Why would your nonprofit want to help your staff, board, volunteers, clients and constituents vote? What are the benefits for you and the people you engage and serve? Why are nonprofits good vehicles to encourage participation?  Why nonprofits?  Don’t political campaigns already do this work?

With several answers as well, the bottom line is that:

1.  Nonprofits have inherent assets making them strong civic intermediaries to encourage voter and citizen participation

2.  There are strong reasons for nonprofits to increase voting in their communities and promote democracy, including benefits that extend beyond this or any one election.

Here are some ideas and answers from the numbers, experts and experience.  If we’re missing something, let us know.

In the meantime, we hope you agree the reasons are compelling, hopeful and a call to action.  Our work in 2008 and beyond has enormous potential to help ourselves, our communities and the nation.

Nonprofit Assets

•    Our Size

In the last three decades, America’s nonprofit sector has more than doubled in size.

Today the National Center on Charitable Statistics counts one million registered 501(c)(3)s.  Add to that our many branches, offices and separately sponsored programs.  There are another half million advocacy and other nonprofit exempt organizations.  Taken together, the expansive nonprofit sector employs over 14 million people, had 61 million volunteers last year and serves and engages millions more.  Beyond the “independent sector” of 501c3 exempt organizations are state and local government entities like libraries, schools or housing agencies, community-involved small businesses, centers of faith and voluntary associations that play an important role in civic life.

•    Our Composition

Of 501(c)(3) charities, the human service sector is its largest part.  More than 90% have a social or civic mission.  There are larger colleges and hospitals.  The vast majority of community-based nonprofits are small to medium sized health care clinics, neighborhood groups, schools and colleges, literacy and job training programs, disability programs, food pantries and affordable housing, new citizen and youth initiatives and the like.

•    Our Communities and Constituents

Any map of the nonprofit sector reveals its highest density among underrepresented populations with a history of lower voter participation.  In these areas nonprofits have daily contact and connections with large numbers of potential voters through its staff, boards, volunteers, constituents, clients and local communities.

•    Our Credibility

In surveys nonprofits rank high among institutions people trust.  A recent Harris Poll gives us a window into who the public wishes had more influence in political affairs.  Respondents ranked nonprofits and small businesses as people they wished had more say in politics – second only to themselves!

•    Our Social Missions

Nonprofits have social missions of education, service and social uplift.  Encouraging voting and other forms of participation is a natural part.  An increasing number of nonprofits are including civic engagement into their overall mission no matter the issue they address or the community they serve.

•    Our Committed Personnel

America’s service and nonprofit sector is comprised of committed individuals who work every day to strengthen communities and improve the lives of the people they serve.  New studies on voting and ‘altruism’ suggest this caring to be a helpful attribute for voting.   A powerful reason to vote is the hope for larger community benefits that could affect a lot of people.  The research says self-interest is of course part of the equation. The voter may get what they want too!  But hoping for a larger group benefit like better schools, affordable health care, greater or or less government action or a cleaner environment - whatever one’s partisan beliefs - is a reason to take time to vote.  People who care are better voters and well-equipped to encourage others to do so as well.

•    Our Nonpartisanship

The nonpartisan charter of all 501(c)(3) organization is an asset.  Nonpartisanship helps create the trust we have among the people we serve.  It allows nonprofits to work closely with local election boards and Secretaries of States and other nonpartisan entities involved in voting. In a democracy, nonprofits are a healthy complement to the partisan or semi-partisan entities who support candidates and provide a partisan approach to issues and getting out the vote.

•    Our Tax Status

Our 501(c)(3) status is an asset, not always taken advantage of.  It is not only legal but well within our missions to encourage voter and civic participation.  As 501(c)(3)s, nonprofits and charities can do a wide variety of activities to support voting, so long as they are nonpartisan.
 

A Good Match To Why People Vote

Nonprofits’ civic assets are a strong match to established voter turnout factors.

