Fostering Voter Engagement in 2024

With the 2024 presidential election approaching, grassroots organizers and volunteers across Minnesota are working hard to ensure local voters have the resources they need to learn about the issues and head to the polls on November 5.  

The Minneapolis Foundation is pitching in. We recently awarded $500,000 in grants to nine nonprofits doing nonpartisan voter outreach in diverse and historically underrepresented communities in the Twin Cities and statewide.  

“Communities thrive as more people participate in our democracy,” said Jo-Anne Stately, the Foundation’s Senior Vice President of Impact. “Voting is a critical launch point for empowering people to speak up on the issues that affect their lives.”  

These grants are supporting nonpartisan get-out-the vote efforts focusing on citizens whose voices too often go unheard, ranging from statewide to localized community efforts. The selected grant partners have deep year-round connections in the communities they serve. Their constituents include immigrants and Minnesotans who speak languages other than English, high school and college students, renters, and Minnesotans living and working in our communities after incarceration for a felony conviction. 

Photo courtesy of Comunidades Organizando el Poder y la Acción Latina (COPAL)

The grants, distributed earlier this spring, include funding for Comunidades Organizando el Poder y la Acción Latina (COPAL), a member-based nonprofit organization focused on improving life for Latine families statewide. “The early support from the Minneapolis Foundation has greatly increased COPAL’s capacity to mobilize the Latine vote across the state this year,” said Ryan Perez, COPAL’s Organizing Director. “We have already hit the ground running to register new voters, secure voter pledges, and inform our community about how to vote early and on Election Day.” 

Another grant will support African Career Education and Resources (ACER) Inc., which works with African immigrant communities in the northwestern suburbs of the Twin Cities. “Our voter engagement work is grounded on this fact: The only way to make our democracy work for the people is by making sure they have the information and tools necessary to participate in it,” said Nelima Sitati Munene, ACER’s Executive Director. “As a nonpartisan organization, funding from Minneapolis Foundation was critical to us to expand the knowledge of our constituency and empower them to be civically engaged, irrespective of political leanings.”

Photo courtesy of African Career Education and Resources (ACER) Inc.

These voter engagement grants build on the Foundation’s longtime commitment to fostering civic participation—a core value in our Strategic Framework. Since 2013, we have made more than $3.9 million in grants to dozens of nonprofit organizations doing nonpartisan work to increase voter participation in communities with historically low turnout. 

This funding is also supporting local communities as Minnesota rolls out new state election laws that took effect in 2023 and 2024. These changes include voter pre-registration for 16- and 17-year-olds, expanded access to translation services for voters who speak languages other than English, restoration of voting rights to Minnesotans who have re-entered the community after a felony conviction, and other policies to expand access to the ballot. 

• African Career Education and Resources Inc.: $50,000 to support nonpartisan voter engagement with African immigrants in Brooklyn Park, Brooklyn Center, Robbinsdale, Crystal, and New Hope. 

• Asian American Organizing Project: $50,000 to support nonpartisan engagement with young Asian American voters in the metro area.  

• CAPI USA: $50,000 to support nonpartisan engagement with Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, and Spanish-speaking voters in the metro area.  

• Comunidades Organizando el Poder y la Acción Latina (COPAL): $100,000 to support nonpartisan engagement with Spanish-speaking and first-time voters statewide. 

• Council on American-Islamic Relations, Minnesota Chapter: $50,000 to support nonpartisan engagement with East African and immigrant voters in the metro area. 

• Jewish Community Action: $50,000 to support and train a nonpartisan tenant coalition that is conducting outreach and educating renters in Richfield, Bloomington, Edina, St. Louis Park, Golden Valley, Minnetonka, and Eden Prairie.  

• LeadMN: $50,000 to support nonpartisan voter engagement with students attending two-year public and community colleges.  

• League of Women Voters of Minnesota Education Fund Inc.: $50,000 to support a nonpartisan statewide communications campaign targeting younger first-time voters.  

• Native American Community Development Institute: $50,000 to support nonpartisan voter engagement targeting Native American communities in the metro area.