July-November, 2013
Illinois Unites for Marriage is led by a steering committee representing 10 organizations
- Hired a team of 40 staff and consultants
- Passed Senate Bill 10, The Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act with 61 House votes
- Raised $1.443 Million
- Created 8 videos of couples and families telling their stories
- Generated more than 600 news stories and 10 major newspaper editorials endorsing and supporting marriage equality in Illinois
- Produced and ran a radio ad featuring President and Mrs. Obama in heavy rotation during the Veto Session weeks.
- Targeted 38 Illinois Representatives
- Made 75,253 unique voter contacts
- Collected 17,245 We Support Marriage Equality Postcards
- Transferred 31,730 pro-marriage equality phone calls to targeted representatives
- Targeted 92,634 mail pieces to 14 representative districts
- Generated 80,705 emails to representatives
- Scheduled and executed 186 people to attend in-district legislative meetings and 76 legislative office drop-in visits to our 18 final legislative targets
- Generated 29,642 Facebook followers and 2,569 Twitter followers
Illinois Unites for Marriage is a grassroots campaign headed by a coalition of 60 businesses, labor and community leaders, civic organizations, faith institutions, cultural leaders, and Republicans and Democrats who support the freedom to marry in Illinois. The strategy, beginning in June, placed over 20 field organizers throughout the state engaging the ‘silent majority’ of voters to put pressure on swing votes in the Illinois State Assembly to secure enough yes votes to win marriage equality in Illinois.
