Today, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) announced Vote Your Voice grants to 55 civic groups and voter outreach organizations across the Deep South totaling $11,285,000.
Earlier rounds of Vote Your Voice grants focused on voter mobilization for the 2020 election. Today’s grants will be multi-year and support voter mobilization in local elections and the 2022 midterm elections as well as wider civic engagement activities in redistricting, voting rights advocacy and voting rights restoration. Another development in the initiative is the sheer number of groups supported – representing a range of staff and volunteer sizes, geographic and population focus, and strategic approaches to community engagement.
“The work to build a multiracial democracy where everyone is represented and has a say can’t just happen in the months before an election,” said Margaret Huang, CEO and President of the SPLC. “This work must be sustained year-round, every year, so that we can have equitable participation and representation in our democratic systems — especially with the newly passed state laws that will make voter registration and voting more difficult. Today’s announcement that the Vote Your Voice initiative has provided multi-year grants to 55 organizations of all sizes across the Deep South will support that vital democracy-building work.”
What unites these 55 organizations, primarily led by people of color, is their demonstrated previous success in empowering communities of color, LGBTQ communities, Native communities, immigrant communities, communities of faith, returning citizens and young people in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi.
Examples of grants include:
- Faith in Action in Florida will work with congregations across the state to engage community members in voting and other civic actions through virtual town halls, community events such as food giveaways, church activities, phone banking and texting, among other strategies.
- Center for Pan Asian Community Services in Georgia is building on its network as a service provider to Atlanta’s Asian American population to encourage voter participation through multilingual outreach that will include information at service sites, phone banking, texting, social media outreach, events and bus tours.
- Southern Echo in Mississippi will engage in year-round voter registration and mobilization; the organization also will lead redistricting training sessions and help community members to develop sample district maps that best represent their communities.
The $11,285,000 announced in grants today is broken down as follows:
- $1,365,000 to nine groups in Alabama
- $3,160,000 to 12 groups in Florida
- $2,920,000 to 15 groups in Georgia
- $1,100,000 to six groups in Louisiana
- $1,040,000 to five groups in Mississippi
- $1,700,000 to eight groups doing work across multiple states
Across all rounds of grants so far since the initiative’s announcement in June 2020, $23,330,000 has been distributed throughout the five states. The 55 grant recipients and amounts distributed in this round are at the conclusion of this release.
Announced in June 2020, Vote Your Voice is an initiative between the SPLC and the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta to invest up to $30 million through 2022 from the SPLC’s endowment to engage voters and increase voter registration, education and participation; support Black- and brown-led organizations often ignored by traditional funders; support and prototype effective voter engagement strategies; and re-enfranchise returning citizens despite intentional bureaucratic challenges.
Additional Vote Your Voice information and previous grantees in the three previous rounds may be found here: https://www.splcenter.org/vote-your-voice
The complete list of today’s announced grants can also be found here: https://cfgreateratlanta.org/2021/04/28/splc-awards-11-million/
2021-2022 GRANTS
Alabama
- Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice: $100,000
Alabama Forward: $300,000
Alabama Institute for Social Justice: $100,000
Faith in Action: $230,000
Friends of West End/Alabama Black Women’s Roundtable: $100,000
Greater Birmingham Ministries: $125,000
NAACP Limestone County: $30,000
The Ordinary People Society: $300,000
United Women of Color: $80,000Florida
Alianza Center: $250,000
Common Ground: $160,000
Engage Miami Civic Foundation: $300,000
Equal Ground Education Fund: $200,000
Faith in Action/Faith in Florida: $300,000
First Coast Leadership Foundation: $120,000
Florida Rights Restoration Coalition: $600,000
Florida Rising: $600,000
Harriet Tubman Freedom Fighter Corp: $50,000
League of Women Voters-Florida: $80,000
Mi Familia Vota Educational Fund: $300,000
NALEO Educational Fund: $200,000Georgia
Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Atlanta (AAAJ): $250,000
Center for Pan Asian Community Services: $250,000
CivicGeorgia: $50,000
Cobb Collaborative: $50,000
Fair Count: $300,000
GALEO: $250,000
Georgia Muslim Voter Project with CAIR Georgia: $250,000
Georgia NAACP: $250,000
Georgia Shift: $100,000
Latino Community Fund: $250,000
New Georgia Project: $300,000
Peach Concerned Citizens: $20,000
ProGeorgia: $400,000
The Arc of the United States: $150,000
Women on the Rise: $50,000Louisiana
Citizen SHE: $100,000
MetroMorphosis: $50,000
Operation Restoration: $100,000
Power Coalition: $400,000
Urban League of Louisiana: $150,000
Voice of the Experienced (VOTE): $300,000Mississippi
Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians: $50,000
Mississippi Delta Voter Engagement Project: $60,000
NAACP Mississippi: $230,000
One Voice: $300,000
Southern Echo: $400,000Multi-state
Boat People SOS (AL, MS): $100,000
Black Voters Matter Capacity Building Institute (AL, FL, GA, LA, MS): $600,000
Crescent City Media Group/Center for Civic Action (AL, GA, LA): $100,000
National Domestic Workers Alliance (FL, GA): $200,000
Poder Latinx (FL, GA): $250,000
Transformative Justice Coalition (AL, GA, LA, MS): $130,000
Vot-ER (FL, GA): $120,000
Vote.org (AL, FL, GA, LA, MS): $200,000
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