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EMAIL_TEMPLATE_STYLE_GUIDE.md

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Email template style guide

  1. Email should include a salutation (e.g., “Dear X,”)
  2. Emails should begin with “My name is [YOUR NAME] and I am a resident of [NEIGHBORHOOD/BOROUGH/CITY].”
  3. Emails should end with:
    [YOUR NAME]
    [YOUR ADDRESS]
    [YOUR EMAIL]
    [YOUR PHONE NUMBER]
  4. Emails should be first-person (e.g., “I demand…” not “We demand…”)
  5. Remove hashtags
  6. We are amplifying calls to defund the police, not reform them. The core message should be a direct statement to defund the police. Specific demands for reforms (e.g., policing tactics and training) will be removed.
  7. Make the email specific to your city/county. Please include sources for this information. Some suggestions:
    • Can you include dollar amounts or percentages of how much of the budget goes to the police, in comparison to other community programs, initiatives, or infrastructure?
    • Can you write about a specific recent event in your city that highlights the flaws of your police department?
    • Can you include information about local economic issues (e.g., existing budget shortfalls, inequities in economic security or outcomes)?
  8. If an email widely pulls in other issues or hones in on something very specific (e.g., funding being reallocated to a single, specific category rather than a more general array of social services), try to generalize. People using this tool can customize their emails to be more specific should they choose.
    • Sample language: “I urge you to advocate for a meaningful reallocation of the city's expenditures: away from policing, and towards social programs and resources that support housing, jobs, education, health care, child care, and other critical community needs.”
  9. Avoid using police framing of community problems, i.e. “crime.” Instead of summarizing social programs as being more effective than policing at “reducing crime,” say that they are more effective at “promoting community safety.”
  10. When referring to racial or ethnic identities, capitalize the identifying word, e.g., "Black Americans", "Latinx residents", "White people".
  11. Avoid referring to the email sender as a "citizen" or "voter". Not all senders may be citizens or voters.
  12. Avoid lists of specific demands, unless you are a local organizer or otherwise accurately (and with permission) representing the demands of local activists/organizers working on abolition/defunding. If you represent an organization and want us to include a template tagged to your group, please email us at [email protected].

Tips

To determine what emails to include, in the U.S., typically the Mayor and City Council determine the budget for the following year (source: National League of Cities). However we recommend looking up the budget process for your local government. If your locale uses both city- and county-level policing (i.e. city police and county sheriffs) be careful to include recipients and language consistent with the department you would like to target.

🌟 Shining Star examples 🌟

Examples from other sources

NOTE: We are doing our best to keep submitted content as-is, though some submissions may undergo minor editing/cleanups to fix typos, grammatical errors, and content that violates our style guide. If the published content does not accurately reflect your original intent/voice, please let us know and open an issue/PR.