Top 25 of 2025: MVF Year-End Recap!

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Letter from the Executive Director

Friends and allies –

We live in confusing times. On the one hand, for the past eleven months, our federal government has been doing unimaginable things that harm millions of people every day. The damage and pain are real.

On the other hand, that harm — and the anger it’s caused — has led to remarkable efforts to protect our communities, stand up to authoritarianism, turn out voters, and organize for a better future.

As we approach 2026, I can almost taste the potential for a turnaround from fear and anger toward hope and possibility. How can we harness this energy and create as much positive change as possible? Not just to halt the slide into autocracy, but to create a true realignment toward a new, hopeful era?

We have to be smart and sober — not reactive or overconfident. We have to organize with a vision, ethos, and leadership that earns people’s trust and makes people want to join our big-tent movement. It’s a tall order. That’s what we came here to do. That’s our purpose.

As Movement Voter Fund (MVF), we have one main job in 2026: swing for the fences and build the most powerful, broad-based, and compelling movement for progress that we can. 

I am happy to report that, as an organization, MVF is in the strongest position we have ever been in. Ten years in, we have the organizational capacity, operational maturity, strategic acumen, relationships, trust, and nimbleness to lead (always collaboratively!) in this extremely challenging time.

We have an audacious vision to defeat autocracy and revitalize our democracy, and a five-year strategy to get there. We are ready to grow, lead, and swing for the fences. Thank you for joining us on this journey. We expect the next chapter to hold enormous potential.

Let’s go!!

Billy Wimsatt
Executive Director, Movement Voter Fund

 

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The Top 25 of 2025

To date in 2025, MVF has helped move over $14.6 million to 246 501(c)(3) and other nonpartisan organizations across thirty states, supporting their work to resist, organize, and build power. This includes grantmaking, capacity-building support, and direct-to-organization (DTO) donations.

Our grantee partners faced so many obstacles under the mounting pressure and chaos of rising authoritarianism. And yet, they defied the odds.

Check out our Top 25 of 2025 below, then keep reading for a deeper dive on our partners’ contributions toward our strategies to beat back autocracy, push for policy progress, and ignite a civic revival.

Fighting Autocracy

1. NO KINGS! – Rallying in the Streets

MVF partners across the country helped galvanize millions of people to stand up to Trump on three national days of action: Hands Off and No Kings 1 & 2 — some of the largest single-day mobilizations in American history.

2. NO ICE! – Protecting Our Neighbors

MVF partners across the country, in tandem with local mutual-aid groups, have been instrumental in setting up rapid-response networks, recruiting and deploying thousands of volunteers, and building sophisticated operations to warn, accompany, and protect impacted community members from ICE.

3. NEW JERSEY – Slowing Deportations

MVF partners successfully blocked the sale of a vacant county jail to a private prison company that wanted to convert the jail into a federal detention facility. By pressuring local and municipal leaders to stop the sale, they erected a significant roadblock to slow deportations.

4. FIGHTING IN THE COURTS – Safeguarding Birthright Citizenship

MVF partners were behind the lawsuit to stop Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship. They succeeded in winning an injunction until the Supreme Court ruled against nationwide injunctions, while two more lower courts blocked the executive order. Our partners are now pursuing other legal and policy options until the Supreme Court takes up the case next summer.

5. STATE-LEVEL DEFENSE – Legislative Organizing

From Tennessee to Georgia to New Hampshire, MVF partners kicked off 2025 with successful legislative organizing and policy advocacy campaigns to stop anti-trans, anti-immigrant, and book-ban legislation.

6. CONGRESSIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY – Holding Elected Officials’ Feet to the Fire

In congressional districts around the country, MVF partners have been mobilizing their communities to show up at their representatives’ town halls, outside their offices, and just about anywhere they set foot in their home districts. Our partners are reminding their elected leaders that they are accountable to their constituents and need to do more to stand up against regressive policies.

7. CORPORATE BOYCOTTS – We Ain’t Buyin’ It

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, the We Ain’t Buyin’ It campaign called for a pause on shopping from corporations that capitulated to the Trump administration’s DEI restrictions, colluded with ICE, and are actively participating in attacks on our rights. The campaign was covered in USA Today and elsewhere, and resulted in increased sales for local businesses and a growing movement of conscious consumers.

Safeguarding Our Democracy

8. NORTH CAROLINA – Defending Fair Election Results 

The 2024 North Carolina Supreme Court election results were finally certified in May 2025 after MVF partners led a massive ballot-curing initiative, litigation process, and communications campaign to fight back against lies about voter fraud.

9. MAINE – Stopping Voter Suppression at the Ballot Box

MVF partners helped raise awareness and educate voters to defeat a ballot initiative that would have enacted strict voter-ID requirements and made voting absentee harder.

10. MISSOURI – 2026 Ballot Measure: Blocking Gerrymandering

MVF partners have gathered over 200,000 signatures to force a statewide referendum on newly gerrymandered U.S. House maps. With the Secretary of State challenging the validity of 92,000 signatures, our partners went far beyond the required 106,000 signatures before the December 11 deadline to make sure their effort is foolproof. The opposition got so spooked by our partners’ efforts that they started offering canvassers $5,000 to stop collecting signatures.

11. NEW HAMPSHIRE – Supporting Election Workers

Election administration is often a hard and thankless job. MVF partners are training local election officials, providing hands-on support to help them understand current and new laws to ensure every vote is counted accurately.

