Nonprofits like Goodwill® play a unique role within our American society. In addition to providing needed services to communities across the country, nonprofits have the potential to help strengthen our democracy by helping to increase voter participation and turnout.
Engaging New Voters: The Impact of Nonprofit Voter Outreach on Client and Community Turnout, a new report released by Nonprofit VOTE, highlights the potential impact nonprofits can have on increasing voter turnout. In addition to increased turnout, this report overview some of the best practices nonprofits have used to help engage communities and increasing the likely that the people they serve participate in elections. More specifically this report highlights the potential impact of nonprofits on increasing voter turnout among younger Americans, people of color, women, and people with lower incomes.
Because of the often direct contact and interaction with segments of the population who often vote at a lower rate than the average, nonprofits have a unique opportunity to engage with these individuals and increase their civic participation.
Most often, political campaigns focus their attention and resources on “likely” voters. And in doing so, these campaigns will often neglect these segments of the population which can lead to an even lower increase in voter participation. This report demonstrates the opportunity and responsibility for nonprofits to engage with the communities they and to help them with this civic responsibility.
Nonprofit VOTE partners with America’s nonprofits, including Goodwill, to help the people they serve participate and vote. They are largest source of nonpartisan resources to help nonprofits integrate voter engagement into their ongoing activities and services. To learn more about engaging new voters and to read more of this report, follow this link.
