Thank You to Our Donors
You fueled our movement and made 2020 YIMBY Action’s most successful year to date!
The YIMBY movement has changed everything. Without the YIMBY movement, I don’t know what we would do. — Scott Wiener, CA State Senator
I truly think this is one of the most important transformative justice movements of our time. — Lori Droste, Berkeley City Council member
At our YIMBY Awards show this past October, Senator Wiener, Councilmember Droste, and dozens of other office holders from all levels of government joined to send the resounding message: the YIMBY movement matters.
In 2020, you sent this message too. Amidst the many anxieties of 2020, you continued to give generously to YIMBY Action.
Your donations told us when families are crammed together in overcrowded homes, where disease spreads more quickly, it’s never been more important to build more housing. When people of color are systematically clustered into overpoliced neighborhoods, it’s time to end segregationist housing policy. When a historic election season asks us to choose leaders who will build a better America, we must elect people who will fight for abundant housing.
Candidly, at the start of the pandemic, we weren’t sure what would happen to YIMBYs in 2020. Would we be the movement that 2020 needed us to be?
Because of you, we can confidently say YES! Your dollars made 2020 YIMBY Action’s most successful year to date. Your support enabled us to:
- More than double the YIMBY army. You enabled us to invest in digital organizing to grow our activist list by 117%. We saw the most growth in cities outside of CA like Denver and New York, and in CA’s Peninsula and Orange County suburbs. Increasingly, NIMBYs will have formidable opponents in our most exclusionary geographies.
- Elect 82 proudly pro-housing city, county, and state leaders. You enabled us to bring to the statehouse the biggest YIMBY cohort in CA history, including the re-election of Scott Wiener and groundbreaking newcomers like Alex Lee. You helped us flip city councils in recalcitrant localities like Menlo Park, Mountain View, and Costa Mesa.
- Win 4,987 homes through project advocacy. You supported unprecedented levels of YIMBY project organizing. Your dollars even enabled notoriously resisted projects like the Terraces of Lafayette (nine years!) and Balboa Reservoir (30+ years!) to finally cross the finish line.
In 2021, we hope you’ll keep on fighting with us. The need for YIMBY activism will still be enormous. Housing serves as a source of jobs and city revenue and will determine how quickly we can recover, and if we recover equitably. The opportunities will be enormous, too. A nationwide reckoning with segregation means single-family-only zoning is starting to crumble in city after city. In California, recent legislative changes to the Housing Element process that YIMBYs helped pass means activists have more tools than we’ve ever had to demand new housing and hold cities accountable for making room.
In 2021, YIMBY Action must continue to meet the moment by growing and diversifying our movement. Everyone impacted by the housing shortage must have a seat at the table where solutions are decided. To build the national discourse capable of overturning NIMBYism, we have to formally expand beyond California. And we have to harness the growing popularity for zoning and permitting reform to clinch the major policy wins that are finally within sight.
Thank you for fueling our movement in 2020! We can’t wait to fight with you in 2021!
With Gratitude,
Laura, Kelsey, Elizabeth, Gillian & the entire YIMBY Action team
P.S. Give your friends and family the gift of being part of the YIMBY movement, too! We now offer gift memberships that come with special swag!