Building Long-Term Power

12. STRONGER TOGETHER – Spreading the “Minnesota Model”

After over a decade of organizing, Minnesota partners helped pass the most ambitious legislative agenda since the New Deal. Now, we are working with the architects of this “Minnesota Model” to replicate it in other states. For example, MVF partners in North Carolina are forming a new coalition with labor allies to build their base, organize around key issues, and push for policy progress.

For a more in-depth look at the Minnesota Model, check out this Georgetown University case study. 

13. MICHIGAN – Turning Civil Resistance into Long-Term Power 

MVF partners in Michigan formed a coalition to coordinate resistance mobilizations against authoritarian attacks and then created on-ramps for new volunteers that would lead to long-term engagement opportunities. Now, they are taking the momentum against federal overreach and transforming it into grassroots power at the local and statewide levels.

14. MAINE – Aligning and Strengthening BIPOC Civic Engagement

MVF partners in Maine are leading the Community Power Planning Project (CPPP) — a statewide civic engagement planning and capacity-building program for organizations led by and serving Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). In its sixth year, CPPP participant organizations have developed unified and complementary plans to engage and turn out BIPOC voters, as well as provide leadership development and skills-building opportunities.

15. PROTECTING BODILY AUTONOMY – Ballot Measures for Restoring Rights & Building Power

MVF and national partners have formed Rising Together — a coalition of national LGBTQIA+ and reproductive rights organizations to advance the right to bodily autonomy and build long-term grassroots power through coordinated ballot measure campaigns.

Expanding the Electorate

16. VOTER REGISTRATION – A First Step in Civic Engagement

MVF partners across the country engaged in nonpartisan voter registration efforts, focusing on registering voters who have been historically overlooked and excluded from our democracy, such as young people, people of color, immigrants, and working-class people of all races.

17. NEW YORK – Activating Disengaged and New Voters

In the New York primary and general elections, MVF partners engaged and mobilized low- to mid-propensity voters and others not actively civically engaged until the June primary. These efforts helped lead to extraordinary voter turnout in the New York City general election, with more than two million New Yorkers casting ballots and young people turning out at a rate of 28%.

18. TECH TOOLS FOR TARGETING – Creating a More Inclusive Democracy

With the tech tools and data infrastructure provided by MVF’s Capacity Building program, our partners are able to more strategically and effectively target the voters they want to reach. Our tailored data dashboards include census and voter file data on voter registration and election participation broken down by race, gender, and age, which helps our partners understand where and how to reach their priority voter constituencies.

19. GEORGIA – Mobilizing Young People and People of Color in an Odd-Year, Statewide Election

MVF partners specifically targeted, engaged, and mobilized young Georgians, LGBTQIA+ Georgians, and Georgians of color to register to vote and turn out for two statewide Public Service Commission races as well as other down-ballot races.

Emboldening Civic Leaders

20. COLLABORATION, LEARNING, POWER! – Vision Into Power Cohort

MVF, in partnership with social impact agency Propper Daley BPI and actress Kerry Washington’s KW Foundation, is supporting twelve state-based organizations across Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania to participate in the second cohort of our Vision Into Power program. The collaborative cohort helps groups develop and use more impactful stories to inspire action, safeguard state progress, and strengthen democratic participation.

21. NORTH CAROLINA AND GEORGIA – Stronger Organizers, Bolder Advocates 

In North Carolina, MVF partner We are Down Home convened their member leaders to build their organizing skills and participate in strategic tactics to fight back against authoritarianism and build community power. In Georgia, MVF partner Poder Latinx convened Latina advocates and experts to strengthen their legislative advocacy chops with a focus on state and local policy change.

22. ARIZONA – Incubating and Strengthening the “State Ecosystem”

MVF partner Instituto Labs makes it their business (literally!) to provide organizational development support, trainings, workshops, fellowships, and more to on-the-ground, power-building organizations across Arizona. Their support not only ensures that organizations are effective, but that the whole civic-engagement “state ecosystem” is strong.

Upping Our Game at MVF

23. STRONGER ORGANIZATIONS – Capacity Building

Our partners regularly share feedback that MVF’s support makes a huge difference in what they are able to accomplish. But that support is not only financial. Our Capacity Building Team provides a range of trainings, workshops, and organizational development offerings to our partners on topics such as financial planning and budgeting, innovative fundraising, safety and security, and communications.

24. INNOVATION – Funding Outside the Box 

We launched an internal “Innovation & Collaboration Fund” to scout, vet, and invest in especially innovative projects that could make an outsized difference — like a “microinfluencers for fair taxes” social-media program in New Hampshire and a multi-state data-collection and evaluation system to more rigorously measure power building across our grantee partners.

25. NEW MEDIA – Reaching People Where They Are Online

MVF has always invested in media and cultural strategies, but we have become increasingly clear that we need to get much more serious about winning the information wars and reaching voters — especially young voters — where they are: online. In 2025, we seeded several new-media projects, hired a brilliant, full-time digital media strategist, and made “scaling up new media” a core strategy in our 2025-2030 plan.

 

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From Big Plans to Big Progress: A Deeper Dive on 2025

The Top 25 of 2025 represent the best of the best this year. So much work, commitment, and investment (thank you!) got MVF and our partners to these incredible accomplishments. If you’re interested in the forest, the trees, and everything in between, here are details on how these victories fit into our strategy.

