How to Help the People You Serve Make Their Voices Heard at the Ballot Box - Episode 54

0:00 You're listening to the Nonprofit Power Podcast. In today's episode. We share how to help the people you serve make their voice heard at the ballot box. So stay tuned. If you want to have real and powerful influence over the money and policy decisions that impact your organization and the people you serve, then you're in the right place. I'm Kath Patrick and I've helped dozens of progressive nonprofit leaders take their organizations to new and higher levels of impact and success by building powerful influence with the decision makers that matter.

0:40 It is possible to get a critical mass of the money and policy decision makers in your world to be as invested in your success as you are. To have them seeking you out as an equal partner. And to have them Bringing opportunities and resources to you. This podcast will help you do just that. Welcome to the Nonprofit Power Podcast. Hey there folks. Welcome to another episode of the Nonprofit Power Podcast. I'm your host, Kath. Patrick. I'm so glad you're here for today's episode. On this 4th of July week, it's a good time to pause and reflect.

1:20 Democracy has always been messy, always imperfect and always a work in progress. If we're paying attention, we know that democracy is an ongoing project. What's easy to overlook is that the success of that ongoing project requires the active participation of every one of us. And when that participation wanes is when opportunities arise for those who would undermine democracy or bend it to their own self-interested purposes. We are in such a time right now. If ever there were an all hands on deck moment to protect and defend and expand the promise of democracy, this is it. And nonprofit leaders are in an extraordinary position to help expand that participation for those who stand to lose the most, if democracy is subverted any further.

2:12 The most fundamental, most basic method of participation in democracy is voting. It's also one of the most powerful, especially for folks who don't have ready access to a lot of other avenues of power and influence. Voting is the primary way that people with few resources and little power in the grand scheme I can have a voice and make change. The one place we are all equal is at the ballot box. The vote cast by the poorest, most marginalized citizen has the exact same weight and power as the vote of the richest, most powerful person you can imagine. They are wildly unequal in their access to power and influence in every other aspect of life.

2:54 But at the ballot box they have equal power. And when large numbers of people who have otherwise been marginalized decide to take the step to make their voice heard through the ballot box, they can wield immense power. They have the power to choose the direction of the country. They have the power to choose what the guiding philosophy of the government will be. They have the power to choose whether the government will serve just a select few or whether it will focus on lifting up all members of the community so that all can thrive. The November, 2024 elections are shaping up to be perhaps the most consequential in our lifetime. Democracy itself may be on the line.

3:37 And what is surely on the line is a host of individual rights. From women's access to basic health care and reproductive freedom to marriage equality, voting rights, civil rights, and more. And not insignificantly the role of government itself. And the future of safety net programs, including the services nonprofits provide using government funding. So we have a situation. Yes, we, as non-profit leaders are stressed out and overwhelmed much of the time. But another thing is also true, which is that we are in a position of relative privilege and power, and we need to use that privilege and power right now.

4:19 The folks that we serve have a lot more challenges going on than we do. And are seldom in the position to devote the bandwidth and attention to extensive activism and advocacy. We have an obligation to facilitate participation and advocacy at whatever level folks have the bandwidth for right now. And one of the things that we can do that is incredibly valuable and that we are in a unique position to do, is to facilitate participation in the most basic, fundamental right of democracy, which is voting. And that includes helping folks understand exactly what is at stake in this election. That virtually every service we provide, and the tax dollars that support it, are on the line.

5:02 Plus a whole lot of other things that directly impact folks' individual freedoms and rights. But the reality is, despite everything that's at stake. And despite the enormous potential power in voting. Many people don't vote. They don't vote for a number of reasons. Maybe they don't believe their vote matters. Maybe they don't feel it's safe to vote. Maybe they don't believe that it's easy to vote. Maybe it's actually not easy to vote. Maybe they don't feel well enough informed. And maybe they think that all politicians are the same and so nothing will change no matter who wins. As a nonprofit leader, you have a powerful role to play in helping to change that dynamic.

5:43 And now is a really good time to start. We're about four months out from this election. And it's time to begin this conversation with the people we serve. And before I go any further, let me be very clear. As a 5 0 1 C3 nonprofit, you absolutely are permitted to encourage voting, to help clients become more informed about the issues in the election and about candidates positions on those issues. What you cannot do is endorse a particular candidate or party. Nor can you encourage clients to vote for a particular candidate or party. So, what can you do? A lot. And there are things you can do directly with your team and your clients, and things you can do to leverage existing resources in your community and from national organizations that are set up to help with voting access and participation.

