It’s still a bit chilly out­side right now in the Pacif­ic North­west, but spring is on the way. Can you feel it? We can, and we’re excit­ed to wel­come the sea­son of renew­al with the news that our 2023 Spring Fundrais­ing Gala will be held Sat­ur­day, April 29th, 2023 in Belle­vue Washington.

We are cel­e­brat­ing NPI’s twen­ti­eth anniver­sary this year and would be hon­ored by your pres­ence and finan­cial sup­port of our research and advocacy.

Tick­ets and spon­sor­ships are now on sale, with ear­ly-bird rates avail­able for indi­vid­ual and house­hold tick­ets for a lim­it­ed time.

Pur­chase now to save 17%-25% off the reg­u­lar price!

There are three tick­et rates:

• Indi­vid­ual ($125, tem­porar­i­ly dis­count­ed to $100; admits one person.)
• House­hold ($200, tem­porar­i­ly dis­count­ed to $175; admits a family.)
• Liv­ing Light­ly ($25, for stu­dents and activists on lim­it­ed incomes.)

A house­hold tick­et admits all the mem­bers of an imme­di­ate fam­i­ly and is a good val­ue if you plan to attend with your spouse or chil­dren. (The gala is a fam­i­ly-friend­ly event, and young peo­ple of all ages are welcome!)

Our gala is the old­est and biggest event that we put on every year, and it is by far the best oppor­tu­ni­ty to meet the NPI team in per­son and learn about what we do.

This will be the fif­teenth NPI spring gala and the sec­ond held in a hybrid for­mat — in-per­son in Belle­vue and remote­ly via Zoom and YouTube.

Hybrid events aren’t easy to pro­duce, but at NPI, we have the exper­tise and equip­ment to do them prop­er­ly, with high pro­duc­tion val­ues. We own our own cam­eras, lens­es, cabling, LED light­ing, livestream­ing gear, and switch­ing boards. We know how to bring podi­um sound right into our livestream, so you can clear­ly hear what’s being said by our speak­ers as well as see­ing them. We’re thrilled to be able to bring this event to sup­port­ers who don’t live close to Bellevue.

NPI mem­bers and Bond­hold­ers know we go to great lengths to make this event fes­tive and infor­ma­tive. Our goal is for all of our guests to be able to spend a mem­o­rable evening with fam­i­ly, friends, and fel­low activists, and sup­port NPI’s vital work (includ­ing pub­li­ca­tions like the Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate!) at the same time.

For 2023, the gala is return­ing to the South Belle­vue Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­ter, a beau­ti­ful space in a park­land set­ting just off of I‑90 (East­gate exit).

SBCC is a pub­licly-owned com­mu­ni­ty gath­er­ing space with a great staff and fast Wi-Fi, owned and oper­at­ed by the City of Bellevue.

As in the past few years, we will be pre­sent­ing a Lynn Allen Award to a dis­tin­guished pro­gres­sive leader who has made indis­pens­able con­tri­bu­tions to pro­gres­sive caus­es. Our past hon­orees include Sound Tran­sit CEO Emer­i­tus Joni Earl, attor­ney Paul Lawrence, Major Gen­er­al Paul Eaton (Retired), activist Alex Hen­drick­son, the late pho­tog­ra­ph­er Al Gar­man, found­ing NPI board­mem­ber Gael Tar­leton, the late Jus­tice Mary Fairhurst, and El Cen­tro de la Gaza­’s Estela Ortega.

Paul Lawrence and Joni Earl with their Lynn Allen Awards (Pho­to: Lin­coln Potter/Samaya LLC for the North­west Pro­gres­sive Institute)

We will also be joined by sev­er­al guest speakers.

Dur­ing the last few years, we’ve been hon­ored to have lead­ers like Com­mis­sion­er of Pub­lic Lands Hilary Franz, Attor­ney Gen­er­al Bob Fer­gu­son, U.S. Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Adam Smith, Kim Schri­er, and Suzan Del­Bene as part of our speak­ing program.

We will be announc­ing our 2023 speak­ers soon.

Until then, you can buy a tick­et at our spe­cial ear­ly-bird rates.

Here’s what else you can expect at our 2023 Spring Fundrais­ing Gala:

• A full din­ner buf­fet with veg­e­tar­i­an and veg­an choices
• Beer and wine selec­tions from our cash bar
• Oppor­tu­ni­ties to min­gle with fel­low activists and elect­ed leaders
• A chance to win a scrump­tious dessert for your table at our Dessert Dash
• A fam­i­ly-friend­ly atmosphere

If you’d like to RSVP for the gala on Face­book, you can do so here.

Stu­dents who want to vol­un­teer to help put on the event can get in the door free. If you’re inter­est­ed in vol­un­teer­ing, please get in touch with us.

We hope you’ll help us make our biggest event of the year a suc­cess by buy­ing your tick­et and com­mit­ting to attend. See you on April 29th!