This year, we had three goals:

• Beat back autocracy

• Push for policy progress

• Ignite a civic revival

And because we are all about accountability at MVF, we wanted to give you the deep-dive look at what we did to advance those goals.

Part 1: Beating Back Autocracy

We knew the first step in our 2025 strategy had to be blocking authoritarian attacks on our democracy, our communities, and our rights. MVF partners were ready to organize in the streets, in their communities, and sometimes, even in elected leaders’ front yards, to beat back autocracy.

Civil Resistance and Defending Impacted Communities

From protests to rapid response and mutual-aid efforts, MVF partners consistently showed up to say “no” to tyranny and protect our communities.

• Hands Off! and No Kings Rallies – MVF partners across the country helped galvanize millions of people (including many MVF donors) to protest the Trump administration’s actions, first in April at Hands Off! rallies, then again in June and October at No Kings protests across the country. Once again, we demonstrated the power of people, with turnout growing from three to five to seven million people.
• Taking on Trump in Court – In January, MVF partner CASA and others sued to stop Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship. In February, a judge granted an injunction, blocking the order until the Supreme Court ruled against nationwide injunctions in June. Since then, two more courts have blocked the order, and the Supreme Court will likely decide the case by next summer. Now, CASA and other partners are pursuing other legal and policy avenues to stop this attack.
• Stopping the Conversion of County Jails into Detention Centers in New Jersey – Across the country, private prison companies are buying up state and county jails to operate federal detention centers, which is the most efficient way to ramp up deportations. Make the Road NJ organized to block the sale of a vacant jail in Union County in the county’s request for proposals, effectively slowing down the expansion of physical infrastructure for deportations.
• Taking on ICE – Across the country, MVF partners have launched all-out efforts to protect immigrant communities from ICE — recruiting thousands of volunteers, launching rapid-response networks, facilitating know-your-rights trainings, and more.
  • In Pittsburgh, PA, Casa San José launched a comprehensive program to defend against ICE crackdowns. Through their rapid-response network, they recruited 800 volunteers and developed a pipeline to provide people with immigration services, develop them as leaders, and serve as on-site witnesses to ICE efforts throughout western PA.
  • In North Carolina, Somos Siembra built a statewide rapid-response network to verify, document, and counteract ICE incursions. They are also leading a 4th Amendment Workplace campaign, which helps businesses understand their rights and deter unconstitutional search and seizure operations, protecting their staff and patrons from ICE. Participating workplaces use legally vetted protocols to identify invalid ICE warrants, secure private employee areas, document unconstitutional actions, and defend all workers, no matter their immigration status. As of September 2025, two hundred workplaces had signed on to the campaign, as well as the cities of Carrboro and Durham.
  • In Minnesota, Unidos MN Education Fund also launched a rapid-response network and has been hosting legal observer, upstander, and know-your-rights trainings for thousands of volunteers.
  • In Arizona, Proyecto Progreso is holding know-your-rights trainings in Spanish for Arizona residents to protect themselves against ICE and consumer fraud. The December training featured legal experts from the ACLU and Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes.

Congressional Accountability

In congressional districts across the country, MVF partners have been organizing to hold elected leaders accountable, demanding they do more to stand up to the Trump administration.

• Arizona – In Arizona’s 6th Congressional District, MVF partners Arizona Center for Empowerment and National Domestic Workers Alliance teamed up with local allies AZ Jews for Justice, and others to hold an “empty chair” town hall meeting to call out Rep. Juan Ciscomani specifically around his willingness to cut funding to vital federal programs like Medicaid and Medicare.
• New Jersey – MVF partner Make the Road NJ has had a sustained canvassing presence in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District to hold Rep. Tom Kean accountable for his support of federal budget cuts, including cuts to Medicaid and SNAP.
• Colorado – In Colorado’s 8th Congressional District, MVF partner Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition and others held a town hall to protest Rep. Gabe Evans’ support of federal workforce cuts, the dismantling of federal agencies, and devastating cuts to social safety net programs.
• Maine – In Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, MVF partners Maine People’s Resource Center and Food AND Medicine (as well as other groups) organized a town hall in Bangor, urging absentee Rep. Jared Golden to fight back forcibly on attacks on veterans’ benefits, Medicare and Medicaid, and the Constitution.Also in Maine, Food AND Medicine members make regular visits to Senator Susan Collins’ Bangor office to share their stories about how losing SNAP benefits, cuts to school lunches, and other Trump policies have negatively impacted their lives.

Legislative Organizing

Throughout the year, the President and his allies have pressured local and state elected officials to enact their agenda, which many have been more than willing to do. But MVF’s savvy partners know the power of organizing and a well-executed pressure campaign to defend against authoritarian attacks.

• New Hampshire – ACLU of NH helped push the Governor to veto a book ban and an anti-trans bill, and is staying vigilant and prepared to defeat future attacks on rights and liberties.
• Tennessee – Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition and allies in the Education for All campaign killed a bill that would have allowed schools to refuse enrollment to children without legal immigration status.
• Georgia – Asian Americans Advancing Justice and Georgia Youth Justice Coalition organized students to successfully kill House Bill 18 — legislation aimed at excluding undocumented students from the state’s Dual Enrollment Program, which enables students to earn college credit while still in high school.