6:35 So let's reverse the reasons people don't vote. And think about them instead in terms of a set of ingredients that have to be present in order for people to reliably show up and vote. They have to believe that there's a compelling reason to vote. Something important to them is on the line. There's a clear enough choice between who will help and who will hurt whatever those things are that they care about. They have to believe that their vote matters, that it will count, that it has power. They have to believe that it's safe to vote, which is a real and legitimate concern. And the voting process needs to be as frictionless as possible from registration to actually casting your ballot and having it be properly counted.

7:19 We can address each of these things in different ways. And I'll be honest with you. Some of the things we can do are low effort and low risk, and others are going to require a more intensive effort and may feel a little bit scarier. Ultimately you will have to decide how much effort you're willing to commit to this. But what we can't afford to do is sit back and do nothing and hope for the best. The stakes are simply too high. Now as a nonprofit leader who is also an active advocate, your hair may very well already be on fire about this upcoming election. As well it should be. But that does not mean that your client's hair is on fire about the election.

7:59 They may not even be thinking about it. Or they may be just as worried and stressed out about it as you are, or somewhere in between. But where we get in trouble is if we make assumptions about where our clients are at with respect to voting in general, and with respect to voting in this election in particular. So number one, we absolutely have to meet folks where they are. And we can't do that if we don't know where they are. So the first thing we need to do is ask them. And recognize that the answer is going to be as individual as the person. What's true for one is not going to be true for all. There will be a variety of circumstances, of a variety of concerns and a variety of levels of enthusiasm.

8:42 And we want to be able to meet people wherever they are on all those fronts. And there are two goals. Increase interest and remove friction. Obviously increasing interest is vital. If someone doesn't think that their vote matters, if they don't think their vote counts. Then making it easier for them to vote won't solve the problem. They have to get why it is that not only does their vote matter, but it is deeply consequential this year, perhaps more than it has ever been. But we have to help folks see why that is so. And we can't do it through lecturing. We can't do it through one way communication.

9:23 This has to be conversation and exploring. The good news is there's time to do that. The four month window that we are currently in is kind of the sweet spot for beginning this work. Much earlier than this, and it just feels too far away and not relevant. But if you don't start till September or October, then there's a limit to what you can do because there's so little time. So this is the perfect time to get started. And the place you start is to talk with your team first. Facilitate a conversation with them about how they're feeling about the upcoming election, how much they see the connection between the work that you do, your ability to continue to do that work, your ability to have the kind of impact that you want to have.

10:08 Serving people at the highest possible level, achieving the greatest possible outcomes. Helping people move toward a place where every single member of the community is thriving. Seeing the connection between all of that. And decisions being made by elected policy makers. Decisions they've already made, decisions they could make in the future. And let's be clear. We have one faction of candidates and political forces that wants to get rid of social safety net programs funded by the government altogether. That's the ultimate goal. To make those be gone. Because they don't believe it's a legitimate use of government funds. So a very simple question to pose to your team is, what would happen if all of our government funding went away?

10:53 Because that's effectively, what's on the line here. That's the longterm project of one of the two major parties in its current configuration. The Republican party has been taken over by a faction that believes this whole heartedly. And we cannot hide our heads in the sand about that. Now in local races that may or may not manifest itself. You could have individual Republican candidates who don't believe that at all. Who believe something much more closely aligned with what you believe. And obviously as a nonprofit leader, you can't talk about one party versus another. But you can talk about individual candidates' positions. Now as a business owner who serves nonprofit leaders, I'm not restricted by this.

11:34 I can be real with you and I can have this conversation in very frank terms. So I'm going to tell it like it is. We have one party that believes that an important role of government is to lift up the least advantaged and to try to use the power of policy and funding to create a more equitable and inclusive society. That's the goal of one of the parties. And the goal of the other party is to not only banish any sort of diversity, equity and inclusion activities or initiatives, but they also want to ultimately dismantle any sort of government funded safety net. In their view, that should be the province of philanthropy and not government. And you know how disastrous that would be for your ability to make an impact and do your work, if you had to rely only on philanthropic dollars.

12:21 So the stakes are very real for you and your team. And they're also very real for your clients. But you can'tembark on the process of engaging your clients to vote until your team is on board. And they're all planning to vote. And each of them sees the connection between policy made by elected officials and the work of the organization and their individual ability to do that work. And to keep their jobs and keep getting paid, which is, you know, not an insignificant consideration by itself. So start having that conversation with your team now. Because the next thing is going to be to talk together with your team about, so how can we help our clients make sure their voices are heard at the ballot box, too?

