Examples of Good Nonprofit Citizens

• Nonprofits Fight Voter Supression in 2006 Election: In 2006 nonprofits are leading the charge to protect voters' rights and the integrity of the electoral process. State and local groups have partnered with national organizations that provide information and legal expertise to challenge new laws and regulations that inhibit peoples' ability to register and vote. Known as the "new voter suppression tactics", these laws place unnecessary burdens on nonpartisan, civic-minded groups that want to help people register and vote. Find out more about how these nonprofits are coping with this new challenge. The moral of this story is simple. You don't have to be a voting rights group to fight voter suppression! See more details.

• The New Voters Project is a nonpartisan effort to register young people and get them to the polls on Election Day. In 2004, it succeeded in becoming the largest grassroots youth voter mobilization effort in this country's history, helping to stop the decline in youth voter turnout. Building off this success, in 2006 the New Voters Project is focusing its work on college campuses in targeted states around the country. In each state, New Voters will work to build non-partisan, statewide coalitions of political, university and student leaders; work with university administrators and county elections officials to establish institutional mechanisms that facilitate voting, such as early voting sites, on-campus polling places, having university staff register students to vote during move-in and tuition payment, and allowing volunteers to register voters in the dorms; organize a statewide student voter mobilization training; register students to vote and make peer-to-peer GOTV contacts either in person or over the phone; and conduct voter education events in the weeks leading up to the election. For more information, visit New Voters Project .

• In 2004 the American Civil Liberties Union provided an excellent example of how nonprofits can help with elections with their "Voter Empowerment Cards." These small brochures, currently available for several states, contain information on registration, finding polling places, avoiding election day problems, and contact information in case these is a problem. Check them out here

• The Minnesota Participation Project (MPP) is an effort to support and expand the capacity of Minnesota nonprofit organizations to effectively engage in permissible nonpartisan voter engagement efforts — registration, voter education, and get-out-the-vote activities — in 2006 and beyond. Nonprofit organizations are often underutilized actors in the democratic process. They have credibility, trust, and access to potential voters who are often disengaged from the electoral process. As such, they can be the catalyst for a dramatic increase in voter participation through legal, nonpartisan voter mobilization activities. To learn more about MPP, read the showcase.

• The Virginia Organizing Project is a group dedicated to helping people in local communities address issues that affect their lives. Their voter information sheet is an excellent example, and includes detailed instructions on registration and voting, as well as the positions of the presidential candidates on some key issues. Download the guide at http://www.virginia-organizing.org/voter_guide.pdf

• This innovative project, sponsored by the South Carolina Progressive Network, allows groups to target voter registration drives by providing detailed maps of areas with low voter registration. The data is searchable by several demographics including age, race, income, housing status, past voting, and several others. See it at http://www.scpronet.com/missingvoters.html