Safeguarding Our Democracy

From Jim Crow laws to the Big Lie, voter suppression and attacks on our democracy are nothing new. As fights around election certification continued and the redistricting wars waged, MVF’s partners remained on the front lines of protecting voting rights and safeguarding our democracy.

• North Carolina – The 2024 elections came to a close in May 2025 when the North Carolina Supreme Court race was finally certified, and Allison Riggs was sworn in as an associate justice. Two independent recounts showed that Jefferson Griffin lost to Allison Riggs by 734 votes, but he refused to concede and attempted to invalidate 60,000 ballots. After the 2024 elections, Common Cause Education Fund, Southern Coalition for Social Justice, and base-building organizations in North Carolina launched a historic ballot-curing initiative to protect the rights of voters who cast provisional ballots. The successful organizing, litigation, and communications campaign created a playbook for future efforts to safeguard election certification.
• Maine – MVF partners Maine Voices Network, Maine People’s Resource Center, Community Organizing Alliance, Maine Youth Power, JustME for JustUS, and Food AND Medicine helped defeat a voter-suppression ballot initiative that would have enacted strict voter-ID requirements and dramatically restricted absentee voting.
• Missouri – MVF partner People Not Politicians Missouri has gathered more than 200,000 signatures to force a statewide referendum on newly redrawn congressional maps. Opponents are so panicked that they are offering canvassers $5,000 to stop collecting signatures and leave the campaign altogether. MVF partners are now fighting in the courts against the Secretary of State’s attempt to invalidate nearly half of the signatures already collected.
• New Hampshire – MVF partner The Forward Foundation continued to train and support local election officials, who often get little support from the Secretary of State’s office. Because many are elected in spring town elections and face a steep learning curve ahead of November general elections, The Forward Foundation provides hands-on support to help officials understand current and new laws, ensuring every vote is counted accurately.

Shifting the Narrative

Legacy media no longer drives public opinion as it once did. Increasingly, people are living their lives online — getting their news, culture, entertainment, and political updates via social media and other online platforms. Regressive cultural movements have come to dominate many of these spaces, pushing xenophobic, racist, anti-trans, and anti-democratic narratives often rife with mis- and disinformation that goes unquestioned. To counter this, MVF launched a new-media strategy aimed at organizing the internet, bolstering inclusive and pro-democracy narratives, and shining a light on the harm of the federal government’s authoritarian attacks on vulnerable communities.

• Live from Occupied – MVF partnered with Creator Congress to support creators providing on-the-ground coverage in ICE- and National Guard-occupied cities and states across the country. Reporting from Chicago, Los Angeles, Idaho, Tennessee, Portland, and elsewhere, Live from Occupied creators describe and show footage from ICE detainments, Customs and Border Patrol raids, and National Guard deployments, providing an inside look into the federal government’s overreach and attacks on immigrant communities. The account gained more than 2,500 followers within four weeks of its creation.
• The Harm of DEI Cuts – MVF partner Onyx Impact has been working to elevate the harms of the federal government’s cuts to DEI programs and funding. Onyx recently published The Blackout Report: The Real-World Impact of Erasing, Distorting, and Suppressing Black Progress to track the disappearance of information on Black oppression in America. They have built a Black amplifier network to combat mis- and disinformation on the impact of DEI cuts, and are using their AI-powered guide, Aisha, to elevate the report findings and “be a champion for Black culture online.” Onyx has also highlighted their findings in more traditional media, penning an op-ed in The Guardian with Stacey Abrams about the harms of erasing Black history.
• The 3.5% Project – MVF partner Way to Rise is leading an amplification campaign, encouraging digital content creators to elevate the empirically backed narrative that mobilizing just 3.5% of the population in nonviolent resistance actions can actively stop the rise of authoritarianism. The 3.5% Project’s Instagram account has 486 posts and over 127,000 followers, helping inspire everyday people to take action by shifting perceptions of what it would take to change the course of our country.
• New Hampshire – MVF partner Our Economy, Our Future launched a pilot micro-influencers program to shift the statewide narrative around the importance of revenue, taxes, and a state budget that uses the power of government to make life better for everyone. New Hampshire is the only state in the country without income or sales tax, and it is expected that candidates running for office will pledge not to raise taxes if they are elected. This leaves the state with limited funding for critical services and programs. Our Economy, Our Future’s micro-influencers program is elevating the voices of local leaders with large social media followings, like @heykindergarten, to make the case for why raising taxes on the wealthy is key to funding the state’s most critical programs and provides an opening for candidates not to take the no-tax pledge.

 

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Part 2: Pushing for Policy Progress

MVF partners are leading the charge, not only going on defense against attacks by blocking regressive policies, but also going on offense by building their bases and organizing for policy progress.

Spreading the Minnesota Model: Base Building and Local Organizing

What is the “Minnesota Model”?

In Minnesota, MVF partners built a durable, cross-sector coalition of organizing, labor, faith, and advocacy groups, which, in 2023, won the most ambitious policy agenda in decades. They won universal school lunches, codified abortion rights, secured paid family medical leave, and more.

But these victories didn’t happen overnight. It took over ten years of dedicated collaboration, organizing, and base building to create a broad “state ecosystem” powered from the ground up. 

Now, MVF is working with our partners to spread and adapt the Minnesota Model to their respective states (see below), building the big-tent movements we need to win real change.

