What is a Get-Out-the-Vote Project?

A Get-Out-the-Vote (GOTV) project is a non-partisan voter registration and/or mobilization effort. GOTV work is critical to an engaged and robust democracy, and GOTV projects work to keep voters engaged in the political process, reach out to the nonvoting population, and address systemic barriers to participation. GOTV projects may work to increase voter turn-out in all communities, or they may target increasing voter turn-out in specific constituent groups, such as poor and rural communities, people of color, youth, or women.

All Tides Center projects, including GOTV projects, are prohibited from supporting or opposing candidates for public office in any political campaign. If your project is campaigning or intends to campaign for a political candidate, it does not qualify to be a project of Tides Center.

Timeline to Become a GOTV Project

Quite often, GOTV projects must mobilize quickly to take advantage of opportunities at a moment's notice; therefore, they may find that they need to establish a legal and charitable structure in a fairly short amount of time.

While we are able to fast-track GOTV projects, the process does require additional work and availability on the part of the project's director for questions, conference calls, documentation, and clarifications.

On average, it takes approximately 12 weeks to become a project of Tides Center. If you have a GOTV project that needs to incorporate in less than 12 weeks, please call and leave a message on Tides Center's intake line at 415.561.7830. Include the date by which you need to be a project, the reason for the accelerated timeline, your current structure, and confirmed funding. We will follow up with you as soon as possible.

Steps to Become a GOTV Project

In addition to calling us, you should review the steps necessary to become a project, starting with Step 1: Fit and following with Step 2: Eligibility. If you meet the eligibility requirements you can begin the process by going to Step 3: The Letter of Inquiry (LOI), as this is a necessary step towards becoming a project of Tides Center. In the LOI, please be sure to include the following information:

Where your voter registration efforts will take place;
How they will take place;
What activities have taken place to this point; and,
What is the current structure of your project.

If you have any questions about becoming a GOTV project you can review the FAQ about becoming a project; if your question is not answered you are welcome to leave a message on Tides Center's intake line at 415.561.7830.