2024 Contract Program Highlights

Throughout 2024, Hennepin County Elections contracted with 35 local organizations to provide voter outreach and engagement to the communities they serve. These contracts ranged in amounts up to $20,000 and lasted from a few months to the entire year.

Over the year, the contracted organizations held nearly 73,000 face-to-face conversations and helped more than 22,500 residents register to vote or pledge to register to vote. In total, their efforts reached more than 442,000 people within Hennepin County.

The organizations used a variety of unique strategies to engage their communities in voting and provide information about elections, including:

  • African Career Education & Resources: Developed a team of 15 community leaders and volunteers who went door-to-door registering voters

  • Catholic Charities Twin Cities: Hosted at least 2 events at each of their program sites, with 19 of those events between September and November

  • Hired: Collaborated with ACER, Ayada Leads, and CAPI to host 5 candidate forums before the August primary election and the November general election

  • League of Women Voters Minnesota: Led an initiative to visit 88 high schools in Hennepin County (public and private schools) for National Voter Registration Day, where they reached more than 45,000 students

  • Native American Community Development Institute: Collaborated with 6 Native artists to commission art that was used to inspire and engage the Native community through visual art messaging

  • Reviving the Islamic Sisterhood for Empowerment: Created informational videos in English, American Sign Language, Spanish, Urdu, Arabic, Somali, and Oromo, along with nonpartisan voter guides

  • United Senior Lao-Americans: Made more than 22,000 phone calls, knocked on 3,155 doors, and assisted nearly 730 individuals to the polls

  • OutFront Minnesota: Hosted a Drag-Out-The-Vote event at LUSH theater in Minneapolis to engage LGBT+ voters and allies

  • ShelettaMakesMeLaugh: Produced and aired podcasts about the importance of voting, featuring guests such as Hollies Winston (mayor of Brooklyn Park) and Kelsey Joson (disability advocate who hosted a session at the Southdale Library called “Voter 101: Voting with a Disability”)

  • YouthLink: Held a weekly voter registration table at their drop-in center and created a video for young voters (made by the youth on their advisory council)

  • Asian American Business Resilience Network: Hosted events at 5 local senior centers targeting AAPI voters, assisted seniors to develop voting plans, provided IT support and translation resources to individual voters