In 2025, Voters Ed Fund’s flagship program, My City Votes, evolved and expanded from a Get Out the Vote, election-cycle focused campaign, into a year-round partnership development program focused on supporting local community partners.
The My City Votes program entered 2025 with the goal of developing lasting partnerships with local organizations and voters in key cities, lending our resources and expertise to support voters in historically underrepresented communities to make their voices heard.
In 2025, My City Votes was active in Flint, Pontiac, Grand Rapids, Muskegon Heights, Benton Harbor, Oak Park, Ypsilanti, and Warren, and education and empowerment were the focus of our programming. We joined partners in hosting candidate forums, educating voters on their choices during all-important municipal elections, an especially valuable endeavor considering the lack of media attention and voter education that odd year municipal elections often receive, and their overall importance in the daily lives of voters.
Throughout the next year, Voters Ed Fund is building local leadership teams to drive community based programs. We’ve also started making big plans with partners on unique and innovative ways to inspire, motivate, and educate community members around civic participation and grassroots power-building. In 2026, we’re sub-granting to a number of partners to do this important work, including:
- Detroit Change Initiative is driving “aspirational voting” in Detroit and Warren by delivering essential economic education, shifting the community’s financial understanding from income to resilience, and executing a comprehensive door-to-door and youth-focused outreach strategy to boost engagement.
- FAIR Voting Alliance, serving Flint and Detroit, will cultivate an informed and active electorate through structured community dialogues, uniting local officials and youth, while also facilitating voter registration and civic engagement with robust outreach campaigns set to conclude by mid-2026.
- Journey Faith Group in Detroit and Warren is fostering a new generation of informed citizens, and focused on empowering over 500 youth and community members by strengthening leadership skills, increasing civic awareness among first-time voters (ages 17-21), and ensuring equitable ballot access through clear and accurate information dissemination.
- Neighbors Organizing Against Racism in Benton Harbor is committed to fortifying local democracy by convening a key Candidate Forum, which will provide a vital platform for residents, students, and leaders to engage in civic learning and promote informed voting on issues like the college millage ahead of the municipal election.
- North Flint Neighborhood Action Council champions long-term civic participation among African American men by creating trusted, intergenerational spaces for dialogue, building leadership skills through mentorship and workshops on community organizing, and amplifying their visibility and sense of belonging through positive story-sharing events.
- Project NEED Foundation’s core mission is high-impact voter mobilization in Benton Harbor, which they execute by activating church leaders and community ambassadors, offering free rides to the polls, and orchestrating a full cycle of energetic events including relational organizing, early voting promotions, and robust GOTV efforts on Election Day.
- Voting Access for All Coalition (VAAC) is dual-focused on empowering justice-impacted individuals and defending ballot access, specifically by hosting a “Civic Power Ambassadors” workshop series and expanding their campaign to counter deceptive “proof-of-citizenship” ballot initiatives through on-the-ground canvassing and community story collection.
Voters Ed Fund amplifies our impact in communities statewide by focusing on collaboration and direct support to local partners. The result? We are connecting across communities and building power both with and for Michigan voters.