What Is “Base Building”?

Base building is the work of bringing people together to exercise power as a unified constituency, while winning more and more people over to our side.

Base building is more than transactional interactions. Base building centers relational and deep organizing — taking the time to engage people on the issues they care about, listening to the solutions they want to see, and helping them understand the power they have to create change when we fight together.

Base building then moves beyond outreach and engagement to bring people into our movements, develop them as leaders, and train them to organize within their communities, exponentially expanding our power and impact.

Base building is the heartbeat of MVF partners’ work. It’s how they build the on-the-ground power needed to hold elected leaders accountable and successfully advocate for policy progress.

• Michigan – Grassroots groups are collaborating on a unique, multi-year campaign that provides people with an easy access point for involvement, then moves them through a ladder of engagement to help push for policy change in the state.Organizers began by forming a resistance coalition to coordinate mobilizations against federal overreach on issues ranging from immigrants’ rights to freedom of the press. This new coalition channels short-term energy into long-term power, providing intentional on-ramps for newcomer activists and civic-minded social media influencers to become engaged volunteers and committed leaders.The coalition also provides a direct line for volunteer recruitment and engagement for two more MVF partners, Invest in MI Kids and Michiganders for Money Out of Politics, who have built cross-issue and cross-sector coalitions working to get two ballot measures in front of voters in 2026.

  Together, MVF partners are funneling ordinary people who show up for civil resistance mobilizations into ballot measure coalition efforts. They are telling a story about what ordinary people can do to counter the consolidation of federal power while organizing to limit the influence of corporations in state politics and to invest more in Michigan’s public schools by taxing the wealthy.

  The ballot measure coalitions are now using signature collection as an avenue for organizer training and base building to give people a sense of their power to make a tangible impact on people’s lives through policy change.

• North Carolina – MVF partners in North Carolina are taking a page directly out of the Minnesota Model playbook. Our core base-building partners, We Are Down Home NC, the Carolina Federation Fund, and others have formed a coalition table with local labor organizations supported by the AFL-CIO’s Center for Transformative Organizing. Composed of rural and urban groups from across the state, the new table’s purpose is to better coordinate issue and GOTV campaigns with base-building organizing on an ongoing basis. MVF’s Co-Director of State Programs, Javier Morillo, is working with the newly formed table to build durable, multiracial, working-class alliances to expand people power and push for policies that will benefit all North Carolinians.

 

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Part 3: Igniting a Civic Revival

The boom-and-bust funding cycle of election years — throwing money at groups right before a big election, then shifting to other priorities right after — coupled with the transactional nature of candidate campaigns, leaves on-the-ground groups underfunded and the voters they aim to reach disengaged and cynical. In our current political climate, voter cynicism has become even more stark. Because there’s no such thing as an “off” year at MVF, we have continued to provide year-round funding for the year-round organizing needed to counter this cynicism and disengagement and provide pathways toward igniting a civic revival.

Expanding the Electorate

People of color and young people have been intentionally excluded from our democracy and historically undervalued as powerful voting blocs. With a few recent exceptions, candidate campaigns and party operations often opt for registering and turning out easier-to-reach white and older voters over “low-propensity” voters (what some in our movement call “high-opportunity” voters) who are rightfully cynical and require more time and effort to engage. MVF and our partners believe in a truly inclusive democracy that works for everyone and are putting in the work to get there. Our partners are focused on expanding the electorate by specifically engaging communities that have been left out.

• Georgia – MVF partner, ProGeorgia, has been countering Georgia’s well-known voter-suppression tactics — including ongoing voter purges and strict voting laws — by making sure the most impacted Georgians have what they need to register and cast their ballots. Last year, ProGeorgia helped register 14,000 new citizens at naturalization ceremonies, but recent federal government restrictions now bar nonprofits from continuing this activity.To counter these restrictions and ensure new citizens are able to register to vote, ProGeorgia has been strengthening coordination with election officials to make sure they are providing voter registration coverage at naturalization ceremonies. ProGeogia has also expanded post-ceremony outreach — including mail, text, and geofencing for digital ads — so new citizens still receive timely registration support. They have also partnered with immigrant-led organizations to host community-based voter registration events.

• Georgia – Also in Georgia, MVF partners conducted nonpartisan voter engagement efforts to educate and turnout voters statewide for two Public Service Commission races and other down-ballot elections in November 2025. Equality Federation of Georgia focused on reaching its universe of LGBTQIA+ Georgians via phone, text, and email. Georgia Youth Justice Coalition for Education amplified their work to reach young voters, including conducting peer-to-peer outreach on college campuses and launching strategic messaging campaigns to reach young voters most susceptible to mis- and disinformation online. Black Male Initiative targeted Black men and women, specifically low-propensity voters, in nine Metro Atlanta counties — including suburban and exurban areas — through nonpartisan door knocking, texting, phone banking, and community events.
• Arizona – MVF partner, AZ AANHPI for Equity, operates one of the only voter engagement programs in Arizona that conducts intentional, culturally-specific outreach to Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) communities across all of its program areas — including Climate Justice, Youth Leadership, We Imagine Safety, Organizing, and Membership. This year, they were one of the few groups conducting voter-registration efforts in the East Valley, a region with rapidly growing, but historically under-engaged, AANHPI populations.AANHPI for Equity further expanded its impact by sponsoring Arizona’s first AANHPI music festival, using the event as a large-scale civic engagement opportunity. Banners displayed throughout the venue featured an online voter-registration link using a trackable, unique URL assigned by the Secretary of State’s Office, allowing the organization to monitor digital registrations directly tied to their outreach.

