Power and Leadership - Vote Your Voice - Field Strengthening Grants

Overview

Background

In 2020, the Southern Poverty Law Center, in partnership with the Community Foundation, launched the Vote Your Voice initiative with the goal of ensuring full voter participation and fair representation for communities of color in the Deep South.

This year, Field Strengthening Grants are offered to fund organizations that effectively engage communities of color year-round to encourage their participation in voting and other civic actions.

In creating the initiative, the SPLC and the Community Foundation recognized that the United States is in a moment of unprecedented challenges to our democracy. At the national, state and local levels, there have been an onslaught of efforts designed to hamper citizens’ ability to vote, with a disproportionate impact in communities of color. New measures include criminal penalties for certain voter registration and assistance activities, barriers to register and vote (such as imposing new voter ID requirements), limited opportunities to participate in elections (by curbing vote-by-mail, early voting, and other practices designed for voting accessibility), and the periodic purging of voter rolls.

Vote Your Voice is supporting groups based in communities of color to galvanize people to exercise their right to vote, advocate for voting access, and encourage full civic participation, so people, particularly communities of color, can make their voices heard and shape their own future. Vote Your Voice supports organizations working in the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Eligibility

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Application Details

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About Vote Your Voice
In 2020, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), in partnership with the Community
Foundation for Greater Atlanta (Community Foundation), launched the Vote Your Voice
initiative with the goal of ensuring full voter participation and fair representation for
communities of color in the Deep South. In creating the initiative, the SPLC and the
Community Foundation recognized that the United States is in a moment of
unprecedented challenges to our democracy. At the national, state and local levels,
there have been an onslaught of efforts designed to hamper citizens’ ability to vote, with
a disproportionate impact in communities of color. New measures include criminal
penalties for certain voter registration and assistance activities, barriers to register and
vote (such as imposing new voter ID requirements), limited opportunities to participate
in elections (by curbing vote-by-mail, early voting, and other practices designed for
voting accessibility), and the periodic purging of voter rolls.
Vote Your Voice is supporting groups based in communities of color to galvanize people
to exercise their right to vote, advocate for voting access, and encourage full civic
participation, so people, particularly communities of color, can make their voices heard
and shape their own future. Vote Your Voice supports organizations working in the
states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi.
About Field Strengthening Grants
The Field Strengthening grants offered this year build upon feedback we received from
the field through a program evaluation, and provide funding to organizations that are
effectively engaging communities of color year-round to encourage their participation in
voting and other civic actions, such as learning about voting rights and other policy
issues that affect their lives, organizing other community members, engaging in
dialogues with their elected representatives, and preparing for leadership roles in civic
and public life. Vote Your Voice recognizes that the process of shifting power so that
communities of color have an equal voice in shaping policies that affect their lives
requires year-round community-building, civic education and civic action.
Field Strengthening grant amounts are dependent upon organizational capacity,
demonstrated outcomes and proposed scope of work. Typical grant amounts will range
between $50,000 to $500,000 and should not exceed 20% of an organization's total
budget. The average grant period is two years.
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Priority Organizations
Vote Your Voice will provide grants to organizations in five Southern states – Alabama,
Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi – to boost voting rates and increase civic
participation among communities of color. Vote Your Voice is particularly interested in
work with voters of color often not well covered by large voter outreach campaigns,
including young voters of color (ages 18 – 35) and voters of color in non-metro areas.
Voter registration and mobilization activities among voters of color, particularly
those facing significant barriers to participation, such as young people, voters in non-
metro areas, returning citizens, those who have been purged from voter rolls and
infrequent voters generally not contacted by the major campaigns. Specifically, these
activities could include:
• Voter registration efforts, which may include educating priority populations about the
importance of voting and how to register and vote as well as providing voter
registration materials
• Voter education efforts, which may include educating priority populations about the
issues and offices on which they can vote and the various ways people can cast
their ballots in their state
• Get-Out-the-Vote efforts, which may include outreach to secure commitments to
vote, reminders to vote and other encouragement to participate in the election
• Use of a variety of methods to reach targeted voters, such as door-to-door outreach,
phone calling, texting, social media, and events
*Grant funds may not be used to advocate for any political party, candidate or ballot
initiative, though funds may be used to provide information about ballot initiatives.
Civic engagement activities, such as educating community members about voting
rights policies and other policy issues that affect their lives, organizing community
members to weigh in on policy issues, facilitating dialogues with community members
and their elected representatives, and preparing community members for leadership
roles in civic and public life.
Efforts to protect voting rights and ensure full access to voting as well as voting
rights restoration for formerly incarcerated individuals. Specifically, these activities could
