3. Fund Impact

Strengthened Organizational Capacity and Field Learning

GoVoteNYC funding increased organizational capacity for civic engagement among grantee partners, particularly through the hiring of new staff. 

Nonprofit partners stressed how increased staffing was a game changer for them. The idiosyncratic intricacies of both the 2021 and 2022 local election cycles required considerable labor for organizations. The flexible nature of GoVoteNYC funding helped organizations increase their staff capacity. Eight of 10 partners in 2022 said they were able to hire new staff, bring on canvassers, or train volunteers, community members, and interns. Examples of how organizations added to their staff capacity include the following:

• MinKwon brought on an extra staffer to support GOTV efforts. 

• The New York Civic Engagement Table hired a consultant to support nonprofit partners and expand its data team. The consultant/coordinator enabled NYCET to have more in-depth conversations with nonprofit partners about different tactics and measuring progress toward goals.

• The Hispanic Federation hired a civic engagement director as well as paid canvassers.

• Faith in NY promoted a canvasser to a new role as Community Ambassador and hired two paid canvassers to support tabling and other events.

• College & Community Fellowship (CCF) sent flyers to partners and went through an extensive process of recruiting women who were curious about voting and civic engagement, laying the groundwork for a new initiative called Bronx Redefining Advocates for Civic Engagement (BRACE). 

• El Puente hired a Civic Engagement Coordinator, whose role was solely focused on voter and civic engagement-related activities. 
  

GoVoteNYC funding allowed grantee partners to expand their outreach efforts and reach previously underserved communities. 

For example, one nonprofit partner noted that funding allowed them to focus more specifically on the Latinx community, a community that they had not previously targeted in outreach efforts. Several groups mentioned the value of being able to use funds to print physical materials for distribution, translated in multiple languages, allowing them to expand their reach. While the city’s public libraries were already engaged in GOTV efforts, GoVoteNYC funding helped ensure that their resources were accessed by many New Yorkers via an intensive marketing campaign. For other organizations, funding helped support an expansion of in-person events, such as voter festivals.

Capacity-building and technical assistance support from the New York Civic Engagement Table helped organizations utilize data and incorporate new tools to inform their GOTV strategies. 

Almost all nonprofit partners found cohort and 1-1 support from the New York Civic Engagement Table helpful in their work. Nonprofit partners specified the following benefits of engaging with NYCET:

• Developing and managing lists of relevant voter contacts, providing other data, and contextualizing hyperlocal and citywide data.

• Supporting text banks and phone banks.

• Training in voter engagement tools, such as VAN, and other platforms.

• Serving as a thought partner in developing GOTV strategies.

• Providing support for volunteer recruitment and training.

One nonprofit partner shared, “They go above and beyond. They not only put together campaigns, but I also spent a lot of time combing through data with them. For the report we did last year, they were with us from the start looking at the numbers and helping us clean them up. I met with them on a weekly basis, especially during GOTV season.” 

The Asian American Federation described how one of their coalition members requested information about Filipino voters. Through NYCET, they found that less than 17% of eligible Filipino voters were registered, a data point that helped the member organization sharpen its outreach and messaging efforts.

Technical assistance from F.Y.Eye and Hester Street Collaborative in 2021 also proved valuable, but was not fully utilized. 

Hester Street created the interactive Atlas: Vote NYC Map to help GoVoteNYC grantee partners and other community-based organizations, civic institutions, and government groups in their GOTV work. The tool allows organizations to visualize demographic data, voter registration information, polling locations, and community assets, allowing them to target their GOTV outreach efforts. Hester Street also trained nonprofit partners in utilizing this tool and held peer-learning convenings and “office hours.”

As one organization shared, the map allowed them to see which portions of their catchment area lagged in turnout, adding that the map and the team were an ongoing resource. “Our staff met several times to learn more about how to incorporate it into our civic outreach. We appreciated that they continued to update the map with data points we recommended over the past year.” 