• New York – MVF’s new partner, New York Civic Engagement Table (NYCET), specifically targeted less-engaged voters throughout the 2025 election cycle. As part of their door-to-door canvassing program, ninety percent of the voters NYCET and their partners contacted throughout the year are low- to mid-propensity voters, and 45% are young voters, many of whom were newly engaged in the June primary. NYCET partners’ average voter contact rate was 28% — significantly higher than the industry average of 10-15%, and roughly 70% of voters NYCET partners spoke with committed to voting.These tactics helped contribute to significant voter turnout throughout the year. In New York City’s June primary, 60% of newly registered voters turned out — double the rate of voters who had been registered for more than a year. Young voters also played a huge role, with voters aged 18 to 29 having the highest turnout of any age group at 35.2%, nearly double their 2021 turnout at 17.9%. In the general election, 28% of young people, aged 18-29, cast ballots in the mayoral race, compared to just 11% in 2021.

Emboldening Civic Leaders

Our communities, our nation, and our movements need leaders who are skilled, ready, and, above all, understand the power they have to inspire people and create change. MVF partners across the country have been emboldening civic leaders through trainings, leadership development cohorts, skills-building workshops, and co-governance models that emphasize partnerships between elected leaders and everyday people to drive policy change.

• Multi-State Skill Building – MVF, in partnership with Propper Daley BPI and Kerry Washington’s KW Foundation, is supporting twelve state-based organizations across four states — Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania — to participate in our second cohort of the Vision Into Power (VIP) program. The VIP collective-learning cohort aims to provide participants with the necessary infrastructure to create impactful stories that inspire action, achieve significant victories, and safeguard state progress.Through a series of workshops and trainings, VIP participants have learned the art and science of storytelling for organizing, how to use a race-class narrative to engage and persuade their constituencies, how to develop and execute digital strategies, and more. Most importantly, the VIP Cohort enables MVF partners to collaborate, share best practices, and learn from each other — opportunities that may not have been possible without this project. In addition to new skills and confidence in their leadership, each organization will receive tailor-made videos that tell the stories they have developed during the cohort.

• North Carolina – This summer, MVF partner We are Down Home held its semiannual Statewide Member Convention. They convened 300 of Down Home’s top member-leaders in Raleigh to train on the organization’s strategies to fight authoritarianism and build power for working North Carolinians. Specifically, they supported leaders to be prepared to participate in Down Home’s “skirmishes” — an organizing tactic centered on the real impacts of federal administration funding cuts that elevates stories and aims to gain support from local elected officials of both parties. At the convention, We Are Down Home also launched a new member-working-group structure that will help anchor the organization’s three core capacities: base building, narrative strategy, and co-governance.
• Georgia – MVF partner Poder Latinx held their first-ever Poderosas State Summit in Georgia, as part of a regional expansion of the annual summit to key states, including Arizona, Texas, and California. Intended for Latina participants, the Poderosas Summit is “designed to build grassroots power, strengthen local movements, and equip participants with the skills, networks, and confidence to lead change in their communities.”
• Arizona – MVF partner Instituto Lab is preparing the next generation of movement leaders. Through trainings, fellowships, workshops, and other resources, they equip Arizona’s leaders and change-making organizations with the skills needed to organize effectively and build independent power. This year, they hosted candidate trainings, their signature Mónzon Fellowship, dozens of workshops, an executive leadership program, and more to embolden civic leaders in Arizona. Instituto Lab also incubates organizations and campaigns to ensure they have what they need to be successful, effective, and sustainable.
• New Hampshire – MVF partner The Forward Foundation focuses on increasing civic participation among working-age Granite Staters and ensuring that New Hampshire’s state government is truly representative of the state’s population. This year, they developed civic spaces for people facing the impacts of a lack of affordable housing, healthcare cuts, reproductive rights restrictions, public education rollbacks, and more to have a voice in public policy. The aim is to create a more representative state government informed by the lived experiences of the many, not the interests of a small few in power.

Building Capacity for Stronger Organizations

Part of MVF’s core work is ensuring that our partners have the capacity they need to run effective programs, retain and develop staff, maintain safety and security, and sustain a growth trajectory well into the future. MVF’s Capacity Building program helps strengthen organizations from the inside out, offering a range of resources, including funding, training, infrastructure and program tools, and networking and collaboration opportunities. This behind-the-scenes work isn’t always as flashy as external-facing programs like voter engagement, organizing campaigns, and rallies and protests, but it is just as important.

Movement Data and Technology

For many MVF partners, vital tech tools to track, measure, and evaluate progress can be prohibitively expensive to access, difficult to set up, and confusing to use. Through MVF’s partnerships with The Movement Cooperative (TMC) and vendors like ActionBuilder and OpenField, we help partners leverage a range of technology tools to build the most effective programs and campaigns possible.

MVF provided a pilot data dashboard to ten partners in six states — Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Nebraska, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania — to help them track and evaluate the progress of their field campaigns. With this new tool, MVF partners can see in real time how many doors they have knocked, voters they have contacted, volunteer leaders they have engaged, and other vital information to make effective use of time, money, and resources. These dashboards also allow MVF partners to discern which methods, timing, and messaging are most effective for voter contact and mobilization.

