Here’s a very special video with highlights from our year, and we do mean “our” because we cannot do the work we do without YOU!

Please consider this your official invitation to JOIN US in this unstoppable movement for change. Together we are strong.

Are you a Global Exchange supporter? Yes? Well then, you are pretty incredible, it’s true.

Throughout our near-25 years we’ve been proud to share the esteemed company of thousands of passionate, bold, and dedicated people, like you.

Your volunteering, your steady contributions, your protesting (at home and on the streets), your consideration for socially responsible travel, your Fair Trade shopping and your faith in justice – all of these actions mean the difference between dreaming a better world for people and the planet and actually making it happen.

To express our gratitude, some Global Exchange staff members gathered together recently to come up with a way to thank the people who make all of our work possible. 

The result is this short n sweet video filled with messages of thanks that come from the bottom of our hearts. We hope you enjoy it! (Oh, and keep an eye out for Abad’s cameo – Global Exchange’s friendly Labrador – who got caught with his tongue out!)

Does the gratitude train stop here?

Not at all!

This week, we’re also sharing stories of a few (five, to be exact) of the amazing individuals, like you, who make our work possible:

• Matt Ramsden, member and supporter, who keeps buying prize drawing tickets even though he has not won yet, all to support the work he cares about.
• Jenny White, superstar volunteer, chocolate lover, and scourge to corporate lobbyists.
• Jennifer Carino, former employee turned Global Exchange Monthly Supporter.
• Lea Murray, took a Reality Tour to Venezuela and came home inspired to share what she’d seen.
• and Lyla Seo, puts her values first when she shops Fair Trade at our San Francisco store.

There you have it, two different mediums, one important message, to say:

Thank you.

P.S. If you want to see all of the thank you pictures from the video (plus a few extras!), you can check them out at your leisure on our Facebook page.

In this post, we thank Lea Murray, Reality Tours traveler extraordinaire! To read about others we’re thankful for, click here.

Lea Murray, Reality Tours Traveler Extraordinaire

Lea (left) with fellow Reality Tours travelers

Reality Tours travelers aren’t tourists.

They’re travelers on a mission.

What makes Reality Tours travelers so awesome is what they do when they get home.  They don’t just unpack their suitcases, they unpack a life changing experience.  Speaking to family and friends.  Hosting film screenings.  And in a few instances, starting their own volunteer efforts to address the issues raised on their journeys.

Lea Murray traveled with Global Exchange on a Reality Tour to Venezuela in June of 2012, and her life hasn’t been the same since.

“Now that I have seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears, what will I do?  I will re-think my life.  I have a new vision.  I want to see how other people live and experience life.  I want to travel to even more places where black Africans were dispersed during the slave trade.  I will travel to Haiti and Cuba and examine the plight of my black brothers and sisters in these small island countries.  I will re-think my business…I will open my eyes — see the vision — and do something to make a difference.  I will participate,” said Murray.

All of us at Global Exchange are grateful for Lea’s efforts to inspire and educate others about what she’s seen, and for the work done by the hundreds of other Reality Tours participants each year.

Every traveler makes a difference.

So to Lea and all Reality Tours travelers, we say…

Thank You.

Know that wherever your journey takes you, we are honored to have joined you.

P.S. Have you watched our new Thank You video yet?

Global Exchange intern Lily showcasing the GEMS membership card next to Fundraising thermometer

Mid-summer has arrived and the thermometer is inching up.  No, not the temperature here in San Francisco, but our fundraising thermometer is inching up towards our goal to raise 100 new GEMS (Global Exchange Monthly Sustainer.)

We need YOU to help us bring it up to 100 by the end of the summer!

GEMS: Helpful for social justice, easier for you!

When you become a Global Exchange Monthly Sustainer  you help Global Exchange create the foundation to move quickly and effectively with a known set of resources.

When we know what will be coming in, we can spend time planning effective and useful campaigns rather than trying to figure out how to raise money for a great idea.

And it is easier for you— no searching for the checkbook, stamp and envelope or credit card.  No wondering about how much you can afford this month. It is simple and easy to make a monthly commitment (as much as you can afford).  Just sign up on this secure page.

What’s in it for you?

By simply becoming a GEMS, your one-time action enables you to contribute throughout the year to important social justice work. Here’s some of what you will be supporting:

• In the heat of this summer your support will make you part of bringing two bus loads of victims of the failed Drug War in Mexico, called the Caravan for Peace with Justice  and Dignity, to share their stories all along the US- Mexico border ending in DC with a Global Day of Action Against the violence.
• • You’ll be part of building a movement to recognize the Rights of Nature as the only way we can prevent climate chaos and protect our beautiful planet Earth. 

  (Sidenote: If the Rights of Nature is important to you, consider joining Global Exchange with Vandana Shiva on the upcoming Reality Tour to India called Rights of Seeds, Rights of Nature.

• You’ll be on the front lines in Charlotte and Tampa demanding that the FIRE  (Finance Insurance and Real Estate sectors ) stop spending $1331 per minute trying to influence the outcome of our democracy. 

New “Meet the F.I.R.E. Sector” report for new GEMS now through end of August

*Limited Time Offer: Become a GEMS by the end of August and we’ll send you the latest full color report: “Meet the Fire Sector: How Wall Street is Burning our Democracy.”

This brand new nonpartisan report contains not only extensive research tracking Wall Street’s investment in political power, but also analyzes exactly how Wall Street has secured ‘industry-loyal voting practices’ of Congress using whopping amounts of money. And right now we’re giving away color copies to all new GEMS!

Building people-to people ties to resist injustice, take action and envision alternatives is what we do best. With a strong monthly foundation from a robust GEMS program we can do just that. Will you join us?

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JOIN US TODAY. BECOME A GEMS!

This woman did.

So did this guy.

Yep, her too. They’re all Global Exchange Monthly Sustainers!