However, the timing of the 2021 grants, which were distributed close to the June primary, prevented some nonprofit partners from taking full advantage of Hester Street’s map and technical assistance, which only became available a couple of weeks before the June primary. 

F.Y.Eye worked with GoVoteNYC nonprofit partners to develop ranked choice voting educational materials which were disseminated throughout the city. In collaboration with 18 organizations, F.Y.Eye created 43 PSAs in five languages, resulting in 79 million impressions from bus shelters, ATMs, LinkNYC kiosks, taxi tops, ethnic media, storefront posters in target neighborhoods, and other placements. PSAs were made available to all GoVoteNYC nonprofit partners and other organizations doing GOTV work through the Voting PSA Clearinghouse—a free, open-source toolkit co-created with the Hispanic Federation. 

Funding helped build the capacity of hyper-grassroots organizations.

Some GoVoteNYC nonprofit partners, such as the Asian American Federation, awarded subgrants ranging from $5,000 to $10,000 to organizations they were in coalition with for their GOTV work, allowing these groups to hold events, hire canvassers, etc. Organizations receiving sub-grants were often quite small but also closer to the ground, with important insights on what areas need more outreach or how to develop scripts or materials to reach a particular area or community. Subgrants helped these organizations build their capacity for GOTV work, while ensuring that grant funding reached communities that might have otherwise been overlooked.

For example, South Queen’s Women’s March received a subgrant from the Asian American Federation. The group, formed in late 2019 by a group of women seeking to address violence in their communities, went from a group of people getting together in one another’s living room to holding town halls and engaging in voter education in increasingly sophisticated ways. 

One funder familiar with the group’s trajectory believes the GoVoteNYC subgrant helped the group strengthen its work, “We’re seeing organizations that have smaller budgets have quite a lot of reach because they're partnering with other organizations, they're learning these strategies for…civic engagement and voter engagement. And that feels visible…to track that progress in just a year.”

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. 

Grantee partners and donor members alike lauded the series of webinars on important topics and trends related to voting. Many nonprofit partners said they appreciated getting a birds eye view of the civic engagement and voting landscape, including what was happening statewide and how New York State and New York City compare to other places in the US. Nonprofit partners reported that exposure to the broader landscape helped them be more thoughtful and strategic about their own work. 

Several nonprofit partners appreciated the focus of recent webinars on election reforms and issues that touch on policy and advocacy more broadly, given the connections they saw or hoped to pursue in their own work. One nonprofit partner asserted, “I’m very happy to see they’ve organized a few panels on election reform…because I think policy work to accompany this groundwork and organizing work is essential.”

Several interviewees highlighted the webinar on open primaries as especially interesting, with one sharing, “That’s something that I’ve never seen actively discussed in the New York landscape.” Another attendee shared that the webinar offered important value to citywide civic engagement conversations, “If the GoVoteNYC collaborative hadn't hosted that, I don't know what other venue would have.” 

Likewise, donor members felt these public conversations gave them fresh perspectives on issues related to voting and that they provided valuable information to share with foundation colleagues. Several donor members singled out the presentation from the Hispanic Federation as an especially valuable learning opportunity. One funder stated, “[The presentation] really resonated with me as ‘here's a great example of what this work looks like and what success in this work looks like.’ It felt like we got an inside look in the way that it's hard to get from a written report necessarily.” 

Nonprofit partners and donor members not only valued webinars for their content, but also felt they were a good way to bring people together to share data and new ideas, contributing to a growing infrastructure for civic engagement in the city. 

Donor members appreciated quarterly updates and resources. 

Many donor members expressed appreciation for the quarterly emails sent by former GoVoteNYC director Laura Hansen with updates and links to relevant resources. Donors appreciated the curation, given that they are often overloaded with information, and said it was a tangible resource to share with their colleagues to ensure that GoVoteNYC stayed on everyone’s radar.