For Immediate Release
Contact: Edan Enriquez
California Association of Nonprofits
(415) 816-3045
edane[@]calnonprofits.org
More than 100 California Nonprofits Join
Vote with Your Mission Campaign
San Francisco – (June 4, 2012) The California Association of Nonprofits (CalNonprofits) announced that more than 100 nonprofit organizations throughout California have signed on to its Vote with Your Mission campaign. Vote with Your Mission is a grassroots campaign to have 100% of eligible nonprofit staff, board members, and volunteers vote in the June and November 2012 elections with the ideals and values that bring them into the nonprofit sector.
“The nation's nonprofit sector – which generated $1.5 trillion in revenues in 2009 through the work of 13 million professionals and 61 million volunteers – can serve as the catalyst for enhanced voter registration and participation in the democratic process,” said Linda Davis, chair of CalNonprofits’ board of directors and CEO of the Center for Volunteer and Nonprofit Leadership of Marin, one of the first organizations to sign on to the campaign. “With Vote with Your Mission, together we can ensure that our votes as citizens, and as participants of nonprofit organizations, are counted.”
Organizations participating in Vote with Your Mission represent the diversity of California’s nonprofit community in terms of geography, size, community served, and type of services offered. They include direct social service providers, arts organizations, advocacy and policy groups, private foundations, and statewide and regional coalitions and associations. They also serve communities from San Diego to Eureka, Salinas to Fresno, as well as the greater Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay areas.
“Every day, our nonprofit serves immigrants, refugees, and torture survivors who were never able to vote in their home countries. We don’t take voting for granted. That’s why I am excited about Vote with Your Mission,” said Michele Lew, president and CEO of Asian Americans for Community Involvement, which provides health and human services for Santa Clara County’s large Asian American population.
More than two dozen organizations have signed up as campaign co-sponsors, agreeing to reach out to at least 15 other nonprofits and encourage them to join the campaign.
“Advancement Project is rooted in the great human rights struggles for equality and justice,” said Charles Watson, Director of Finance and Administration at the “action tank” Advancement Project in Los Angeles, which has signed on as a co-sponsor. “Voting is an essential way that democracy allows us to create a better society, so Vote with Your Mission is a perfect way to remind us all of how our mission can be made real – one vote at a time.”
Other organizations, including The California Participation Project and Nonprofit VOTE, serve as campaign resource partners that provide nonpartisan voter registration and engagement materials and webinars to assist participating nonprofits. Vote with Your Mission also directs participating organizations to the voter education materials of its third resource partner, the League of Women Voters of California Education Fund (LWCEF), which provides fair, balanced information voters can trust. LWCEF resources include its well-known “Pros & Cons” for statewide ballot initiatives, Smart Voter, and Easy Voter Guide.
Nonprofits may sign on to the Vote with Your Mission campaign by visiting the campaign website, www.votewithyourmission.org. To sign on, nonprofits pledge to do at least two of six action items, such as asking their staff, board members, volunteers, and constituents to vote, providing nonpartisan voter registration materials at their sites, and displaying a Vote with Your Mission poster (which are available in English, Spanish, and Chinese).
"All of these action steps are so simple to do,” said Ashley McCumber, executive director of Meals on Wheels of San Francisco. “So I'm asking myself, 'Why haven't we been doing all of them already?’ We are doing them now, and we will continue to make voter engagement a core value of our organization.”
The current list of participating California nonprofits includes the following (co-sponsors noted with an asterisk):
For more information on Vote with Your Mission, visit www.votewithyourmission.org.
About CalNonprofits
The California Association of Nonprofits is a statewide membership organization working to bring the full power of California's nonprofits to strengthening communities. Founded in 1984, CalNonprofits is entering a new phase of activity with the launching of the Vote with Your Mission Campaign.
CalNonprofits brings nonprofit voices and perspectives to the legislature, government agencies, philanthropy, and the general public. Our programs include policy development and advocacy, an annual convention, legislative tracking and briefings, and research and publications. Our members also enjoy a wide variety of merchant discounts and access to our insurance brokerage arm.
CalNonprofits has offices in San Francisco, Sacramento, Capitola, and Los Angeles. For more information about what we do, future plans, and how you can be involved, please see www.CalNonprofits.org.
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We work to bring the full power of California's nonprofits to strengthening communities.
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