Nonprofit VOTE's 2010 Census campaign, Nonprofits Count!, is a project to mobilize the half-million charities in hard-to-count communities to engage in the 2010 census. The hosts a map of census offices nationwide, as well as both downloadable and online informational resources for nonprofits on how to help their communities get counted in 2010.
Nonprofit VOTE's model
A Statewide Anchor with a Nonprofit Base: Each Nonprofit VOTE initiative is hosted by an established nonprofit convener with a strong public policy program, such as a statewide nonprofit association. Each state initiative begins outreach with the anchor's existing base of between 200 – 6,000 nonprofit organizations. These nonprofits range from community health clinics to neighborhood development organizations, from new citizenalliances to youth initiatives, from literacy organizations to food pantries. The nonprofit voter engagement initiative is then able to leverage the clout of the anchor organization to engage a base of nonprofits in voter and civic engagement activities. Grantmakers as Conveners: Nonprofit VOTE state-based initiatives build partnerships with community foundations, United Ways and Regional Associations of Grantmakers to act as co-conveners of trainings on nonprofit voter and civic engagement. When foundations invite their grantees to learn tools for voter and civic engagement, it signals to those nonprofits that nonpartisan voter participation is safe and vital to their missions. Tailored State-Specific Nonprofit Vote Resources: Nonprofit VOTE offers an array of "how-to" nonprofit voter engagement toolkits and resources to the entire nonprofit sector. In addition to these, Nonprofit VOTE creates state-specific voter engagement resources tailored state-based initiative's nonprofit community. These tools include training materials, webinars and email communications. Making Democracy Work: Each state-based initiative engages their nonprofit community in activities to help make the democratic process more accessible. Nonprofit VOTE state-based initiatives train nonprofits on recruiting poll workers and nonpartisan poll monitors and actively promote election protection efforts. Additionally, state-based initiatives participate in local voting rights coalitions to address barriers affecting nonprofits and their communities. Finally, Because of the nonpartisanship of Nonprofit VOTE state-based initiatives they can build strong partnerships with the Secretaries of State and election administration officials. Benchmarking and Research: Nonprofit VOTE continues to develop mechanisms for benchmarking and measuring outcomes of nonprofit voter engagement. Nonprofit VOTE state-based initiatives track their outreach and organizing work and then measure the level of sustained engagement of nonprofit agencies. Additionally, Nonprofit VOTE researches best practices trends in voter participation and utilizes these trends to motivate nonprofits, target efforts and correlate successes and challenges.