We also provide a free data and tech help desk to give MVF partners extra support with tech tools, voter-file access, and other digital and data-related needs. This year, we had roughly 140 unique requests for support, ranging from accessing voter-file data to evaluating the effectiveness of canvassing and relational organizing efforts.

MVF’s Capacity Building Team has been working with partner People’s Action Institute, in collaboration with TMC, to launch Pathways to Power 2.0 — a project to help local- and state-based organizations measure their long-term power-building work. People’s Action and TMC — with the input of groups on the ground — developed and are implementing standardized metrics and building shared data infrastructure across movement groups, which will help organizations have more effective organizing, greater impact, and the ability to scale successful, power-building strategies over the long term.

Safety and Security

Amidst rising authoritarianism, community organizations and movements have seen increased attacks on their own safety and security, ranging from doxxing to infiltration of data and systems, threats of physical violence, and more. MVF’s Capacity Building Team has provided ongoing training and tailored support to our partners to help ensure that their organizations are secure and their staff, volunteers, and constituencies remain safe.

This year, we have provided more than 245 hours of digital security training to MVF partners, including digital security audits, risk assessments, crisis response planning, and individual coaching for partners. We provided support to seventeen partners experiencing active and extreme attacks on their organizations, such as the infiltration of their databases and other data and systems breaches. Our ongoing digital and security support helps keep the personal information of staff, members, and volunteers out of the hands of bad actors, further protecting already vulnerable communities.

We have worked with two partners who have continuously experienced data leaks through a variety of public records. Staff were not aware of these leaks and had not appropriately managed them before working with MVF. For these two partners, we have provided ongoing security audits, infrastructure reviews, safety and security protocols ahead of planned in-person events, and worked closely with staff to manage and secure their records.

We have also partnered with Vision Change Win to provide physical safety training and planning to our partners, emphasizing de-escalation tactics, safety planning for door-knocking programs, and having a safety backup plan in place for all events.

Learning and Skill Building

MVF provides three distinct learning areas for our partners to enhance their programmatic efficacy and organizational sustainability: Communications, Financial Resilience, and Innovative Fundraising.

• Providing communications support, including crisis communications support, helps MVF partners tell their stories, shift narratives, and win hearts and minds in support of a progressive worldview and policy agenda.MVF supported several of our immigrant rights partners with crisis communications to help counter the Trump administration’s racist, xenophobic narratives and increased attacks on vulnerable communities. We connected our partners with Camino PR, who helped organizations develop new messages and narratives for a range of audiences, including members, funders, and boards of directors. Camino PR also helped partners create press plans and provided PR training to ensure partners were well-equipped to deliver their message publicly.

• Without strong financial management systems and fundraising operations, our partners — and their critical programs — would cease to exist. This year, MVF’s Financial Resilience Cohort trained more than forty-five partners on accounting tools and budget planning and tracking, while providing access to a tax accounting hotline, which is particularly important given the presidential administration’s attacks on organizations’ nonprofit tax statuses.Participant organizations provided incredible feedback about how invaluable this financial support has been. Because of MVF’s coaching and training, partners were able to enhance their program-based budgeting, get early approval for the next fiscal year’s budget, complete effective mid-year budget reviews, and learn new tools to improve their accounting practices.

• In our Innovative Fundraising Cohort, representatives from nearly fifty organizations learned from experts and each other about how to enhance and sustain their fundraising programs. Sessions focused on budgeting, development planning, grassroots fundraising, event fundraising, and fundraising with organizations’ boards of directors.As part of the cohort, MVF worked with the Executive Director of Opportunity Arizona to develop an achievable fundraising and budget plan that allowed the organization to diversify its funding sources. We also worked with the Executive Director of Fair Wisconsin to develop her fundraising skills and integrate development planning and execution into her range of responsibilities.

Strategic Partnerships

Part of our Capacity Building Team’s unique value add is connecting partners and helping build stronger, broader movements for progress.

• Building a Coalition for Bodily Autonomy – MVF has partnered with the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center (BISC) to form Rising Together — a coalition of national LGBTQIA+ and reproductive rights organizations focused on protecting and advancing bodily autonomy through ballot measures. From gender-affirming care restrictions to abortion bans, bodily autonomy is under attack, and those attacks have only increased with the rise of authoritarianism. Yet, we have an opportunity to defend against these attacks by putting these issues directly before voters via ballot measures.By working collaboratively rather than in silos, Rising Together aims to protect bodily autonomy at the ballot box and build durable, people-centered power that lasts beyond any single campaign. The coalition is laying the groundwork for proactive efforts across multiple states, balancing strong defensive strategies with forward-looking campaigns to protect our policy gains and build momentum toward lasting progress.

• Protecting the Nonprofit Sector Through Movement-Wide Legal Support – MVF’s Capacity Building Team has partnered with Alliance for Justice (AFJ) to help safeguard against the Trump administration’s attacks on nonprofit organizations.This year, MVF supported the launch of AFJ Law — a project that connects legal advocates directly to organizations, particularly attorneys who are well-versed in specific states. We also continued our partnership with Bolder Advocacy — a resource and training hub to help nonprofits build power in support of policy advocacy campaigns. In 2025, we supported Bolder Advocacy in overhauling and updating their resources to equip nonprofits to withstand increased scrutiny and potential attacks from the federal government.MVF also worked with AFJ and We the Action to launch the Nonprofit Legal Defense Network. Through the Network, nonprofits can access legal compliance and advocacy resources, risk assessments and checklists, and pro bono attorneys to help them navigate advocacy compliance and nonprofit tax law to protect their missions.