include:
• Education of the public and/or policymakers about voting rights policies and
measures and their impact on voter access
• Leadership development, advocacy and other trainings and workshops for
community members focused on voting rights
• Advocacy for measures that promote full access to voter participation
• Engagement of new stakeholders in advocacy efforts
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Research to deepen understanding of effective voter and civic engagement
outreach methods and messages. Research could include:
• Testing new voter outreach and civic engagement strategies in partnership with
BlueLabs or another analytical partner to design experiments and assess results
• Focus groups and/or polling to learn more about target populations’ priorities and
effective messages to encourage voter participation
Selection Criteria
• A track record of impact in encouraging voter and civic participation among
communities of color;
• A clear plan and timeline for the organization’s proposed activities and measurable
goals;
• Organizational capacity to implement the proposed plan of action;
• A plan to track outreach activities and impact, including if possible, voter registrations
achieved and voter participation among those targeted;
• A commitment to learning from other initiative participants as well as best practices in
the field to improve on the organization’s approaches for greatest impact;
• A commitment to conducting wholly nonpartisan voter registration and voter
mobilization activities, and an understanding of what is legally permissible.
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Please complete the Organizational Profile and fill out the Vote Your Voice application.
Incomplete applications will not be eligible for funding. For questions about the
Organizational Profile, please contact VoteYourVoice@cfgreateratlanta.org.
We encourage you to include in your application both the strengths and
accomplishments of your work as well as the challenges, needs or gaps that the Vote
Your Voice funding can help you to address.
Vote Your Voice application at a glance:
1. Organizational Background & Objectives
Describe in detail the population the organization aims to engage, e.g. the
characteristics, geographic region and approximate number of those the
organization is aiming to reach through the project, as well as, the organization’s
track record of working with this population and how the organization’s experience
and/or research informs your planned activities to mobilize this community.
2. Project Objectives, Specific Goals and Timeline
Identify your organization’s project objectives, quantifiable goals, and a timeline of
the project’s major activities during the grant period. If applicable, discuss how year-
round activities intersect with and reinforce election-related activities.
• Goals. Provide a brief description of the organization’s voter and civic
engagement goals.
• Target population. Describe in detail the population the organization aims to
engage, e.g. the characteristics, geographic region and approximate number of
those the organization is aiming to reach through the project, as well as the
organization’s track record of working with this population and how the
organization’s experience and/or research informs your planned activities to
mobilize this community.
• Project approach. Discuss how your voter outreach, civic engagement, and/or
voting rights advocacy strategies reflect the current challenges of the moment as
well as effective field practices.
• Specific objectives. Discuss the organization’s specific objectives, per year,
using quantifiable targets to the extent possible.
• Timeline. Provide a timeline of the project’s major activities during the grant
period. If applicable, discuss how year-round activities intersect with and reinforce
election-related activities.
• Measuring progress. Discuss how you will measure the progress of your voter
and civic engagement activities. If applicable, please share an example of how
you have used data in the past to inform how you adjust a program or strategy.
• Capacity-building interest. If your organization is interested in capacity-building
support, please describe the aspect of organizational strengthening on which you
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intend to focus. Please also discuss your staff leadership’s commitment to
engaging with an organizational development consultant to complete an
assessment and finalize a capacity strengthening plan.
3. Voter Registration and Mobilization Tracking/Reporting
Identify how you will measure the progress of your voter and civic engagement
activities. Please note that this is an important consideration in the grant
determination process, as tracking results not only helps individual organizations
learn about and track their progress, measurement also helps the field overall build
understanding of effective voter outreach and civic engagement approaches.
4. Budget
Field Strengthening grant amounts are dependent upon organizational capacity,
demonstrated outcomes and proposed scope of work. Typical grant amounts will
range between $50,000 to $500,000 and should not exceed 20% of an
organization's total budget. Please provide the organization’s projected fiscal budget,
current operating budget, and the last fiscal year budget with actuals.
IMPORTANT DATES
July 27, 2023 Organizations are invited to submit
proposals
August 16, 2023, 12 - 1 p.m. ET *Online orientation webinar for interested
applicants – register here
September 8, 2023, by 5 p.m. ET Proposals are due
Sept. 11 - Oct. 15, 2023 Proposal review period (organizations
may be contacted for additional
information)
October 16, 2023 Grant decisions announced
*Orientation Webinar
Community Foundation and SPLC staff will provide information and answer your questions
during a strongly encouraged online orientation session on Wednesday, August 16, 2023,
from 12 – 1 p.m. A recording of the webinar will also be made available on the Community
Foundation Grant Opportunities webpage after the webinar. Questions can be submitted via
email prior to the webinar at VoteYourVoice@cfgreateratlanta.org.
Questions?
For questions regarding the application process, please contact one of the following:
VoteYourVoice@cfgreateratlanta.org Jovan Paige
Power & Leadership Program Officer
Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta
jovan.paige@cfgreateratlanta.org
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