Get Out the Vote
“The vote is precious. It is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have in a democratic society, and we must use it.”
— John Lewis, late civil rights activist and member of the US House of Representatives for Georgia
|
In 2013, when the United States Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act — a critical piece of legislation passed 48 years earlier due in large part to the efforts of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr — Republicans in control of state legislatures sprang into action. They passed and continue to pass laws with the specific intention of disenfranchising whole groups of people who typically vote for Democrats.
KABF is dedicated to supporting the nonprofits who want to help eligible voters vote, just as Kelly, who was an excellent political strategist herself, would want us to. Two states became especially critical to turning the House, Senate and White House blue in 2020: Arizona and Georgia. In 2019, a KABF director reached out to the Rural Utah Project (RUP), a Navajo Nation nonprofit, and asked if they could take the successes with voter registration they were seeing in Utah and apply it to Arizona. Since the Navajo Nation covers Utah, New Mexico and Arizona, RUP readily agreed. KABF gave a grant to assist RUP’s get-out-the-vote efforts in Arizona and encouraged others to do the same. Over a million dollars were raised to help register as many Native voters as possible. Navajo tribal member Tara Benally along with nine others covered close to 70,000 miles in cars and on horseback and registered roughly 6,000 voters in both Arizona and Utah. Political pundits agree that the Navajo Nation delivered Arizona to Joe Biden. 
Rural Utah Project volunteers at a voter registration event
Rural Arizona Engagement (RAZE) is another Arizona nonprofit that KABF gave a grant to in 2019. RAZE co-founders understood that their Southern Rural Arizona community had been left behind, and no groups were working to reach out and follow up on their issues once political campaigning was over. RAZE’s mission is to empower rural communities through education and advocacy. Because RAZE is a permanent presence in the community, they are able to connect with voters by listening to the personal issues, such as the need for teachers and clean water, that affect their day-to-day lives. RAZE programs include: RAZE the Count (census work), RAZE The Vote (voter registration and engagement), RAZE Awareness and RAZE Leaders. RAZE Leaders is an 8-month fellowship that teaches high schoolers from across rural Pinal County how to create the change they wish to see in their own backyards. In 2020, KABF gave another grant to RAZE.
|
Volunteers at multiple events for Rural Arizona Engagement
Georgia was another important state that KABF gave grants to in order to encourage an increase in voter turnout. Georgia’s Senate race was tight. Democrat Jon Ossoff defeated the incumbent, Republican David Perdue. Later, in a special election, the Reverend Raphael Warnock, running as a Democrat, beat incumbent Republican Kelly Loeffler. These two victories were the result of a massive voter registration campaign that included the efforts of a past KABF grant recipient: the New Georgia Project. NGP is committed to civic and political engagement for young people, people of color, and underrepresented communities through focused and effective voter education and voter registration drives. In 2020, KABF gave a second grant to NGP. In an update, Executive Director Nsé Ufot discussed the impact NGP made as well as their plans for the future :
"2020 was an historic year for Georgia and the New Georgia Project, with wins that were nearly 10 years in the making. We had hundreds of staff working to register voters, engage our communities on the issues they care about—access to health care, economic security, COVID relief, racial justice—and connect those issues to the power of voting... Because of your investment in NGP, we were able to harness and leverage the power of the New Georgia Majority—Black, Latinx, Asian, and young Georgians who have been intentionally excluded from the political process for too long…" Here’s a list of other fantastic nonprofits KABF was happy to support, who are doing all they can to help others exercise their constitutional right to vote (click on the links to read more): Georgia Alliance Education Fund Montana Voices League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement |
