Nearly half of nonprofits led by people of color focus their efforts on engaging voters, a report from Nonprofit VOTE finds.

Based on data collected in 2021 from 266 nonprofits nationwide by the Urban Institute, the report, America’s Nonprofits Get Out the Vote (22 pages, PDF), found that 20 percent of all nonprofits surveyed said they did voter engagement “occasionally,” “frequently,” or “almost all the time.” Such engagement includes voter registration, election reminders, election day transportation, and get-out-the-vote campaigns.

However, the share of nonprofits conducting voter engagement varies significantly, as nonprofits that primarily focus their services on underrepresented communities are more likely to do voter engagement (with rates between 29 percent and 37 percent), and those providing services like community improvement, food and nutrition support, job training, and youth services were far more likely to do voter engagement (between 32 percent and 37 percent). Moreover, nonprofits with budgets of at least $500,000 were more likely to do voter engagement than those with budgets below that figure (28 percent vs. 15 percent, respectively).

The survey also found that between 38 percent and 50 percent of surveyed nonprofits led by Black, Indigenous, or people of color (BIPOC) were active in voter engagement, including nonprofits with majority BIPOC boards; nonprofits with CEOs of color (especially nonprofits with Black or Hispanic/Latinx CEOs) and nonprofits with majority BIPOC staff.

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