The multicultural youth GOTV guide that my colleague Henry A.J. Ramos I have been working on has been released! While it is focused on California youth-serving nonprofits, it is mostly transferable to other states. Consult the The Democracy Capacity Project voter assistance guide for your state for supplemental information.
The guide is geared towards helping nonprofits turn out young voters of color, but the its recommendations are applicable for GOTV generally. If you work for any nonprofit with a client base, here are two things you can do this year to turn them out to vote:
1. Make sure they are registered to vote! Census data indicates that about 80% of persons who register to vote in a presidential election year actually go out and vote. This is likely because of all the television, radio, and social media messaging that takes place combined with having just recently having registered. In a sense, new voters in a presidential election year have a GOTV campaign aimed at them from a number of sources. So if you can only do one thing this year, make sure your clients get registered to vote this year. (N.B., we only see this phenomenon during a presidential election year.)
2. If you can only do two things this year, make sure to remind your clients to vote and let them know that their vote matters and they are making a difference! Recent research on voter turnout shows that nonprofit clients are particularly receptive to nonpartisan GOTV campaigns supported by nonprofits they have worked with, and that their turnout rates increase significantly when they are encouraged to vote by those nonprofits. Nonprofit engagement can improve the turnout rates across all categories of voters, and has been shown to make significant improvements in turnout rates for young voters, voters of color, and low-income voters.
Improving turnout rates attracts the attention of political campaigns that focus on high-propensity voters. This attention in turn engages voters further and encourages even higher turnout. It’s a virtuous cycle once folks start voting! Make sure to turn out your clients and community to vote this year!
#youthvoting #GOTV #nonprofits #nonprofitorganizations #bolderadvocacy #IRPPE #elections
Explore our new Multicultural Youth Get-Out-The-Vote guide for nonprofits!
Developed through the Institute’s California Explorations Project, this nonpartisan voter promotion guide is intended to inspire and support community-based nonprofit and advocacy groups working closely with voting age youth of color to engage them in local and statewide electoral processes as active and informed voters.
The guide outlines why and how nonprofits are essential for expanding the youth of color vote in California and beyond, and includes strategies and resources for creating an effective multicultural youth GOTV program.
Learn more and download the free guide: https://bit.ly/3VNinLH
#CAExplorations #GOTV #Nonprofits
Director of Partnership & Volunteer Engagement | Strategic Partnership Development
9moCan’t wait!