Vote Forward

What Vote Forward does

Vote Forward is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization founded in 2017 and domiciled in California, with an operational office at 611 Pennsylvania Ave SE, Washington, DC. The organization runs a web-based volunteer platform at votefwd.org that recruits individual supporters, vets and approves them (typically within 12-36 hours), and assigns each volunteer a list of low-propensity voters to contact via personalized, hybrid handwritten/printed letters delivered through USPS. Since 2017, more than 285,000 volunteers have written over 40 million letters encouraging fellow citizens to vote.

The underlying technology is a self-serve volunteer dashboard (go.votefwd.org) with three core components: (1) letter templates pre-personalized with recipient names and unique voter codes enabling opt-out, vote-pledging, and election-information lookup; (2) a tracking pipeline across unprepared, prepared, and sent letter states; and (3) an experimental framework designed so that each campaign functions as a randomized controlled trial, with peer-reviewed results showing turnout lifts of 0.8 percentage points in the 2020 presidential election and 1.4 to 3.4 percentage points in non-presidential elections. Supporting integrations include ActBlue for donation processing, Help Scout for support, Google Analytics for traffic analysis, and Facebook/Google social login. Vote Forward Labs operates as an internal R&D arm testing alternative message variants such as personal-story letters.

The business model is donation-funded: the platform is free for volunteers, who pay their own postage under a 'bring-your-own-stamps' model, with free letter/stamp kits available on a limited basis. There is no disclosed revenue, no venture backing, and no parent company. Go-to-market is community-led, relying on email, organic social (Twitter/X, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky), blog content, and in-person letter-writing parties rather than paid advertising. In 2026 the organization announced a strategic broadening under the 'Bigger Vote Forward' banner, adding civic trust-building and community material-needs pilots alongside its core voter turnout work targeted at the 2028 election cycle.

Name

Vote Forward

Legal name

Vote Forward

Website

https://votefwd.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Vote Forward is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit operating a web platform that mobilizes individual volunteers to write personalized handwritten letters encouraging low-propensity US voters to participate in elections, funded entirely by charitable donations.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Civic Engagement / Voter Outreach Services

NAICS

Political Organizations (813940), Social Advocacy Organizations (8133), Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling (541910), Direct Mail Advertising (54186)

SIC

Services-Direct Mail Advertising Services (7331)

akta.pro primary industry

Democracy, Voting Rights & Civic Participation Advocacy (BPAGAFAJ)

akta.pro secondary industries

Electoral Support & Election Observation (BPADAGAA), Civic Participation & Leadership Development (Voting, Advocacy, Community Leadership) (EDAAADAL), Political/GOTV & Advocacy Calling (Campaigns) (BPAAADAK)

Keywords

• Voter outreach
• Voter turnout
• Letter writing
• Civic engagement
• GOTV campaigns

Headquarters

HQ city

Washington

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Supply Chain, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Donations and Contributions: Vote Forward is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization funded entirely by charitable donations. Supporters can donate via ActBlue. The organization encourages contributions to help keep their work going and develop new campaigns.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Vote Forward is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit that runs volunteer-driven handwritten letter writing campaigns to encourage voter turnout among unlikely voters in targeted U.S. elections. The organization provides a web platform where volunteers are matched with prospective voters, receive templated but personalized letters to write and mail, and can track their progress through a personal dashboard. Donors fund the printing, postage, and operations that make the campaigns possible.

Product overview

Vote Forward is a nonprofit organization offering a volunteer-driven letter writing platform focused on increasing voter participation. The core offering consists of a web-based Volunteer Dashboard where supporters adopt voters, download personalized letter templates, and track their letter writing progress through preparation and mailing stages. The platform connects volunteers with voters using an online system and provides Letter Kits containing physical supplies (stamps, envelopes, pre-printed letters) for those who need materials. Supporting offerings include Personal Story Training to help volunteers craft compelling messages, a Help Center powered by Help Scout, Vote Forward Labs for researching message effectiveness, and Bilingual Letter Campaigns for Spanish-language outreach. Since 2018, the platform has facilitated millions of letters through hundreds of thousands of volunteers.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Volunteer Letter Writing Campaigns Organized campaign rounds that match individual volunteers with prospective voters in selected U.S. election jurisdictions. Volunteers receive voter profiles and letter templates, write personalized letters, and mail them to encourage turnout among unlikely voters.
• Volunteer Dashboard Online account area for volunteers to access assigned voter profiles, download letter templates, mark letters as completed, and track campaign progress and personal contributions.
• Letter Kits Pre-printed physical kits shipped to volunteers who lack printer access, containing voter-matched letter templates, paper, and supplies needed to complete campaign letter writing.
• Bilingual Letter Campaigns Campaign variant providing letter templates in both English and Spanish so volunteers can reach Spanish-speaking prospective voters in target jurisdictions.
• Vote Forward Labs Research and publications arm of Vote Forward that publishes reports on randomized field experiments measuring the effectiveness of letter writing versus postcards and other voter outreach formats.
• Personal Story Training Training resource providing volunteers with guidance on writing effective personal narratives and persuasive content for their campaign letters.

Quantifiable outcome

• 0.8 percentage point increase in voter turnout in 2020 presidential election
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration5 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• N95DECONminorOthersA consortium of nonpartisan research scientist members from more than 15 US universities providing data-driven guidance on reducing COVID-19 transmission during voting. Vote Forward shared their five recommendations for safe voting during the pandemic.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Center for Voter Information: Nonpartisan nonprofit that runs large-scale direct mail voter outreach programs to encourage turnout. Most direct functional peer to Vote Forward, sharing the direct mail GOTV channel, nonpartisan framing, and reliance on rigorous research to validate impact.
• Vote.org: Nonpartisan voter engagement platform focused on voter registration, vote-by-mail tools, and turnout. Targets many of the same low-propensity voters as Vote Forward but primarily through digital channels rather than direct mail letters.
• HeadCount: Nonpartisan nonprofit that drives voter registration and participation through live events, music partnerships, and community activations. Comparable volunteer-driven GOTV mission with a different channel mix.
• When We All Vote: Nonpartisan voter participation organization focused on registering and engaging voters, particularly underrepresented communities. Comparable mission and volunteer ecosystem targeting low-propensity voters.
• Rock the Vote: Long-running nonpartisan civic engagement nonprofit targeting young voters through digital registration and outreach. Operates in the same volunteer-driven voter participation category but with a youth-skewed audience.
• Movement Voter Project: Nonprofit that funds and coordinates state-level voter turnout infrastructure, particularly in non-presidential cycles. Operates in the same GOTV funding and ecosystem category as Vote Forward but acts more as a funder/intermediary.
• US Vote Foundation: Nonpartisan voter information and assistance nonprofit providing tools and data to help voters participate. Comparable in nonpartisan positioning and focus on enabling voter participation, though with more informational rather than contact-based outreach.

Broad incumbents

• Mobilize (Mobilize America): Volunteer and event management platform widely used by Democratic campaigns and progressive nonprofits for GOTV and organizing. Provides infrastructure comparable to Vote Forward's volunteer dashboard but as a general-purpose platform serving many organizations.
• NGP VAN: Dominant Democratic campaign technology vendor providing voter contact, fundraising, and organizing software. Broader, commercial incumbent that powers much of the progressive ecosystem with overlapping voter outreach functionality.
• Fair Fight: Voter rights and turnout organization focused on voter protection, registration, and combating suppression. Larger, higher-profile organization operating in an adjacent voter engagement category with broader issue advocacy.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks1 record

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/votefwd
• Facebookfacebook.com/votefwd
• Instagraminstagram.com/votefwd

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Vote Forward