 

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Epilogue: Swinging for the Fences in 2026!

We say it all the time at MVF: there are no “off” years, only “odd” years.

In fact, it’s our work together with you — our funders and partners — in the odd years that makes our successes in the “even” years possible.

Thanks to you, our partners got a jumpstart on the year, and they never stopped. Thanks to you, they defended local communities against authoritarian attacks, organized for policy and ballot-measure wins, and expanded their bases of support to build long-term power. And thanks to you, they are writing their organizing, advocacy, mobilization, and power-building plans for 2026 as you read this.

Our movement is feeling the momentum, and our partners are ready to turn that momentum into grassroots power next year.

It’s time to swing for the fences in 2026.

Here’s our full strategy with highlights below.

Beating Back Authoritarianism

With more attacks coming from the Trump administration every day, MVF will continue to support our partners to beat back authoritarianism by:

• Fueling civil resistance and protecting communities
• Ensuring fair electoral representation
• Continuing to hold congressional leaders accountable
• Protecting voting rights, especially if the Supreme Court further weakens the Voting Rights Act

Fighting for Fair Electoral Representation

With gerrymandering efforts expected to extend far into 2026, MVF partners are already laying the groundwork now to win the fight for fair electoral representation.

In Missouri, MVF will continue to support our partner, People Not Politicians, as they gather signatures for a redistricting ballot measure. They are currently in a legal battle with the Secretary of State’s office, which is attempting to invalidate more than 90,000 signatures already collected by the coalition. As the legal battle unfolds, People Not Politicians is building its capacity to transition from signature collection to a campaign for the referendum vote next year.

MVP is working closely with Fair Representation in Redistricting, a funder coalition that is supporting underrepresented communities in fights for fair maps and deploying resources to fill gaps and meet urgent needs. The landscape is changing quickly, and we are monitoring developments in additional states, including Virginia, Maryland, Indiana, and Kansas.

Rebuilding Trust in Democracy

We must maintain the momentum from 2025 to rebuild trust in democracy and give voters tangible reasons to be civically engaged. MVF will support our partners to do their core, nonpartisan electoral organizing work in 2026, as well as test new strategies and innovations to ignite and expand a civic revival. This includes:

• Voter registration, with a focus on BIPOC and young voters
• Get-out-the-vote efforts for local, state, and federal elections across the country
• Membership and volunteer recruitment and retention to build people power, drive voter turnout, and sustain voter engagement long after Election Day

Scaling Up New Media

In 2024, we learned we cannot solely rely on our in-person organizing and ground game; we must pair local organizing with new-media engagement. In short, we must organize the internet. In 2026, we plan to:

• Build state-level digital power to counter mis- and disinformation and shape and elevate progressive narratives
• Support young people as digital organizers and changemakers
• Support identity and cultural organizing to strengthen digital spaces for Black, immigrant, and LGBTQIA+ communities
• Work with digital creators to develop civic participation content that inspires voter engagement
• Build amplification networks and powerful “narrative ecosystems” to unify messaging across states and movements

In early 2026, we will help support our partners to plan a virtual Gamer Congress where celebrity gamers with large followings — often in the millions — can help engage politically apathetic gamers to become involved in organizing through the games they play and the online communities of which they are a part.

Breaking the Boom-and-Bust Funding Cycle

Boom-and-bust funding — funding that comes flooding in before Election Day and dries up right after — is too little, too late, especially for building sustained power to keep people engaged. Most last-minute funding goes to superficial voter contact that fails to move the needle and focuses only on electoral messaging, rather than the more holistic, long-term project of creating progress that lasts.

Our partners need consistent funding to do the deep organizing required to sustain our movements.

MVF’s partners aren’t just turning out voters in November. They are organizing at community events, deep canvassing to meaningfully engage voters now, organizing digital creators to shape the narrative online, registering and mobilizing voters for primaries, and building for the long haul.

This way, when it comes time to vote in November, to show up to state legislative sessions in January, and to become year-round civic leaders, their constituents are ready. They understand the power they have to create their own future. 

Let’s Swing for the Fences! 

In 2026, we have the opportunity to create the hopeful future we want and need.

A future where our elected officials are pushing for bold, popular policy agendas that will win tangible improvements in people’s lives. A future where immigrants, LGBTQIA+ community members, women, people of color, and working-class people of all races can access affordable healthcare, leave their homes without fear, make their own choices about their bodies and lives, and raise their kids in safe, thriving communities. A future where tyranny is defeated because voters showed up at the ballot box to make their voices heard and hold their elected leaders accountable.

This future is possible — but it’s going to take everything we’ve got. We must double and triple down on our efforts and investments, starting right now.

Learn more here about the ways you can contribute to MVF, or contact our team directly for support in making a multi-year giving plan.

We are so grateful for your support and unwavering commitment. Now, we have the opportunity of a lifetime to swing for the fences in 2026.

Let’s do it!!!

Thank you,
The MVF Team