproportionality in Iowa’s criminal justice system and other disparities.

7. We are talking to Presidential candidates – on both sides of the aisle, about national security – getting them on the record concerning an over reliance on force making our country less, rather than more security and the impact of Pentagon overspending, including on obsolete weapons, rather than on measures that provide security both at home and abroad.

8. We continue our organizing project, The Iowa Main Street Alliance, providing a public policy voice for small business. We have hosted workshops and trainings on messaging and the issues important to small business owners. AND, one of our Main Street Alliance leaders, ReShonda Young, was honored at the White House for the work we are doing on Women, Work and Wages.

9. We fought alongside our partners for a change in the state’s minimum wage… and we won’t stop until workers receive a raise.

10. We partnered with several organizations to fight for water quality and environmental issues in our state.

11. We co-sponsored “Moral Mondays” at the Iowa Statehouse where important issues were explained and discussed each week during the session.

12. We voiced our opposition to the Governor’s plan to privatize Medicaid and educated our members and friends about the devastating scheme.

13. We continue to oppose the closure of our state’s mental health facilities.

14. We vehemently oppose the underfunding for education in our state.

15. We continue to make sure the voices of every day Iowans are heard to ensure that our voting rights are not infringed upon; that our tax dollars are used to the best possible advantage and that more cuts are not made that will devastate education, small business owners, retirees, the working poor … the list goes on…

…because we know that government for the people and by the people is the best system on earth.