13:05 Okay. So your team is on board. Now you can get to work on helping engage your clients. Now, one of the things you can do almost immediately. Is to just start to create awareness and begin to provoke some thinking. And put some general messaging about the fact of the election happening and, Plan your vote. You can put up posters, flyers, what have you. With the election date prominently displayed. And a reminder to vote. And put those in whatever the high visibility areas are in your shop, where clients are going to see them. Any time you're in a group of clients, or at an event that involves clients, be sure that you're including an announcement about remembering to vote, and about the date of the election.

13:51 And then a really useful thing you can do that does not take much work. Is to add a question about interest in voting to your intake process. Just at least begin to start that conversation. Ask the question. And we can talk more in a bit about what you can do with that information, but just start by asking the question. Just those basics will help tee up the idea of, basically, Hey, there's an election coming and voting matters. Awareness helps. But then we have to get into tackling all of the reasons people don't vote. And we can separate those into three basic categories of stuff that's in the way. There's information gaps, like not knowing how to register or where to vote or whether or not early voting as possible.

14:38 And if it is, how do I do that? There can also be information gaps in terms of feeling like they don't know enough about the issues or the candidates to cast an informed ballot. There's practical logistical stuff that's in the way. Like inconvenient polling places, difficulties with transportation or childcare, polling hours not lining up with when people are available to vote, et cetera. There might be concerns about safety of voting. If you're in a state where armed poll watchers are staking out the polling place to intimidate voters, that is a very real and legitimate concern and needs to be dealt with. And then there are beliefs. Beliefs that my vote won't matter.

15:19 That it won't affect the outcome. That I don't really have a stake in the outcome, or an opportunity to benefit, because the candidates are all the same. And anyway, they don't care about people like me. So ideally we want to address all three categories of these things in the way. Because if those barriers aren't cleared out, it becomes much easier to just stay home and not go to the trouble of voting. So we want to tackle each of these. The good news is a lot of them can be tackled together. I broke them out individually to help you see all the things that can be in the way. But the process of helping clear out some of that stuff is not as complicated as it sounds. And you don't have to do it alone.

16:01 One of the most valuable things you can do is find out who else in your community or state is working to help increase voter participation and ballot access, and partner with them. Now the information gaps and logistical issues are fairly concrete and are relatively easy to address. Addressing belief related barriers is a more complex project. But with all of them, you begin by asking some questions to start the engagement process. And to make sure you don't operate from assumptions. A few simple questions can give you a place to start the conversation. Meeting folks wherever they are. So really basic questions, like how do you feel about voting? Are you a regular voter?

16:43 If they answer yes to that, Why? What motivates you to vote? If they answer no. Well, why not? What's in the way? Now if they're already a regular voter and feel pretty strongly about that, then your task is a lot easier. You simply need to help make sure that they have a viable plan for voting this election cycle, and you can focus on helping to reduce any friction coming from either information gaps or logistical issues. If they're not a regular voter and they're citing a lot of those belief concerns, then you're going to have more work to do, obviously. But let's start by looking at the information gaps around the voting process and the logistical barriers to voting.

17:25 The key questions and concerns here are basically four things. Am I eligible to vote? How to register. Including what documents are required and the deadline for registering, very important. Is early voting possible? And if so, how do I do it? And when and where to vote on election day. Now you can very easily put together a simple one pager that answers these four questions. Simply do an internet search for voter registration in your state. Typically there will be one official state run website where all voting related information is provided. So you search on the registration because that's going to be sort of a universal terminology that will always give you that website.

18:10 And then you can get all the other information that I outlined in that same place, with a few more clicks. Do that investigation and create that one pager before the end of July. And then share that one pager with all of your clients. Repeatedly. Don't assume that because you gave it to them once that you are done. Nothing works that way. So they're going to need to see this multiple times. But if you've created it, then it's much easier to hand it out. Right. Now as you know, registration is key. You can't vote if you're not registered. And you have to be registered in advance of the election, sometimes by a considerable amount of time, depending on the state you're in.

