In 2026, we anticipate unprecedented attacks on our democracy, including mass disinformation, voter intimidation connected to ICE and police presence at the polls, rapid gerrymandering to curtail the voting rights of Black communities, and more.
MVF and our partners are poised and ready to fight back. We have spent this year coordinating with hundreds of organizations and leaders who are best positioned to deploy the most impactful election protection strategies, and to mobilize quickly and effectively to counter potential sabotage efforts that may arise this year.
Here's an overview of our five-phase plan, and below are funding opportunities that represent a small sampling of the strategic investments we believe will make the biggest difference.
Note: Figures below reflect various segments of our 501(c)(3) democracy defense budget, which is just part of our larger 2026 base-building and voter mobilization program budget. Please contact your MVF Philanthropic Advisor or advisor@movementvoterfund.org for more information.
Photo: Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition marching for voting rights and mobilizing people to the polls. (Photo credit: Jon Dragonette)
Funding Area #1: Align the Movement and Build Early Momentum
Goal #1: Align and coordinate the democracy defense ecosystem.
To ensure our movement as a whole is ready, we need to align national partners and equip state-based partners to be prepared for a range of attacks. MVF will support key national partners to develop and align election protection and sabotage prevention strategies and to set up coordinating hubs nationally and with state-based partners.
MVF will also support roughly 100 state-based partners to develop and include election protection and election sabotage preparedness strategies within their regular organizing and voter mobilization plans. This includes disseminating best practices we have learned from surveying our partners; making sure voters are registered to vote, signed up to request mail-in ballots, and know the voting rules in their state; and supporting state-based partners to work together, strengthening an aligned and unified pro-democracy movement.
National partners: Election Safeguard Response Network (via All Voting is Local), State Voices, MoveOn Education Fund, Indivisible Civics, Showing Up for Racial Justice Education Fund, and People's Action Institute
State-based partners (sample list): Arizona Center for Empowerment, All in Wisconsin Fund (fiscally sponsored by State Power Fund), We Are Down Home (NC), One Pennsylvania for All, Silver State Voices (NV), Michigan United, Georgia Coalition for the People's Agenda, The Forward Foundation (NH), Civic TN, Texas Civil Rights Project, and Alaska Voter Hub
Investment: $3,150,000
Goal #2: Equip the pro-democracy movement with the skills needed to protect the 2026 elections.
Building skills and capacity of volunteers, poll monitors, election administrators, and even organizational staff is key to protecting our elections and preparing for the specific threats of this election cycle. MVF will support national partners to help train thousands of people to be ready to play critical election protection roles from the start of early voting through Election Day. National partners will also support state-based groups to train their constituencies, including training ICE watch volunteers to be election monitors — like we are seeing in Minneapolis and North Carolina — and running mass “Know Your Rights” trainings for poll monitors and election observers.
National partners: Freedom Trainers (fiscally sponsored by Community Change), The Horizons Project (fiscally sponsored by New Venture Fund), and States at the Core
Investment: $450,000
Graphic: Onyx Impact
Funding Area #2: Win the Narrative
Goal #1: “Prebunk” false election narratives before they take hold.
With the ramp-up of AI and our “chronically online” society, false narratives about voting and our elections are constantly swirling on social media, in group chats, on digital media platforms, and everywhere else people get information online.
MVF and our partners must leverage existing digital media and online creators to elevate pro-democracy, pro-voter narratives to proactively “prebunk” false election narratives — i.e., prepare voters to recognize and resist mis- and disinformation before they encounter it — that could dissuade people from voting.
With Black voters’ power already under extreme attack — even more so with the recent Supreme Court decision further gutting the Voting Rights Act — we are also focused on helping prebunk and debunk false election narratives aimed specifically at dissuading Black voters from turning out.
Partners (sample list): Way to Rise, Faithful Strategies (fiscally sponsored by American Opportunity Fund), Onyx Impact, fiscally sponsored by Democracy Matters Foundation
Investment: $320,000
Goal #2: Disseminate surround-sound, state-specific, pro-democracy messaging and information.
In addition to inoculation, we need to make sure voters are receiving the messaging and information that is most likely to get them prepared to vote, excited to bring their families and neighbors with them, and motivated to create public demand for a fair election.
As we know, the messenger matters. So does the creation of content that is engaging, convincing, and feels specific to the state and community in which someone is heading to the polls. We need people to see themselves as active members of a broader popular movement, with a responsibility to engage in and defend democracy.
MVF will develop and support state-based creator cohorts in Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and other states to create geographically specific, surround-sound, pro-democracy narratives aimed at helping voters understand that their vote matters.
Partners (sample list): Michigan Creator Collaborative and One Pennsylvania for All
Investment: $290,000
Graphic: Generation Vote Education Fund
Funding Area #3: Build Youth Power
Goal #1: Organize young people to defend democracy on and off college campuses.
