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BLACK MALEPROJECTVOTER

2022REPORTANNUALP. 2

REPORTContentsFounder’s Message  05Year In Review  09Rural Work  10The Lessons We Learn  12Social Media Campaign  14The Way Forward  23Challenge 252023 Budget  30P.  3

FROM OURA MESSAGEFOUNDERP. 4

Politics in this country can no longer be considered normal. It is no longer the extremes that conjure up conspiracies about election outcomes. It’s mainstream, and a significant portion of our country’s population would rather deal in lies than accept that it’s time for America to deal with her sins that have created inequities. We are obligated to acknowledge the failures of traditional programs that do nothing to usurp white supremacy and instead breed stagnation and act as a form of voter suppression, especially for those of us who live on the margins. The world of organizations [donors and practitioners alike] concerned with Black men’s electoral participation can no longer leave civic engagement to the Parties that would instead maintain the status quo, and we must accept our reality. And that reality is that we must commit to finding year-round work that is sustainable and culturally compatible with the lived experiences of Black men. This can only, with all honesty, be described as the work of Black Male Voter Project, as we have a track record of being spot-on with the issues that we must address in all eorts to get more Black men to the voting booth. If we are serious about the progress that situates Black men in a more equitable position, then a reworking of what’s our day-to-day and how it’s funded. 2024, as it pertains to the federal election, doesn’t begin next January. It has already started, and we are so far behind the work required to prepare this demographic for the nastiest election in modern history.Your entire involvement with electoral work should be questioned and reexamined. We have seen more than 47% of Black men eligible to vote in this country sit out five consecutive federal elections; our work is THE case study to correct this error that exists in our current civic engagement work. We hope you are willing to join us on this path to move civic engagement from the transactional to the transformative. W. Mondale RobinsonFOUNDERP. 5

Black Male Voter Project“ese silos we’ve allowed to encompass us and become our circles of friends and comfort are all at once, shrinking our ability to grow and make change, for they, which is comfort, does not evoke that, which is necessary.” W. Mondale RobinsonP. 6

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YEARINREVIEWP. 8

In 2022 we reached out to Black men more than 4.6 million times, and in doing so, we were able to increase how Black men showed up. More importantly, we prevented those that threaten our democracy, in all their eorts, from increasing ground with Black men. This has to be the most prominent marker of success. Unfortunately, we were not fully funded for the 2022 cycle, which caused us to use 2023 resources. This practice of spending “next year’s resources” to save democracy is a common theme in our work, as folk instead fund organizations in a cyclical manner and not a sustainable one. This is especially the case as we found ourselves in runo at the end of the cycle.THE APPROACHUsing our BMEP-Additory Approach, a culturally competent multi-modal program, we were able to meet Black men through direct voter contact through traditional methods and some unconventional strategies we created. The most eective traditional ways would have been our conversations at the doors through canvassing and texting eorts. These programs were bolstered by some of our created programs like our nightclub ambassador program, which allows us to meet Black men who would otherwise never be in political spaces. Yet, because we partner with club owners, managers, and party promoters, we are allowed unabridged access to these brothers, in a space that is comfortable to them. This is extremely important, for it is our opportunity to reach a demographic of Black men who are unreachable by other political tactics.Our Brotha’s Be Voting focus groups were, of course, at the root of all of our messaging in 2022, as they are safe spaces for Black men. These spaces provide a platform for them to both be vulnerable in what they don’t know and express what they believe; it also allows us to address misinformation in a manner that doesn’t oend Black men. This space has become more necessary as the sheer amount of misinformation continues to target Black men.In 2022 we continued our work of being a complete space for Black men, providing access to other services from our organization. We have long learned that it is improper and ineective to just knock on doors and ask Black men to vote. In realizing this fact, we show up in a way that resembles a service organization more than a political organization in an eort to build trust and combat all the harm created by the shady practices of political parties and their auxiliaries.These services include preparing Black men for job interviews (by doing resume preparation training, assisting with professional attire, and providing resources for internet access), providing housing assistance, providing access to mental health counseling, and assisting with the formation of 6 new Black businesses. YEARINREVIEWP. 9

The tale of our rural work in 2022, especially in states like GA, NC, TX and AR, is one of resentment and frustration. Our work with Black men in rural spaces last year painted the truths of Maslow’s hierarchy needs for all of us. Black men, making up one of, if not the most vulnerable population, in rural spaces, were less likely to display faith in government. Because of that lack of faith these brothers were also least likely to participate in civic activities. The continued idea that investing in rural communities is a waste of resources has stripped all civic infrastructure from rural spaces, further alienating Black men with the entire electoral process. As they languish in chronic poverty, these transnational organizations show up only asking for votes and rarely oering an escape from the grips of poverty. This phenomenon doesn’t just aect Black men’s desire to participate in civic life, it also negatively aects how they feel about their community writ-large, including their trust in their neighbors which prevents them from finding value in community cooperation, or that even exist.RURALP. 1 0

This is a tremendous harm to eorts to engage Black men, and it should be seen as a highly pressing issue for anyone concerned with how we grow this demographic’s footprint in electoral politics. There are some continued hurdles in our rural work as well. The biggest hurdle in reaching Black men in rural areas is that many donors don’t understand the importance of this work. So many people only want to fund voter registration and canvassing of Black men in urban areas. We have to constantly make the argument that rural spaces—in the South especially—are Blacker percentage-wise than our overall national population. The setback is the false narrative about who rural voters are and how they see the world. Rural Voters are not a population that is against progress and supports the status quo; instead, this population has been underinvested in. The result is they don’t show up for elections as no one has made clear the value in voting.WORKP. 1 1