18:52 So it is far more valuable if you can go one step further and offer assistance with voting registration as part of your routine client interaction. 43 states offer online voter registration. So it's very likely that you can sit with the client and help them through as they fill out their own online application. And just help them if they run into any bumps. Once they've registered, it's a good idea to help the client go back to that state website a couple of weeks later, to make sure that the registration has been properly recorded. That way. If there are any problems, there's plenty of time to fix it. And there's not going to be an issue of them showing up to vote and being told, oh no, we don't have you the list.

19:36 Once, you know when early voting begins in your state. And again, this information is readily available on that state website. And all but a handful of states offer some form of early voting. Publicize that early voting window with clients at every opportunity and be sure to include the deadline. Part of your messaging should include a reminder to make a plan to vote. Now the logistical barriers are another matter. And these are the ones where you'll probably want to partner with some other groups. Particularly if there are safety issues around polling places or ballot drop-off locations, there will likely be one or more local progressive organizations that are addressing this.

20:16 So connect with them and get advice for how your clients can be safe when voting. Voter intimidation is illegal. And many groups locally and nationally are working to ensure that polling places are safe and free of intimidation or harassment of voters. But that doesn't mean it never happens. And so you want to be alert to that and make sure that you're doing everything you can to shield your clients from experiencing that. Most of the other logistical barriers are greatly reduced when early voting is an option. Still, transportation can be an issue. In communities where polling places or drop off sites have been located away from public transportation, there will often be one or more local groups that are helping with getting voters a ride.

21:01 So connect with those organizations. Find out how your clients can get a ride if they need one. And listen to client feedback. If they raise a logistical issue that you weren't aware of, do some research and find out which groups are offering assistance with that thing. Or figure out if there's something that your organization can do to help. Now let's return to the more complex project of engaging clients around beliefs. One of the most valuable roles you and your team can play is as the asker of questions. And the answers you got from your initial queries about how folks feel about voting and if they're not a regular voter, what's in the way.

21:42 Those will help you know what followup questions to ask. The main thing is to understand that these will be ongoing conversations that will happen over a period of weeks or months. And there are lots of ways to have those conversations. You can facilitate group discussions with clients. You can build some of these questions into your regular work with them, depending on what service you provide and how you normally interact with your clients. Obviously the questions of does it matter to me and is it even worth doing have to be addressed. And that is likely to be a series of conversations. Depending on the work that you do, you may be able to approach those conversations as part of your regular work and engagement with clients in the first place.

22:25 If at all possible, it's really helpful to create some relaxed space for some longer conversations to happen among clients and team members. A semi-social gathering with a little food. Hey, who'd like to come and talk a little bit about, and then name a topic that has surfaced as an area of concern for clients when you've been talking with them. Part of the goal here is we're connecting voting back to something they care about, that matters to them. Or you can say, we're going to talk about a bunch of these things, a list of topics, whatever it is. The goal is to help facilitate the process of clients making connections between the stuff they're struggling with, the services they're getting from you, and the policy and funding that are connected to that.

23:08 And the reality that who's in those elected funding and policy decision roles really matters. Because they're making policy decisions every single day that affects clients' lives and affect your ability to provide the services that you do. Now it might or might not be a big revelation for your clients to discover that. But it's not something probably that they're going around thinking about every day. They got a lot on their mind. So to create a little relaxed social space for an hour, no more than that. Just get people together for breakfast and coffee or lunch, or after work snacks or whatever works for your group. Now, if you don't have regular personal interaction with your clients, you'll need to think about how you can engage them in some other ways.

23:51 And part of that will depend on what communication avenues you already have with them. If it's typical for you to engage or communicate with your clients electronically via email, text, an app, on social media, then you've got plenty of opportunity to engage them through those avenues. Particularly social media. Cause honestly, that's the thing folks are most likely to see and engage with. Texts are probably next best, email is least best. But even with email, you can be creative. What you don't do is send a long email. Send a short, punchy email that raises a question or two. What do you think about this? Or did you know about that?

24:33 And then provide a link. Click here to check this out, click here, to see. And then the link can be to a short video. And don't be intimidated when I say a short video. I'm not talking high production values here. You shoot a quick video on your phone that's a minute or two long. And your model here is something that would work well on Tik Tok or as a reel. Short, entertaining, engaging. If it can be a video of one or more clients talking even better. Now there's a couple of ways to come up with some video of clients. One way would be if you were in one of these discussion groups where you're hanging out and talking about topics that they care about.

