Asian American Organizing Project (AAOP) is offering a nonpartisan, civic engagement outreach and voter education micro-grant up to $10,000. AAOP’s Civic Engagement vision for 2020-2021 is to continue to build and increase state-wide voting power within our 18 – 35 years old base of 21,000 young Asian voters.
This micro-grant is to fund collaborative efforts across diverse Asian-led and focused organizations to increase the overall voter engagement, turnout and representation of our diverse Asian Minnesotan communities. Currently, MN Asians make up 3.1% (125,617) of Minnesota’s Electorate and vote share, however, only 1.9% (61,729) of Asian communities are registered to vote. AAOP is committed to closing the 1.2% voter gap within the next four years by supporting a cohort of Asian organizations and groups who are committed to increasing Asian civic engagement and organizing power in Minnesota.
Asian American Organizing Project believes that in order to close the 1.2% vote share gap is by increasing the number of educated and informed voters, registered voters and voter turnout throughout Asian communities in every Election. By increasing both registered voters and voter turnout in the Asian American communities for every local, state and presidential election, we will not only close the vote share gap but also build collective knowledge, power and representation across the Asian American communities for our next generations.
We strongly believe that to achieve these feats, we must engage directly with our communities on the ground through the phones, at their doors, and digital/physical community spaces to ensure that they have the necessary resources and tools to participate in democracy.
Please reference this folder for a more detailed vision and strategy.
- Applications are accepted until Saturday, August 12th with a priority deadline on August 5th.
- This grant period will be between August 2020 through March 2021.
- Please send applications and questions to Vang Xor Xiong (vangxor@aaopmn.org)
Eligibility for the Grant
- 501c3 status or fiscally sponsored
- Asian American organization based in these seven counties (Anoka, Dakota, Scott, Washington, Hennepin, Ramsey and Omlstead) and/or serving Asian American communities in those counties
- Have a dedicated staff or plan to hire a dedicated staff to lead the work
Grant Requirements
- Usage of the funding
- All the funding must be use civic engagement and voter education work only
- The funding cannot be used to support any partisan work
- Please refer to Vang Xor (vangxor@aaopmn.org) for grant related questions
- Have a dedicated staff/leader to:
- Lead the groundwork of civic engagement and voter education work.
- Communicate and coordinate with AAOP civic engagement team (jeffrey@aaopmn.org) and AAOP grant manager (vangxor@aaopmn.org)
- Participate in civic engagement training such as phone and door canvassing management, voter education workshops, hot spot canvassing etc.
- Participate in trainings for digital engagement around civic engagement work and voter education
- Participate in the following voter engagement activities:
- Phone bank voter education shifts
- Volunteer recruitment Phone Bank shifts
- Host voter education workshops with your community
- Participate in the following coordinated events:
- August 2020: IMAP Kickoff
- September 2020: National Voter Registration Day
- November 2020: Participate in Get Out The Vote
- February 2021: Relationship Building and meetings with Elected Officials