Nonprofit Activation Ideas

With every Vote Early Day celebration, we want to help as many voters as possible take measurable steps toward casting their ballot in a fun and engaging atmosphere. We encourage each partner organization to design a celebration that best fits the needs of voters in their community. This guide will help provide some inspiration and suggestions for activation ideas, but how you celebrate is totally up to you!

Celebrate by Casting Ballots as a Community

Overview:

Help voters in your community cast their ballot with a big public celebration! Set up an event outside an in-person location for voting early or at a ballot drop box so people can have fun with their friends and neighbors as they cast their ballots early. Encourage attendees to take selfies with their “I voted” stickers at the event and tag #VoteEarlyDay to amplify the celebration to a national audience.

Examples:

Host a party at the polls: Invite your community to celebrate the act of voting early by throwing them a party! Bring in performers, set up games, and pump some music outside your community’s location for voting early or ballot drop box. Make casting a ballot the focus of the fun – lead the crowd in cheers as people come out of the polls with their “I voted” stickers! In the past, organizations have put on concerts, hosted picnics and potlucks, and even organized carnival-style festivals outside their locations for voting early. Halloween is right around the corner, so consider doing the celebration in costume and hosting some early trick-or-treating too. The sky’s the limit – be creative with how you celebrate and get some new voices in to cast a ballot!

Create a public art display: Draw attention to local options for voting early through art! Create a mural, sidewalk art, or sculpture to attract and direct people to your community’s ballot drop box or location to vote early. Make your masterpiece a community effort by inviting the public to participate in its creation or by hosting a public unveiling of the finished product.

Lead a march/parade to the polls: Decorate signs and lead your community on a parade that ends with the marchers voting early at your local election office. Bring along a portable speaker or even invite a high school marching band to join in the fun. Engage with the people watching the parade – pass out resources for voting early, and invite them to join you in casting a ballot!

Offer rides to the polls: Help shuttle voters to the polls! Organize a fleet of volunteer cars (or if you’re feeling fancy, rent a party bus or limo) and ride in style. Make a plan on where to meet and advertise your service to the community. To add some fun, decorate your cars, put together some playlists (we recommend the Vote Early Day Spotify playlist!), and go together in a parade or caravan.

Participate in “Polling Place Vote Tripling”: The best people to convince someone to vote are usually their friends and family, and your organization can help scale up those conversations with a technique called “vote tripling.” On Vote Early Day, station a few volunteers outside a location for voting early, and as voters are leaving ask them to text three of their friends with a reminder to vote early. To make it easy, encourage the voter to text over the Vote Early Day online voter tool. You can find out more about vote tripling tips and best practices here.

Goals:

For Vote Early Day celebrations at the polls, we will measure our success nationwide by the number of voters who take one of the following actions:

Cast a ballot during a Vote Early Day event (either in person or with a ballot drop box)
Attend a Vote Early Day celebration
Post a photo on social media with their “I voted” sticker and tag #VoteEarlyDay

As you begin to plan out your activation, you can use this worksheet to determine an achievable goal for your organization.

Why this celebration works:

With a big event, people have a fun reason to come out to vote on Vote Early Day. Instead of being just an item somewhere on their to-do list, voting becomes the highlight of their day! A community celebration is also a low barrier to entry into the civic space for people who are sometimes intimidated by political- and election-related discourse.

Celebrate by Educating Voters

Overview:

Help people both understand their options for voting early and take an active step toward casting their ballot on Vote Early Day! Make voting early more accessible to the public through a fun and educational event or direct voter outreach.

Examples:

Tabling: Set up a table in a high-traffic area and help people learn about their options to vote early and make a plan to cast their ballot on Vote Early Day. Encourage them to use the Vote Early Day online voter tool or fill out a card with their plan to vote. Be strategic in picking your location – busy street corners, train stations, and public parks are often great options, and you can also ask to set up at a concert, athletic event, or festival. Decorate the display and pump some music to get in the holiday spirit. Don’t wait for people to come to you – actively engage with everyone who comes by!

Interactive discussion or webinar: Put together an informational event about why it is so important for people to make their voices heard this fall, and help your community understand how, when, and where they can vote early. Be creative in recruiting participants! Invite staff from a local election office, campus professors, and community leaders to be panelists, and facilitate a conversation with the audience about why this election matters. By the end of the event, make sure all attendees have made a plan (using our online voter tool or by filling out a postcard for how they will cast their ballot early.

