Southern Poverty Law Center

With voting rights under attack across the Deep South, the Southern Poverty Law Center announced today that it will invest $100 million from its endowment over the next decade to support voter outreach and civic engagement organizations in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Through our Vote Your Voice initiative, we will partner with dozens of organizations to help sustain their crucial work during and in between major election cycles and support their long-term strategic planning for years to come. The Vote Your Voice grants are administered in partnership with the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta.

Voter suppression tactics are escalating, and the ease of voting varies widely by county, even within the same state. Several states, including Florida and Georgia, are implementing new laws increasing barriers to the ballot that affect all voters, particularly low-propensity voters of color, voters who live outside major metro areas, returning citizens and – as evident in SPLC-filed litigation – engagement organizations.

Establish year-round civic engagement activities updating communities on important state and local policy matters and the ways in which they can better engage lawmakers.
Contribute toward expansion of the groups’ fundraising base through philanthropy networks to maximize their reach.
Support efforts that train and help launch a new generation of political leaders in the South.
Build voter engagement that ensures fairness in the 2030 redistricting process.
Innovate – addressing future problems and using to-be-developed tactics and tools – to build additional capacity and trailblaze in work vital to democracy.

The Vote Your Voice program was created in 2020 with 12 grantees. Currently, the program funds 55 organizations and continues to contribute toward the long-term infrastructure of groups that are best suited to boost voter turnout and increase public awareness around issues that impact communities. Here are some of the program’s highlights:

Grant recipients’ efforts had a noticeable positive impact on the turnout rates of traditionally low-propensity voters of color and young voters, increasing turnout by 6% to 14%.
Voter engagement efforts are focused on two groups: low-propensity voters who are members of the new American majority, skewing nonwhite and under 50, and voters outside of major metro areas, who have often been overlooked by many previous voter engagement efforts.
Direct voter engagement like the kind by Vote Your Voice partner organizations has consistently proven to be one of the most effective ways to increase voter participation and education on fundamental rights in the United States. Among the program’s grantees, data demonstrated the greatest boost in turnout among voters under 30.

Thank you for your dedication to transforming our democracy so that every voice and every vote counts. Your support makes deeply important work, especially the Vote Your Voice program, possible.

Sincerely,

Your friends at the Southern Poverty Law Center

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