To ensure youth-led movements for progress are prepared to defend democratic participation, we need infrastructure to train and mobilize thousands of students at scale. MVF will support national and state-based partners to develop coordinated election protection strategies and establish campus organizing hubs that serve as rapid response centers across the youth ecosystem. This includes training students in organizing and election protection practices, deploying youth poll monitors and workers, and coordinating coalitions across campuses and geographies to launch youth-led, public mobilizations.
Goal #2: Engage young people through creative, culturally relevant strategies.
Traditional voter engagement is increasingly ineffective in reaching and galvanizing young people. MVF will support youth-focused partners to launch youth-led social, participatory, and engaging organizing and mobilizing tactics that young people will actually want to participate in. MVF partners will also build the capacity of young creators to reach and organize other young people online, where they are consistently and increasingly getting their news, information, and entertainment.
Goal #3: Turn out young people to vote in massive numbers.
A key priority will be driving mass voter turnout among young people, with focused emphasis on early voting initiatives that help students navigate registration, request mail-in ballots, and cast their votes early to avoid Election Day barriers.
Partners: Alliance for Youth Organizing, Sunrise Movement Education Fund, Piece by Piece Strategies (fiscally sponsored by NEO Philanthropy), Generation Vote Education Fund, Project68 Education Fund, More Perfect Union Foundation, New Save Collective, a project of Kairos Fellowship, and Players Alliance, a project of Addition
Investment: $1,570,000
Photo: Joy to the Polls entertaining voters with music and dancing.
Funding Area #4: Get Out the Vote
Goal #1: Leverage early voting to ensure voters can safely and securely cast their ballots.
With ongoing threats about ICE at the polls and rampant mis- and disinformation about election safety, we cannot assume that voters will feel safe heading to the polls or that voters will be able to cast their ballot without interference, intimidation, or intentional misdirection. The organizations best positioned to help secure polling locations and support voters during early voting and on Election Day are those that have been on the ground all year, building power with voters and turning their communities out to the polls. MVF will coordinate and support 100 state-level partners to integrate voter protection and election safety in their voter mobilization plans, with a particular emphasis on voting early.
Goal #2: Maximize early-vote turnout.
We need voters to show up in overwhelming numbers as early as possible to demonstrate strength and build momentum as soon as we can. MVF will work with national and state-based partners to launch early-vote campaigns, urging voters to cast their ballots early in-person or by mail. To reach this scale of voters, especially among constituencies potentially skeptical of elections or concerned about voter intimidation tactics, we need to make voting feel fun, and polling places feel more like parties and less like an administrative burden. Attracting voters to interesting and engaging cultural events is a big part of how we mobilize more voters to turn out, demonstrate that voting is safe, and lay the foundations for the kind of civic power that will last long after Election Day.
National Partners: Poder Latinx Collective Fund, Joy to the Polls, State Voices, Civic Nation, and United Today, Stronger Tomorrow (fiscally sponsored by Community Change)
State-based partners (sample list): Arizona Coalition for Change, Wisconsin Civic Power Table, Somos Siembra (NC), Make the Road Pennsylvania, Make the Road Nevada, Detroit Action Education Fund, ProGeorgia, Maine People's Resource Center, and New Era Colorado
Investment: $3,150,000
Photo: Forward Justice and the Long March for Unity and Power in North Carolina.
Funding Area #5: Count Every Vote and Secure the Results
Goal #1: Ensure that all votes are counted and results are certified accurately and securely.
Once voters cast ballots, we must work to ensure that all votes are counted accurately and election results are certified. MVF partners will launch multi-pronged strategies for accountability if and when these processes have been disrupted. MVF will support our partners to deploy vote-count observers, stand up nonpartisan ballot-curing programs, and launch rapid-response mass mobilizations, should there be any interference in vote counting and election certification processes. We will also help partners absorb election-time volunteers into long-term organizing networks to continue building power and strengthening year-round organizing across the country.
National Partners: Election Safeguard Response Network (via All Voting is Local), State Voices, MoveOn Education Fund, Indivisible Civics, Showing Up for Racial Justice Education Fund, and People's Action Institute
State-based partners (sample list): Arizona AANHPI for Equity, Forward Justice (NC), Asian American Community Fund of PA, MOSES (MI), Florida Rising Together, POWER Coalition (LA), New Hampshire Campaign for Voting Rights, Ohio Organizing Collaborative, WORC Education Project (CO), and Texas for All Education Fund
Investment: $3,070,000
![Graphic: MVF Briefing: How [the $#@%] Do We Protect the 2026 Elections?](/_next/image/?url=%2Fapi%2Fmedia%2Ffile%2F2026-05-19-mvf-democracy-defense-briefing-landscape.jpg&w=3840&q=75)