25:14 You could be partway into one of those and say, wow you guys. You know, the stuff you're talking about is so important. I wish all of our other clients could hear this. How would you feel if we recorded the rest of this conversation? And if they say no, then you don't do it. But if they're open to it, be very transparent about why you want to do that. To say, you know, we invited a lot of people and a lot of folks couldn't come for one reason or another. But boy, are they missing out by not hearing this conversation. I wish everybody could see it and hear it too, because it's just so valuable. And it might be that like some folks will say, yeah, I'd be okay with that. And others will say no.

25:55 Okay. So then in the moment you don't do that. But then after the conversation wraps up, go right away and follow up individually with the ones who said they would have been okay with it. And say, thanks so much for raising your hand for that. Would you be willing to come back and talk about this more and have it be recorded so that it can be shared with other folks? And then you do everything you can to make that happen. And it might be that folks come back and twos and threes for 20 minutes. Or as a group for half an hour or whatever. Be flexible, be accommodating. Don't make them come back for a whole other hour. But just like the parts that were really compelling. You can get going on those same topics and get folks to talk about that some more.

26:38 And you can ask follow up questions. And get to the next layer of questions that keep the conversation going even deeper. A couple of things are gonna happen when you do that. One, you're going to get great material for video snippets. And two, the people who come back for more conversation are going to get more and more invested in this. And they're going to start to become excited about getting other clients interested in being more involved. And making sure they vote. This stuff is contagious. Once people feel heard and feel like, yeah, you know what? It really matters what I think. And somebody ought to be listening. And one of the ways I can make myself heard is to vote. But maybe I'd like to make myself heard in some other way, too.

27:21 We ought to be having a town hall here! If you ask what folks need, and what's in their way, and how they'd like to see it fixed. You're going to have a hard time shutting them up. Because they do know that. And they think about it all the time. But most of the time nobody asks. Most of the time they get the impression nobody cares. No one wants to hear their voice. And so when you're saying, oh, on the contrary, not only do we want to hear your voice, we want to make sure your voice is heard loud and clear by candidates and elected officials. We want to make sure that the candidates running for office know that they need to be responding to you right now.

28:01 That they need to be including your concerns in their campaign. Obviously that's more realistic with local campaigns than national ones. But still, the point is that telling people their voice matters is very different than showing them how their voice matters. And one of the ways you show people that their voice matters is you actually listen to them. And then as they're laying out the things that they're struggling with, that they're finding to be the biggest challenges. Then you can add a little bit of new information to the conversation. It's so interesting you raised that, because here's a piece of information you might not be aware of. There's actually a policy that the city, the county, the state, the feds recently made that says X, Y, Z.

28:46 And that's part of why you're having that problem. Because a bunch of elected officials got together and decided that was how things were going to be. Are you okay with that? Would you like them to know that that's not working for you? And how the policy should change. You see how this goes. You start with the personal. You start with what challenges people are currently experiencing. And then you help raise questions that make connections between those challenges and policy decisions. And then get into the conversation about, well then how do we change how those policy decisions are made? And elections and voting are one way. Now pretty much you're going to have three basic categories of elected officials.

29:30 There's the ones who simply don't care and they're not going to. They're focused on other interests and not those of your clients. There's the ones who do care or could care, but don't understand how particular policies connect to the challenges your clients are experiencing. And then there's the ones who do care and do get the connection. And they want to make policy that helps you thrive. The first question. Which of these three categories would you want more of in elected office? Well, duh. But if you can't have that third category, which is obviously the best one. Of the other two, which would you rather have?

30:11 Well, okay then. So let's start thinking about we've got elections coming up right now. Would you be interested in finding out, of all the people that are going to be on the ballot this fall, which category they're in? Once you get a yes to that question. And. Then it's just a matter of, well, how shall we do that then? And then you can support clients as they do that research. Help them identify the key questions they want the answers to. And point them to where they can find those answers. And then you bring them back together to share what they've learned and discuss it further. And when they have assembled a sketch of candidate positions on the things that they care about. They have just removed the three key barriers of not having enough information.

30:56 Not knowing whether there's anything at stake for them in this selection. And not knowing whether there's a meaningful difference among the candidates. Now not every client will go down this entire road. That's okay. Even if they only engage in a little bit of this type of conversation, they're still engaging in the process of discovery. Of why and how these elections might matter to them enough to make sure that they make the effort to get registered and cast their vote. And in the process, they will have stepped a little further into their own power. And that alone is huge. And it just might help save democracy. Thanks for listening.

31:36 And I'll see you in the next episode right here on the Nonprofit Power Podcast.