During an election year, for those of us living and working in and around the nation’s capital, the media frenzy surrounding the electoral process is nearly impossible to ignore. Many nonprofit organizations coordinate efforts to “get out the vote,” working with their supporters to help people register, get to their polling places and fulfill their most important civic duty: voting. A handful of groups are taking a different approach, by trying to expand the electorate. The grantees highlighted below are working diligently either to help people gain citizenship and become informed voting members of society or to ensure that the votes of all people are counted.

Tenants and Workers United works with low-income immigrant communities to develop leadership skills and increase civic participation in Northern Virginia. CASA of Maryland is an immigrant advocacy and service organization, and works to improve the quality of life for low-income Latinos, immigrants, and their families through employment, education, health, legal, and civic engagement programs. These organizations are working together on the New Americans Initiative, a community-based naturalization effort to move Legal Permanent Residents (LPRs) on a path to citizenship through the creation of Naturalization Support Centers throughout Maryland and Northern Virginia. The Centers offer: full-service clinics for completing citizenship applications, prep courses that teach information needed to pass the citizenship exam, voter registration, referrals to English classes, and follow-up services to connect people with opportunities for civic participation. According to the Census Bureau, there are 270,000 multinational LPRs in the Maryland-Virginia-DC region who are eligible to become U.S. citizens.

The nearly 600,000 Americans living in Washington, DC, have no voting representation in the U.S. Congress. DC Vote is dedicated to securing full congressional voting representation for DC residents. This organization serves as the leader of the DC voting rights movement and acts as the information clearinghouse on the issue. Engaging the regional community, DC Vote recruits hundreds of volunteers and dozens of coalition partners, and draws local, national and international media attention to DC’s denial of democracy. While District residents pay the second highest per capita federal income taxes in the country, their local laws and budget are the only ones in the nation subject to approval by Congress and possible veto from the President.

One of the most important decisions we can all make is to take part in the electoral process: to vote and to make sure that each vote is counted. The Foundation is proud to support these organizations, and many others, which help local residents participate in our democracy.