Executive Summary 

Historically, New York City's voter turnout rate for local elections has been abysmally low, ranking towards the bottom among large American cities, with roughly only 1 in 4 eligible New Yorkers participating. In 2021, amidst the context of a high-stakes mayoral and city council election, the GoVoteNYC donor collaborative formed with the goal of changing this trend. The collaborative secured commitments from 12 donors totaling $2.45 million to support its first two years of grantmaking, with the shared vision that New York City will flourish when all New Yorkers are informed, engaged, and participating in civic life and the elections for municipal and state leadership.

GoVoteNYC has advanced its mission by making grants, providing capacity building support to nonprofit partners, and hosting learning opportunities for both grantees and donors. 

Fund Impact

After its first two years, GoVoteNYC and its nonprofit partners have seen promising signs of impact, including:

Increased voter turnout. 

GoVoteNYC nonprofit partners were able to increase voter participation among community members they contacted, particularly among communities with lower rates of participation. Nonprofit partners contacted 2 million New Yorkers in 2021 and 1.8 million in 2022. 

In 2021, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color voters canvassed by GoVoteNYC grantees voted at almost double the rate of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color voters who were not contacted (37% of BIPOC voters canvassed by GoVoteNYC partners voted versus 20% of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color voters not contacted). 

• Hispanic voters engaged by the Hispanic Federation voted at double the rate of overall Hispanic voter turnout.

• Voters contacted by a coalition led by the Asian American Federation turned out at a 15-point higher rate compared to the rest of the city (40% versus 25%)¹.

• The work of MinKwon Center’s coalition contributed to a 60% increase in Asian-American primary voters in the eight communities they targeted.

• People who pledged to vote with United Neighborhood Houses settlement houses were almost twice as likely to vote when compared to average city turnout. 

In 2022, GoVoteNYC grantees engaged voters across five boroughs, in 40 neighborhoods, and in all but one of 51 City Council Districts. Voters canvassed by GoVoteNYC groups turned out at higher rates in all three elections compared to the overall turnout rate for voters documented within the standard voter database. Turnout among canvassed voters was 11 percent higher in the November general election (37% compared to 26%). Black, Indigenous, and People of Color voters canvassed by GoVoteNYC groups turned out at higher rates in all three elections, including 70% higher in the June primary.

GoVoteNYC partners demonstrated the strongest success when they used relational voter outreach methods with friends, family, colleagues, members, and clients, an approach that leverages the credibility and trust they have established within their communities. For example, these approaches resulted in the highest turnout amongst canvassed voters in the November 2022 general election (42%) when compared to text (31%), door-knocking (33%), and phone (27%) tactics. GoVoteNYC nonprofit partners found the following strategies to be effective in getting out the vote:

• Relational outreach, rather than one-off, transactional Get Out the Vote (GOTV) mass texts or phone calls. 

• Turnout work embedded into existing programming, building on long-standing relationships.

• Varied outreach methods, employing multiple, reinforcing touchpoints.

• Language-specific and culturally responsive outreach.

Building blocks for a citywide civic engagement infrastructure.

Nonprofit partners built fruitful connections with other organizations, laying the groundwork for a strengthened infrastructure for civic engagement in the city.

Strengthened organizational capacity and field learning.

Nonprofit partners’ organizational capacity increased through the hiring of new staff, expansion of outreach efforts, capacity-building and technical assistance support, and subgrants to hyper-local organizations. Nonprofit partners and donor members found GoVoteNYC’s webinar series to be informative and interesting, exposing attendees to new ideas and developments in the civic engagement landscape. 

Considerations for Future Work

As GoVoteNYC continues its work to increase voter turnout and reduce barriers to voting, there are opportunities to build on the lessons learned over the last two years and amplify impact within its work. All interviewees stressed the importance of a sustained and broadened focus on year-round civic engagement.

Grantmaking Priorities 

While most donors believed that GoVoteNYC should continue to fund its current portfolio, they acknowledged multiple perspectives as to which types of groups to prioritize and how narrowly (or broadly) its strategy should be focused. Suggestions from donor members on how to deepen or expand the collaborative’s grantmaking priorities included increased attention to youth and/or young adults, support for structural reform to voting processes, attention to innovation, and expanding to a statewide approach. 

Capacity Building 

Interviewees suggested the following to enhance GoVoteNYC grantees’ capacity to engage New York voters: 

• Continue to facilitate connections among cohort members and civic engagement stakeholders more broadly.

• Provide translation support to increase reach to limited English proficiency (LEP) voters.

• Continue webinars, but make them available to a broader audience.

• Organize in-person events. 

Learning and Evaluation

In addition to tracking voter turnout in the communities reached by GoVoteNYC nonprofit partners, donors and grantees suggested the following as important indicators to track for future learning and evaluation efforts:

• More groups integrating GOTV work into their programming, especially organizations that may not have previously engaged in GOTV work.

• Greater collaboration and coordination among nonprofit partners.

• Greater knowledge about elections among low-propensity voters.

• Increased accountability from elected officials and candidates to communities, translating to increased community power.

• Progress toward structural reform in city and state voting systems.  

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