Today, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) announces second round Vote Your Voice grants to 28 additional voter outreach organizations across the Deep South as part of its voter mobilization initiative.

The organizations have proven track records empowering voters of color, LGBTQ voters, Native voters, immigrant voters, voters of faith, returning citizen voters and young voters. They submitted innovative proposals to boost voter registration, education and mobilization in Vote Your Voice's five targeted states – Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi. 

The grants will help the organizations continue their efforts and scale-up their activities to turn out low-propensity voters amid voter suppression schemes and other barriers, including the COVID-19 pandemic, in advance of upcoming elections. The Vote Your Voice project will award up to $30M through 2022 from the SPLC endowment to organizations doing this work. 

“The 2020 election cycle was shaping up to be historic before the year began, and the monumental stories of the year in public health, racial justice and democracy protection make clear now more than ever that every eligible American needs to have a say in the direction of our communities and country,” said SPLC President and Chief Executive Officer Margaret Huang. “Amid the COVID-19 public health crisis and policies that have decreased equitable access to the polls, we are confident that the resources provided in this second round of Vote Your Voice grants awarded will ensure that more voters are able to cast ballots and have them counted across the Deep South.”

The second round of grant award recipients received $4,565,000 in total. Across both rounds of grants, $10 million has been distributed throughout the five states, including $570,000 in Alabama, $3,000,000 in Florida, $2,460,000 in Georgia, $1,210,000 in Louisiana, $1,205,000 in Mississippi, $500,000 for a project working in Alabama and Georgia and $1,210,000 for multi-state projects.

The 28 grant recipients follow. For more information on how the grants will be strategically used in the last month of the 2020 election and beyond, please contact Graeme Crews at [email protected] or Elyse Hammett at [email protected] for media interviews. 

Alabama

• Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice United: $100,000

• Faith in Action Alabama: $185,000

• Fortitude Foundation (Rollin to the Polls): $30,000

• Greater Birmingham Ministries: $50,000

• The Ordinary People Society: $120,000

• United Women of Color: $20,000 

Florida

• Common Ground Project: $150,000

• Engage Miami Civic Foundation: $150,000

• Faith in Florida, Inc.: $275,000

• League of Women Voters of Florida Education Fund, Inc.: $175,000

• NALEO Education Fund: $150,000

Georgia

• Equality Foundation of Georgia: $170,000

• GALEO Latino Community Development Fund (GLCDF) : $200,000

• Georgia Muslim Voter Project: $110,000

• Georgia Shift: $150,000

• Latino Community Fund, Inc.: $75,000

• NAACP Atlanta Branch: $100,000

• The Arc of Georgia: $30,000

• United Way of Coastal Georgia: $50,000 

Louisiana

• Citizen SHE: $150,000

• The Micah Project: $60,000

• Urban League of Louisiana: $200,000 

Mississippi

• Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians: $55,000

• Southern Echo: $600,000

National/Regional

• Boat People SOS, Inc.: $60,000

• Fair Count, Inc.: $300,000

• Project South: $100,000

• Vote.org: $750,0000

Announced in June, Vote Your Voice is a partnership between the SPLC and the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta (Community Foundation) to invest up to $30 million through 2022 from the SPLC's endowment to engage voters and increase voter registration, education and participation; support Black- and brown-led organizations often ignored by traditional funders; support and prototype effective voter engagement strategies; and re-enfranchise returning citizens despite intentional bureaucratic challenges.  

"In the words of the late Georgia Congressman, John Lewis, 'The vote is precious. It is almost sacred. It is the most powerful non-violent tool we have in a democracy.' These grants will help us put Lewis' words, and his life's work on voting rights, to work," said Clare S. Richie, public policy specialist at the Community Foundation. “We look forward to watching these 28 organizations optimize these dollars for noble actions between now and November.

Additional Vote Your Voice information may be found here: https://www.splcenter.org/vote-your-voice 

Information on the first round of grant recipients is available here: https://www.splcenter.org/news/2020/07/28/vote-your-voice