Voter Groups Face Funding Crisis as Midterm Voting Begins

Several of the largest left-leaning voter engagement and racial justice organizations in the United States are confronting steep funding shortfalls and staffing reductions just as voting begins in an election that will decide control of Congress for the final two years of President Donald Trump's term.

The shortfalls have alarmed Democratic strategists who are counting on high turnout and strong voter protection efforts to improve the party's prospects. They worry that many grassroots groups will be unable to mount effective registration and get-out-the-vote drives, let alone guard against possible election interference from the Republican administration.

America Votes, a coordinating hub for more than 400 progressive groups, has fallen "well below" its funding level during the 2022 midterms, according to executive director Daria Dawson. The organization has served as a nerve center for the mobilization efforts of groups including the NAACP, Planned Parenthood, the League of Conservation Voters, the AFL-CIO and SEIU, as well as local organizations focused on racial justice, climate and civil liberties.

"There is still time to reach voters and bring them into this election, but we are no longer talking about a future opportunity," Dawson said. "The window to engage them is open now, and it is narrowing every day."

Wealthy donors and philanthropic institutions have reduced support for many liberal causes since the 2024 presidential election, with the pullback especially pronounced for groups focused on communities of color. While some funders have expressed interest in adopting different strategies, racial justice organizers have viewed the shift as a betrayal.

A retreat in donor support is "handcuffing our ability to persuade our communities to vote in a year where there is no Voting Rights Act," said Esosa Osa, a veteran Democratic strategist and founder of Onyx Impact, a research group that combats misinformation in Black communities. The Supreme Court this year struck down one of the last remaining pillars of the landmark 1965 law, effectively gutting it.

"We are watching surrender, not strategy," Osa said.

A July memo circulated among major Democratic fundraisers warned that organizations which registered and persuaded millions of voters in the 2018 and 2022 midterms are drastically underfunded, having raised nearly 40% less than at the same point in those cycles. It also cautioned that funding voter mobilization groups was especially critical given that the Democratic brand is underperforming on generic ballot tests relative to historical comparisons and the president's approval ratings.

The shortfalls have led organizations focused on engaging key voting groups to scale back operations and staffing over the past year, including programs aimed at registering and mobilizing lower-propensity voters, voters of color, and rural and younger voters.

The Democratic National Committee, which has faced its own funding challenges, has consolidated voter engagement efforts this year partly in response to the ecosystem's past shortcomings. A DNC spokesperson said the party was making "historic investments" in organizing but did not address the weaknesses among allied groups.

"We are expanding our voter protection infrastructure to defend Americans' sacred right to vote, hold Trump and Republicans accountable in court, and register and mobilize voters across the country," said Angelo Fernández Hernández, a DNC spokesperson.

The reasons for the troubled funding landscape are varied and at times unclear, according to nearly two dozen fundraisers and organizers. Some donors, still disappointed with the Democratic Party and its allies after the 2024 election, have closed their pocketbooks to liberal causes entirely. While a small group of liberal megadonors continues to bankroll progressive causes, most focus their support on liberal legal organizations that have taken the Trump administration to court rather than political or voter engagement groups.

Others, including major philanthropic institutions, have pulled back out of fear that giving to political or racial justice causes could draw the administration's ire. Organizers who have engaged with potential donors said the administration's targeting of political opponents and diversity initiatives appears to have chilled fundraising for their causes.

Tameka Ramsey-Brown, founding director of the Michigan Coalition on Black Civic Participation, said multiple donors since the 2024 election had asked whether her group could remove the word "Black" from its name or find financial conduits to mask the source of donations for fear of retribution from the administration.

"Just being Black in this country again has become a bad word, and it has made it that much more difficult just to raise money because funders don't want the added pressure and stress or attacks on them by funding us," she said.

Many nonprofit groups that traditionally conduct registration, voter education and organizing say they are trying to adapt to their leaner reality. Vamos a Votar, an initiative of the largest civil rights and advocacy groups focused on Latino communities, has had to readjust its ambitions this year due to a lack of investment from funders.

"This is shaping up to be a cycle where investments haven't gone to the Black and brown communities that will ultimately decide this election," said Juan Proaño, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens, a member of the initiative.

In a September pitch circulated among donors, the coalition said it aimed to invest $27.5 million in voter engagement and persuasion efforts this year, but still required $5.4 million from donors to fund voter turnout efforts across 10 states and 17 House districts. Even that investment reflected reduced ambitions from previous pitches to donors early this year.

"It has been extremely disappointing to see that progressive donors are not meeting the moment," said Héctor Sánchez Barba, CEO of Mi Familia Vota, one of the affiliated organizations. "We are not waiting. We are always on the front lines for our democracy and our communities."

To counter the funding cutbacks, some groups have begun relying more heavily on artificial intelligence to provide voter registration guides, share information in multiple languages and track potential election issues. Some have increased partnerships with ride-sharing companies to provide free rides to polling places instead of bus shuttles. With fewer in-person organizers, others are focusing on social media and partnering with liberal content creators to boost their messages.

"In my more than 30 years of organizing, it has never been this bad to raise money to support Black causes of any kind," said Melanie Campbell, president and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, a nonpartisan civil rights group. "We're going to do the work, our state affiliates are doing all that is possible. ... But the bottom line is that those who believe that democracy matters should make sure they fund the work."