November 2024: The Impact of Your Support
Dear friend,
Last month, we reached out to tens of thousands of Strong Towns supporters and asked them to become members. Their enthusiasm was overwhelming — 670 new members in a record-setting week! Accelerating member activation is how we ensure our message reaches further and deeper, reshaping communities from the bottom up.
“Strong Towns has brought so many people, especially young people, into the local political process in my community.”
Sullivan Israel, Strong Towns Member
Today, I’m writing to you directly because you’ve shown a profound understanding of the stakes that our communities face — and the potential impact of your leadership. As a key supporter of Strong Towns, your transformative gift of any amount will help us take bold steps forward in 2025.
Your leadership-level support enables us to go beyond maintaining our work — it gives us the resources to accelerate it. I want to take a moment and outline three specific things (among many) where your investment will make a difference.
Housing Reform. Following the release of our new book (National Bestseller) “Escaping the Housing Trap” in April, I and others on the team spent the remainder of the year on the road speaking to audiences about housing. We had huge crowds; this is the topic every community is wrestling with. Regardless of how the election season turned out, this was always going to be a moment where local leadership became paramount.
The Strong Towns response to the housing crisis has three parts: regulatory reform, activating incremental developers and local financing. We are planning to release three toolkits in 2025, one for each part, to simplify and focus support for local leaders who are ready to take these steps. We want this campaign to culminate in a housing summit where we bring together local leaders, incremental developers and local finance around these ideas.
We have the clout, expertise and capacity to pull this off, but we need a surge in resources to give it the impact it needs. Without dedicated backing for this campaign, we are hesitant to commit base resources to an effort that may not have the disproportionate impact we seek. We need up-front commitments so we don’t overpromise, underdeliver and end up falling short.
“Strong Towns inspired me to become an incremental developer. My third and fourth home projects will be complete in February!”
Josh Tomey, Strong Towns Member
Local Conversations. Our program for bringing local advocates together — the Local Conversations program — has been slowly building since we launched it two years ago. We are now up to 250 groups with 467 official leaders across North America. These groups are incredibly effective, and you don’t have to take my word for it. Go to any social media account and search “Strong Towns” to be inundated by the amazing efforts of these local groups.
I have people internally who want us to pour gas on this fire, but we’ve purposely held back. It’s not only a resource issue — I know we only get one clean shot to do this right. The “Don’t Be a Jerk” agreement we have group leaders sign was effective in establishing a culture and keeping everyone on message during a bitter election season. I share the growing confidence internally that we can expand this program without it spinning out of control.
Our group leaders become members as an important commitment to the movement, but sustaining this effort still requires significant financial support beyond membership. To accelerate — to reach our goal of doubling the number of Local Conversations in this coming year — we must add staff and make other strategic investments. To do that, we need committed support from people and organizations that share this vision. We can’t risk Local Conversations, and the thousands of people we are activating, becoming an area we are forced to pull back from.
“Strong Towns has quite literally changed my life. Since hearing about it, I’ve been inspired to advocate for change in my area…”
Audrey Everett, New Strong Towns Member
Safe and Productive Streets. A donor (who wishes to remain anonymous) provided us with significant financial support to launch the Crash Analysis Studio. After nearly two years of holding public sessions online, we summarized our findings in the report “Beyond Blame: How Cities Can Learn From Crashes To Create Safer Streets Today.” A successful press effort has resulted in dozens of media interviews, thousands of report downloads and even a college professor teaching his students this approach.
In terms of resources, however, this impactful program has now become an orphan. It doesn’t align with state and federal safety programs (it actually challenges those efforts), so the millions funneled into those channels have been unavailable to us, thus far. We’ve been close to obtaining philanthropic backing from several foundations affiliated with insurance companies and one auto manufacturer, but there is institutional hesitation to what is — at least for them — a radically new approach.
When we talk to local leaders, they want this, but they need help. We realize that online training here isn’t enough; we need to get out in these places and walk them through the steps of getting a Studio started. This coming year, we’re planning to launch a program to do just that, but we also know that the places most energetic about this approach are places that struggle with the resources to bring us to town. To have a breakthrough, we need a meaningful number of communities we can hold up as successful examples. We are close! We just need a little more support here to turn this momentum into a wave of change.
“I'm so glad that you are building the Crash Analysis Studio! It will greatly benefit communities in North America, and even around the world. I am praying for everyone at Strong Towns and all the work that you do.”
Jody McRoberts, Strong Towns Member
There is a lot more that we’re working on, but these initiatives are the ones that urgently need a committed partner. A gift of any amount this year will ensure that the Strong Towns vision continues to inspire action at every level in 2025 and beyond.
And if your organization wants to sponsor these or our other activities, we are set up to have that conversation, as well. The National Gathering, which will take place in Providence this June, is just one of many sponsorship opportunities. We have mechanisms to accept stock transfers, cryptocurrency and other gifts that fit your unique situation.
If you'd like to discuss your gift or explore specific opportunities to make an impact, I’d love to connect directly. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me at marohn@strongtowns.org (please copy Chris Allen at chris@strongtowns.org to make sure nothing gets accidentally overlooked).
Or, if you want to schedule a Zoom or phone call directly, you can go to strongtowns.org/chatwithchuck and pick a time off my calendar. Let’s talk Strong Towns!
“I was elected Mayor of my town, Chugwater, WY on a Strong Towns platform.”
Joshua Hopkins, New Strong Towns Member
Thank you for your belief in our mission and for considering this bold investment in the future of Strong Towns.
With gratitude,
Chuck Marohn
Founder and President
Strong Towns
Some links for you to check out:
Online Donations and Sponsorship Opportunities: strongtowns.org/support
Escaping the Housing Trap: housingtrap.org
Local Conversations: strongtowns.org/local
Crash Analysis Studio: strongtowns.org/crashstudio