Nonprofit organizations' voter engagement efforts played a significant role in increasing turnout among underrepresented voters in the 2020 elections, a report from Nonprofit VOTE finds.

According to the report, Nonprofit Power: Engaging Voters for a More Inclusive Democracy, among Americans who registered to vote, signed a pledge-to-vote card, or completed an absentee ballot request form with one of Nonprofit VOTE's hundred and eighty partner organizations, an estimated 75 percent turned out to vote, compared with 72 percent among other voters with similar demographics. Based on data from about twenty-five thousand of the seventy thousand eligible voters the effort reached in seven states, turnout rates were measurably higher among those historically underrepresented voters who were engaged by nonprofits than among comparable voters, including Asian-American and Pacific Islander (80 percent vs. 74 percent), Hispanic/Latinx (66 percent vs. 61 percent), young (63 percent vs. 58 percent), low-income (58 percent vs. 51 percent), and non-college-educated (72 percent vs. 68 percent) voters.

The report found that people of color accounted for 53 percent of voters engaged by nonprofits, compared with 22 percent of all registered voters; those between the ages of 18 and 24 accounted for 16 percent of nonprofit-engaged voters and 10 percent of registered voters; and those with annual incomes under $30,000 accounted for 40 percent of nonprofit-engaged voters and 20 percent of registered voters.

The study also found that nonprofit engagement among underrepresented voters helped close voter turnout gaps between and within racial/ethnic groups. Nonprofit-engaged Black voters with low-propensity voting histories had a 34 percent turnout rate, compared with 23 percent for other low-propensity Black voters and 33 percent for low-propensity white voters; low-income Latinx voters saw a 55 percent turnout rate, compared with 45 percent among other low-income Latinx voters and 55 percent among low-income white voters; and non-college-educated AAPI voters had a 75 percent turnout rate, compared with 68 percent among other non-college-educated AAPI voters and 79 percent among college-educated AAPI voters.

"We've always believed that our democracy works best when more people vote. And we know that nonprofits — from food pantries to health centers — can be at the forefront of ensuring the communities they serve are part of the democratic process," says Nonprofit VOTE executive director Brian Miller. "This report illustrates that when nonprofits commit to nonpartisan voter engagement they boost voter turnout and narrow voter turnout gaps to foster a more inclusive democracy."

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