Hi friends 👋🏻

Today is National Voter Registration Day, and there are just 49 days until Election Day 🗳️ here in the US 😬😬😬

That makes it a great time to remind nonprofit website managers that it is SUPER EASY to add nonpartisan voter registration tools to your website. Let's do everything we can to increase voter turnout on November 3.

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Introducing Vote.org!

I'm a big fan of Vote.org! Vote.org is the largest 501(c)(3) nonprofit, nonpartisan voting registration and get-out-the-vote (GOTV) technology platform in America. Their mission is to remove the barriers that keep voters from making their voices heard at the ballot box.

In the 2024 election, nearly 36% of eligible Americans didn’t vote (Vote.org). And a 2017 study found that more than 60 percent of adult citizens have never been asked to register to vote. (I haven’t been able to find a more recent version of this statistic, but if you know of a source hit reply and let me know.)

This means simply getting in front of audiences that trust you and making voter registration and election planning low friction and easy can make a huge difference.

Whatever issue area your organization works in, we all benefit from living in a more civically-engaged country. So let's make the importance of voting part of your messaging this fall.

How to use the free tools provided by Vote.org

Vote.org provides a suite of free, easy to use code snippets that you can add to your website to allow your visitors to:

• Register to Vote
• Request an absentee ballot
• See upcoming ballot information
• Check their voter registration status
• Get election reminders
• Pledge to register to vote (for users 13 and older)

If you want to see an example in action, check out this article that includes an embedded voter registration check widget. The article also includes instructions for adding these code snippets for both Squarespace and WordPress-based websites.

Here's a preview of what the voter registration check widget looks like:

Despite the high stakes of elections, many nonprofits don’t include voter registration in their community engagement and communications strategy.

Nonprofit organizations exist to try and create change in the world. I don’t know about you, but I struggle to think of an issue area that is not affected by who holds power in our government.

In my opinion, a central goal for every nonprofit communications strategy should be to build an audience of people who care about your organization’s mission.

And when election season comes around, that audience of people who care about your mission will be receptive to a message reminding them how important it is to vote.

For nonpartisan 501c3 orgs, you won't be able to tell them who to vote for (see the article for more resources explaining the legalities of nonprofit voter registration and Get Out the Vote efforts). But you can absolutely remind your audience to vote, and encourage them to do their research about where candidates stand on issues of importance to your organization's mission.

If you need help adding the Vote.org tools to your website, please reach out. Despite a busy calendar, I want to help make sure as many orgs are encouraging their audiences to vote as possible!

Until next time ✨

— Ed Harris (your digital strategy guide)

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