Why would your nonprofit want to help your clients, constituents, staff, board, and volunteers vote? How does it benefit your organization and the people you serve? Are nonprofits effective at encouraging participation? And don’t political campaigns already do this work?
Nonprofits have inherent assets that make them strong and capable proponents of voter and citizen participation. Nonprofit voter engagement can benefit the sector, our communities, and the nation—far beyond the outcome of any particular election.
Nonprofits’ civic assets match up well with established voter turnout factors, making them natural and effective vehicles to promote voter participation.
There are 1.5 million nonprofit organizations in the U.S. that, taken together, employ over 13.5 million people, rely on 61 million volunteers,
and serve millions more. Imagine if everyone we touched voted with their values!
Nonpartisanship - not endorsing specific candidates or political parties - helps create the trust we have among the people we serve and allows nonprofits to work closely with local election boards, Secretaries of State, and other nonpartisan entities involved in voting.
Your board members, volunteers and staff work every day to strengthen communities and improve the lives of the people they serve. Voting turns that energy into better schools, affordable health care, or a cleaner environment.
A 2018 study by Nonprofit VOTE looked at people under 30 who registered to vote or who signed a voter pledge card because a nonprofit asked them to. They found that nonprofits not only engaged a younger, more diverse electorate but that they also significantly increased the likelihood of those voters showing up on election day and voting.
Any form of civic engagement (volunteering, joining an athletic league, attending PTA or neighborhood meeting, participating in a fundraising walk/ride/run, writing a letter to a local newspaper, etc) creates a more likely voter. Throughout the year nonprofits can promote civic engagement activities where you talk about your values and how they link to current issues in the news and on the ballot.
Pictures are of attendees at CalNonprofits’ 2018 Policy Convention:
“Nonprofits Standing up for California"
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