Election-themed community event: Community events can be a fun and accessible way for the public to learn more about elections and the issues that affect our daily lives. In past years, groups have hosted movie screenings, open mics, and trivia nights that feature topics related to elections or civic engagement. By the end of the event, make sure all attendees have made a plan to vote using the Vote Early Day online voter tool or our print-at-home cards.

Door knocking: One of the most effective ways to encourage people to vote early is to knock on their door and ask them directly. Get a list of registered voters from your local election office and head out in small groups to knock on doors in your community. You can find our sample door knocking script here.

Phone/text banking: Reach out to voters directly through phone calls and text messages. Get contact information for registered voters from your local election office, and get together with friends (don’t forget the snacks!) and start connecting with voters about their options to vote early. Make sure each voter you contact knows how, when, and where they can cast their ballot early.

Goals:

For Vote Early Day educational celebrations, we will measure our success nationwide by the number of voters who take one of the following actions:

Make a concrete plan for when and where they will cast their ballot
Fill out a pledge that they will cast their ballot early
Find their location for voting early (either in person or with a ballot drop box)
Request their absentee ballot

As you begin to plan out your activation, you can use this worksheet to determine an achievable goal for your organization.

Why this celebration works:

Studies show that people are much more likely to vote if they make a concrete plan for how they’re going to cast their ballot. Vote Early Day celebrations are the perfect opportunity to help voters think through their options for voting early and decide which method works best for them.

Celebrate by Sharing the Tools to Vote Early

Overview:

Use your platform to help ensure that voters have the resources they need to cast their ballot early and help make voting early the norm for your community.

Examples:

Launch a #VoteEarlyDay social media campaign: Give your community the tools they need to vote early by sharing resources on social media. Direct your audience to the Vote Early Day online voter tool, where they can find their location to vote early and make a plan to vote. Post across all your social media platforms using our sample social media posts and graphics for the biggest effect.

Encourage your audience to post their “I Voted” selfies: After they vote early, encourage the people who follow you on social media to post selfies with their “I Voted” stickers. Reshare their posts to amplify their message! Let your audience know about the special Vote Early Day Instagram stickers, Snapchat filters, sample Instagram story templates for inspiration. Make sure they tag #VoteEarlyDay in all posts!

Join a #VoteEarlyDay Twitterstorm to get resources about voting early trending online: We will be hosting several Twitterstorms in the weeks leading up to Vote Early Day. These are national days of action where our partners come together to flood Twitter with positive messages and resources for voting early. To participate, get members of your organization together (in person or virtually) and tweet resources and reminders about voting early using the hashtag #VoteEarlyDay. Have a friendly competition to see who can tweet the most or get the most engagement with their tweets! Learn more about our Twitterstorms here.

Write letters to the editor about voting early: Spread the word about voting early through your local media! In a letter to the editor, you can share your voting story, what this election means to you, and what people’s options are for voting early. Include a link to the online voter tool on the Vote Early Day website to make it easy for readers to make a plan to vote. Give your local paper a few weeks’ notice and see if you can coordinate with them to have the letter published on Vote Early Day. Find more LTE tips here.

Integrate Vote Early Day resources into your online platform: Give the public the opportunity to learn more about voting early while they’re visiting your website. Integrate the Vote Early Day online voter tool into your website or other platform and make it easy for your customers to get all the resources they need to cast their ballot early.

Send out an email blast about voting early: If you have a big listserv, make sure your audience knows about their options for voting early by sending out an email blast. Direct them to the Vote Early Day voter tool to find their location for voting early (in person or with a ballot drop box).

Goals:

For Vote Early Day celebrations that share tools to vote early, we will measure our success nationwide by the number of voters who take one of the following actions:

Make a concrete plan for when and where they will cast their ballot
Find their location for voting early (either in person or with a ballot drop box)
Request their absentee ballot
Post a photo with their “I voted” sticker and tag #VoteEarlyDay

As you begin to plan out your activation, you can use this worksheet to determine an achievable goal for your organization.

Why this celebration works:

Studies show that people are much more likely to vote if they make a concrete plan for how they’re going to cast their ballot. When you share Vote Early Day’s online voter tool, you make it easy for voters to make this plan.

People are also more inclined to vote if they see that their friends and family are doing so as well. By encouraging the people who follow you on social media to share their voting experience online, you help create a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out) for anyone who hasn’t yet joined in on the fun.