The biggest lesson for us in this cycle is much like the last. We must push back on what donors and others outside our community tell us are markers of success for bringing Black men into the fold of electoral politics. They constantly tell us that dierent markers mean success, and we see time after time that these aren’t true markers of sustained success, nor are they helpful for us trying to build long-term change. It is more critical to the integrity of our work that we work with donors who understand this. And donors who want to be in a learning community with us for our ideas which come from the expertise of doing this work day in and day out, not from some poll that is incapable of genuinely capturing the sentiments of Black men. We continue to work towards giving Black men a voice, not the Black man that traditionally shows up in our electoral process. We are talking about brothers who have never seen their issues centered; we are talking about brothers who don’t see themselves in the values of those appointed (by people outside of our communities) to be spokespeople. We focus solely on increasing Black men’s participation in civic life. Every time it is successful, it is that work that advances racial and social justice; we know the more Black men participate in electoral politics, the more advocates we will have for our community. What we would share with other groups doing this work in this space is to find their North Star and work hard to understand it better than most, work towards achieving it, and stay true to that work. Don’t change course with the intent of grabbing a lot of resources. Allow your work to attract the resources of those that are particularly interested in achieving the same goal as your organization. Black Male Voter ProjectP. 1 2

THELESSONS WE LEARN.P. 1 3

KEYISSUES INP. 1 4

TennesseeBlack Male Voter ProjectVirginiaKEYISSUES INP. 15

OUR 17 PRIO-RITY STATESP. 1 6

OUR 17 PRIO-RITY STATES17 days before the election we launched 17IN17. A social media campaign highlighting key issues in our 17 priority statesP. 1 7

17 IN17P. 18

Wisconsin FloridaPennsylvaniaLousianaP. 1 9

THE WAYBlack Male Voter ProjectP. 2 0

THE WAYP. 2 1

FORWARDP. 2 2

We must recognize that the lack of resources to fund our programs entirely put us in a place where we had to make hard decisions, like cutting back programs in some of our priority states. This is not a small problem. It forces us to leave Black men behind, which does nothing to increase their likelihood of voting. No other organization is targeting Black men that the electoral infrastructure label as sporadic or nonvoters, especially not in a way that isn’t transactional. And while we did see increases in our programs overall, the fact that we had to make these hard decisions means that in 2023 we will have to work twice as hard to make sure we don’t come o as transactional and present our organization as part of the community.We acknowledge that traditional work is cheaper than the cost of our work, and a large part of that is because, unlike traditional electoral work, we don’t show up two months before an election with a transactional message. We are engaging with Black men in a way that requires us to be with them year-round. Your resources allowed our organization to deliver on our promise to Black men that they are not an afterthought but the only thought at Black Male Voter Project.P. 2 3

CHALLENGEP. 2 4

With 2022 completely wrapped, what still remains evident—as it pertains to Black men—is a deeper commitment from funding sources that support programs explicitly designed to enhance civic and electoral engagement beyond the typical, traditional and transactional programs that yield little to no permanent progress. If we are not only to duplicate but expand on the result of 2020 and 2023, adequate investment is no longer a casual idea. It is the necessary position for those concerned with the progressive participation of Black men. The record number of Black men who participated in the last two federal elections in our 17 priority states provides the perfect case study for early investment in programs that center the needs of Black men and our communities instead of focusing on a political party or candidate.We should define Black Male Voter Project’s impact over the last two federal (2019-2022) election cycles as nothing less than an innovative, poll-defying, badass rethinking of how we run eective additory campaigns in this country. With multi-modal programs that all include direct voter engagement but never stop there, the organization has reached every Black man registered to vote in our priority states. This heavy lifting and level of work could never be successful if it began after Labor Day; instead, Black Male Voter Project got to work at the end of 2019 and continued through all of 2022. As a result, we saw increased participation across the board in a demographic that pundits and pollsters said would sit this election out. We prioritized what we knew was important to Black men and built programs responsive to those issues.And while 2020/2022 was wildly successful for progressive issues and candidates beneficial to Black men, our work is nowhere near a space qualifying Black men as politically comfortable or safe. Because this is so, 2023 [for its elections and in preparation for 2024] requires as much eort as 2020 in our eort to continue to erode the harms and distrust associated with more than 152 years of voter suppression aimed squarely at Black men.This work requires us to expose and do away with the invisibiling that prevents Black men from being heard and seen in civic spaces. The hard truth about this point is some of the programs doing significant harm to our communities are from folk that look like us but aren’t doing the bidding of our communities. Instead, they prioritize securing contracts because of relationships with political organizations and the donor class. This unspoken tactic of centering the “shiny new thing” has and is causing long-term distrust in the very demographic we need to win at every level.CHALLENGEIN PREPARATION FOR 2024Black Male Voter ProjectCHALLENGEP. 2 5

2023VOTERENGAGEMENTP. 2 6

ENGAGEMENTP. 2 7

BUDGETP. 2 8

BUDGETP. 29

Budget BreakdownBlack Male Voter Project (c4)Black Male Voter Project (c3)Black Male Voter Project (print budget)BUDGETBUDGETBUDGETRAISEDRAISEDRAISEDREMAINING GAPREMAINING GAPREMAINING GAP$2.13M$4.35M$1.62M $ 150K$2.13M$4.35M$1.62MBlack Male Voter Project (service programs)BUDGETRAISEDREMAINING GAP$401K$401Kis includes building press shop, voting rights campaign, partner training & fellowship program, polling& research, and content creation & dissemination.is includes resume building & professional tools , research around coding school, street legacy, content creation and sub-granting.P. 3 0

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When we all set out to do this work, it was because some part of the status quo rubbed our belief system the wrong way, so how is it that we’ve come to accept that which lit our re, the status-quo?”W. Mondale Robinsonwww.blackmalevoterproject.org