By Patrick Stevenson

Hi, I’m Patrick, and I oversee the grassroots fundraising program at the DNC. But what I want to do today is tell you a little bit about my grandma Joyce.

(Stick with me for a minute.)

My grandma is 94 years old, and has been a loyal DNC donor for decades. For as long as I can remember, she’s had a framed photo of Bill Clinton hanging up in her house, thanking her for her support. She is not a rich woman — she’s a retired public school teacher who still lives in the same house she and my grandpa bought with help from FDR’s G.I. Bill after my grandpa served in World War II.

She’s just a loyal Democrat who chips in a few dollars whenever she can to help elect people to office who will fight for a better future for her grandkids.

I wouldn’t ask my grandma to support anything I didn’t firmly believe in — and I wouldn’t ask you to either.

If you’ve made a donation to the DNC (or any other Democratic organization or candidate) this year, I’d like to thank you. You, along with my grandma and millions of other people across the country, are a part of a community of grassroots supporters who keep this party running.

The staff at the DNC believes in what we’re doing as a party. We believe that the new investments the DNC is making in grassroots organizing at the state and local levels are the best way to rebuild our party. And we believe that the best way to rebuild the Democratic Party is from the ground up through grassroots support — our party is healthier when we’re supported by people like you.

Which is why I am proud to share some incredible news with you: The DNC demolished our August grassroots fundraising goal — in fact, this past month was our best in nearly four years, and was the most money we’ve raised online in August in our organization’s history! This wraps up a historically good online fundraising summer for the DNC — we’ve raised 23% more this summer than we did during the same period in 2014, and almost five times what we raised over the same period in 2016. Take a look:

In fact, we’ve already raised more online this cycle than we did in the entire 2016 cycle — and it’s not particularly close:

This is all so, so important because the DNC is a majority grassroots-funded organization — 58% of our organization’s fundraising this cycle has been from supporters giving $200 or less. People like you. People like my grandma. That surprises a lot of people, but it shouldn’t. The DNC is receiving more of its resources from grassroots supporters this year than we have in any year since we re-elected Barack Obama.

My personal favorite part of this is how much of this support is coming from our supporters who are making a monthly sustaining donation — our sustaining base has shot up over the past few months, which means this surge in support is going to benefit our party over the long term:

Long story short: This is my second stint at the DNC, and I don’t mind telling you that when I came back here last year, this organization was in pretty rough shape. In the months since, I’ve watched this place completely transform — we’ve been able to hire incredibly bright people to do innovative, exciting work, and it’s paying off in the field. Our team is able to provide critical tools, trainings, and resources to campaigns and state parties across the country — resources that they need to win this November. That’s only been possible with support from people like you.

If we win this November, it will be because of people like my grandma Joyce — people like you — who fought back to transform our party and our country. Thank you so much.

Patrick Stevenson is the DNC’s Donor Mobilization Director. Want to be one of the grassroots donors powering the Democratic Party? Start here.