SPLC Awards More Than $11 million to 55 Civic Groups across Deep South as Part of Its Vote Your Voice Initiative

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Today, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) announced Vote Your Voice grants to 55 civic groups and voter outreach organizations across the Deep South totaling $11,285,000.

Earlier rounds of Vote Your Voice grants focused on voter mobilization for the 2020 election. Today's grants will be multi-year and support voter mobilization in local elections and the 2022 midterm elections as well as wider civic engagement activities in redistricting, voting rights advocacy, and voting rights restoration. Another development in the initiative is the sheer number of groups supported – representing a range of staff and volunteer sizes, geographic and population focus, and strategic approaches to community engagement.

“The work to build a multiracial democracy where everyone is represented and has a say can't just happen in the months before an election,” said Margaret Huang, President and CEO of the SPLC. “This work must be sustained year-round, every year, so that we can have equitable participation and representation in our democratic systems — especially with the newly passed state laws that will make voter registration and voting more difficult. Today’s announcement that the Vote Your Voice initiative has provided multi-year grants to 55 organizations of all sizes across the Deep South will support that vital democracy-building work.”

What unites these 55 organizations, primarily led by people of color, is their demonstrated previous success in empowering communities of color, LGBTQ communities, Native communities, immigrant communities, communities of faith, returning citizens and young people in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi. 

Examples of today’s grants include:

• Faith in Action in Florida will work with congregations across the state to engage community members in voting and other civic actions through virtual town halls, community events such as food giveaways, church activities, phone banking and texting, among other strategies.
• Center for Pan Asian Community Services in Georgia is building on its network as a service provider to Atlanta's Asian American population to encourage voter participation through multilingual outreach that will include information at service sites, phone banking, texting, social media outreach, events and bus tours.
• Southern Echo in Mississippi will engage in year-round voter registration and mobilization; the organization also will lead redistricting training sessions and help community members to develop sample district maps that best represent their communities.

The $11,285,000 announced in grants today is broken down as follows:

• $1,365,000 to nine groups in Alabama
• $3,160,000 to 12 groups in Florida
• $2,920,000 to 15 groups in Georgia
• $1,100,000 to six groups in Louisiana
• $1,040,000 to five groups in Mississippi
• $1,700,000 to eight groups doing work across multiple states

Across all four rounds of grants so far since the initiative’s announcement in June 2020, $23,330,000 has been distributed throughout the five states. 

The 55 grant recipients and amounts distributed in this round are below with links to the websites of organizations with online presences.

BACKGROUND

Announced in June 2020, Vote Your Voice is an initiative between the SPLC and the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta 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.

Additional Vote Your Voice information and grantees in the three previous rounds may be found here: https://www.splcenter.org/vote-your-voice

TODAY’S 2021-2022 GRANTS

Alabama

• Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice: $100,000
• Alabama Forward: $300,000
• Alabama Institute for Social Justice: $100,000
• Faith in Action: $230,000
• Friends of West End/Alabama Black Women's Roundtable: $100,000
• Greater Birmingham Ministries: $125,000
• NAACP Limestone County: $30,000
• The Ordinary People Society: $300,000
• United Women of Color: $80,000

Florida

• Alianza Center: $250,000 
• Common Ground: $160,000
• Engage Miami Civic Foundation: $300,000
• Equal Ground Education Fund: $200,000
• Faith in Action/Faith in Florida: $300,000
• First Coast Leadership Foundation: $120,000
• Florida Rights Restoration Coalition: $600,000
• Florida Rising: $600,000
• Harriet Tubman Freedom Fighter Corp: $50,000
• League of Women Voters-Florida: $80,000
• Mi Familia Vota Educational Fund: $300,000
• NALEO Educational Fund: $200,000

Georgia

• Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Atlanta (AAAJ): $250,000
• Center for Pan Asian Community Services: $250,000
• CivicGeorgia: $50,000
• Cobb Collaborative: $50,000
• Fair Count: $300,000
• GALEO: $250,000
• Georgia Muslim Voter Project with CAIR Georgia: $250,000
• Georgia NAACP: $250,000
• Georgia Shift: $100,000
• Latino Community Fund: $250,000
• New Georgia Project: $300,000
• Peach Concerned Citizens: $20,000
• ProGeorgia: $400,000
• The Arc of the United States: $150,000
• Women on the Rise: $50,000

Louisiana

• Citizen SHE: $100,000
• MetroMorphosis: $50,000
• Operation Restoration: $100,000
• Power Coalition: $400,000
• Urban League of Louisiana: $150,000
• Voice of the Experienced (VOTE): $300,000

Mississippi

• Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians: $50,000
• Mississippi Delta Voter Engagement Project: $60,000
• NAACP Mississippi: $230,000
• One Voice: $300,000
• Southern Echo: $400,000

Multi-state

• Boat People SOS (AL, MS): $100,000
• Black Voters Matter Capacity Building Institute (AL, FL, GA, LA, MS): $600,000
• Crescent City Media Group/Center for Civic Action (AL, GA, LA): $100,000
• National Domestic Workers Alliance (FL, GA): $200,000
• Poder Latinx (FL, GA): $250,000
• Transformative Justice Coalition (AL, GA, LA, MS): $130,000
• Vot-ER (FL, GA): $120,000
• Vote.org (AL, FL, GA, LA, MS): $200,000