•    Providing a Reason to Vote

Voters turn out in greater numbers when something at stake.  A nonprofit’s call to vote in the upcoming election says to their communities the election is important to its issue and mission.  Distributing sample ballots or alerting members of a candidate forum takes this further.

•    Making Personal Contact

People vote when they discuss the election with family, friends or someone they trust. Nonprofits and other civic entities have daily contact with millions of Americans – many of whom may not get contacted by a campaign or discuss politics at home.

•    Lowering the "Costs of Voting"

The information or logistical costs of voting make a difference for many, especially new voters and those with the least resources.  Nonprofits can help their staff or constituents navigate the voting process.  Check their registration. Find their poll. Vote early. Or just remember the date!

•    Addressing Barriers; Supporting Fair Elections

Outmoded voting practices that vary in all 50 states still disenfranchise hundreds and thousands of interested voters in national elections. Nonprofit communities can join efforts to address election practices that make it harder to participate and narrow our choices on the ballot.  We can urge our communities to become poll workers.  Remind people where to call for help on Election Day.  Support election day registration, nonpartisan redistricting or other ways to raise election standards and encourage competitive elections.

•    Encouraging Other Kinds of Civic Engagement

Any form of civic engagement creates a more likely voter. Throughout the year nonprofits can incorporate civic engagement activities that signal to their members their issue concerns and interest in government. Activities work both because they might encourage voting and civic engagement and also provide opportunities for people to get involved witht the civic activities and in other efforts to improve their community.

Reasons to Encourage Voting

•    Wide Gaps in Who Votes Undermine Democracy and Our Nonprofit Missions and Goals

For the past three decades voters have been disproportionately of higher income, older or more partisan in their interests. Parallel to participation gaps are widening gaps in wealth, reduced opportunity for youth and frustration with the polarization in politics.  In the last election this began to change.  Young people did turn out in greater numbers in 2006 and have participated in large numbers already this year. How would our world be different if everyone participated?

•    Our Communities Are Not Being Reached About Elections

There are large gaps in who gets contacted in an election campaign.  Millions of Americans, especially those served by the nonprofit sector, report not being reached by traditional campaign tactics like a phone bank. 

•    The People We Serve Are Least Likely to Understand the Process

Voter participation is a learned activity.  A fact that stands out in the literature is the powerful influence of families in voter and civic participation.  As service providers and advocates, we can be too.  New voters need our help finding their poll, a number to call for help, learning their voting options and understanding what’s on the ballot or the impact of this election on the issues they care about. It’s also true that communities who have been traditionally underrepresented in the democratic process often face significant barriers to voting, both discriminatory and inadvertent (we move a lot).

•    A Working Democracy Is Critical to Our Nonprofits Goals and Our Civic Missions

The independent sector depends as much as any on good government and fair and open elections.  Democracy is something we can’t take for granted. It needs our help.  Nonprofits are more likely to thrive in an environment where government is held in higher esteem and people are more likely to participate in and trust democracy.

•    Who Votes Matters

Elected officials know who votes. If your community is turning out well below other neighborhoods, elected officials will pay less attention, make fewer appearances and fewer appeals to your neighborhoods.  Who votes has a powerful impact on public policy and government.  Laws passed. Appointments made. Budgets created.  Your constituents have policy and political concerns – whether the direction of an issue or priorities of public budgets – that won’t be heard if they don’t vote.

•    Voting Itself Matters and Carries Benefits to People Participate

People who vote are associated with a host of positive civic, health and social factors.  Among the most studied are that voters are known to be more engaged in other activities like volunteering or contacting their election official.  They are more informed about local affairs and a contributor to their neighborhood’s “social capital.”  Voters live in communities where there is more trust and people have contact with their neighbors.  They are more concerned about their communities and peers and have a greater sense of their ability to impact the world around them.

While these are correlations that work both ways, voting is an important part.
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Who Is A Voter?

Besides the demographics of age, education and income, what are the strongest attributes of people who vote?

A Voter Is . . . .