Stategic Plan 2 | Cleveland VOTES

Strategic Plan
2026-30

Building a multiracial democracy in Cleveland.

MISSION + VISION

Cleveland VOTES is a nonpartisan organization rooted in community power. We inform, connect, and mobilize people to take action for a more just and equitable democracy.

Message from the Executive Director.

[Insert video or snippet from Erika's letter]

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This moment in our nation.

During the months we’ve worked on this plan there have been countless atrocities, lies, broken norms, outright attacks on democracy and its tenets, and a vast undermining of safety nets and support for Clevelanders and folks around the country.

Just weeks before we wrapped up this strategic plan, the Supreme Court made a ruling that has thrusted us back 60 years - gutting a major piece of the Voting Rights Act. The Court all but ended a core protection that ensured communities of color have a right to fair districts where they can elect candidates of their choice – opening the door for politicians to gerrymander Black and Brown voters into silence.

This is not a drill. The alarm bells have been ringing. The question is whether we answer them.

This roadmap may not have the answer, however we have laid out a pathway that we believe propels us to fight back. Leading in a time of authoritarianism, and finding a way through to a brighter future, is only possible together. The work we do, the work our partners do, is what holds our country and democracy together, and matters more in crisis than it does in normal times.

Civic engagement is also the path to something better. Our work is not just toward the end of dark.times, but towards a future that includes all of us as our full selves. Clevelanders don’t need and are not being served by this regime, but we were struggling under the previous one too.

We receive, and deserve, a lot of praise and support for our work. But the truth is: for all we have accomplished, our most important and meaningful efforts are happening right now.

From side project to real power: CV’S HISTORY AND WHERE WE ARE TODAY

This is not a drill. The alarm bells have been ringing. The question is whether we answer them.

We receive, and deserve, a lot of praise and support for our work. But the truth is: for all we have accomplished, our most important and meaningful efforts are happening right now.

OUR VISION

Our vision depicts a Cleveland where democracy and civic engagement are not only celebrated and revered, but embedded in the fabric of our actions.

This Cleveland has a strong civic infrastructure that not only rings throughout the walls of City Hall, but echoes in each and every neighborhood. Our actions are not about those that already hold (or hoard for that matter) the money and power, but instead for the abundant betterment of the collective.

Civic Joy + Belonging

We reclaim civic life as a space of pride, culture, and connection—where our communities see themselves and feel they belong.

Equity

We center those most impacted by systemic barriers, ensuring everyone has what they need to fully participate in our democracy.

Infrastructure
Building

We build and invest in the long-term systems, leadership, and networks our movements need to win—not just in one election, but for generations.

Participatory Engagement

We cultivate meaningful opportunities for people to shape decisions, not just observe them.

Shared Power

We move in solidarity across race, neighborhood, and sector—because collective power is the only way we achieve lasting change

What We Believe

Cleveland VOTES began its journey over a decade ago by lifting up three simple words:

EDUCATE. CONNECT. EMPOWER.

This phrase, which has long served as our organization’s tagline, continues to ground us as we work to shift power and foster a multiracial democracy in Cleveland.

We believe:

Decision-making must occur at every level, led by and in community, not behind closed doors.

Policies, priorities and budgets that create equitable opportunities while supporting working people and their agency.

A future we choose, not one where we are divided and left behind based on who we are.

Clevelanders coming together to vote, organize, speak up, get involved, push, petition, lift up, educate, and act (without retribution).

Working in partnership instead of isolation--working smarter not harder to reach common goals.

Liberation that does not exist in a vacuum.

Challenging fear-based narratives that suppress power shifts.

Co-learning + co-creation through coalitions that advance not idealize.

Ensuring that our systems prioritize those marginalized community members.

Creating spaces for belonging, not systemically driven othering.

Radical imagination that uplifts joy.

How We Achieve our Mission

From day one our approach has been centered around education, connection, and empowerment. We strive to ensure that plays out in every program we build, every gathering we hold, and every investment we make. It’s how we make sure our day-to-day wins add up to long-term impact and change. And it works.

DEMOCRACY BEYOND ELECTIONS

Civic Health Wheel

There are a broad array of ways to both increase the civic readiness of residents and create more civic opportunities. The Civic Health Wheel, adapted from the Institute for Citizens & Scholars, is a non-exhaustive illustration of the many ways that place-based entities can help residents improve their civic readiness. On the inside of the wheel, you will find the categories of civic opportunities, and on the outside, you will find their corresponding activities and strategies. As you read through the following section, please take note of how our strategies and programs align with what scholars deem critical to a community’s civic health.

Civic engagement happens every day around our city. And while elections are often the center point of our democracy, we know that the conversations, connections, and relationships built in neighborhoods, on campuses, in faith communities, and at job sites are the glue that holds that democracy together.

Cleveland VOTES builds year-round opportunities for people to get involved—not just in November.

These include both one-time events focused on a need or priority in a moment, annual events that we tailor to practice participation, engagement, and most of all relevance, as well as long-term programs that attract new people every year and bring them into civic engagement work. Our work is not static. In fact, it requires that we are nimble and adaptable to the pulse of our community. Experimenting and prototyping to meet the needs of our community is essential to how we remain committed to the community’s needs.

We continue to build events, engagement opportunities, connection points, and training and leadership development throughout the year with programs like:

People’s Solutions Lab, a participatory event seeking to nurture real life ideas, that lead to transformational change.
Relay Cleveland Campaign, an exhibit + report that commemorated the 50th anniversary of Cleveland’s School Districts historic relay bussing policy.
Summits and group discussions at our anchor event Spring into Democracy, a space to celebrate civic participation, and educate community members on the work ahead.
State of Our Democracy, reiterates the importance of involvement as we enter upcoming election cycles, while equipping attendees with the civic knowledge to make informed decisions.
Year-round power-building through our participation in the Cleveland Freedom Dreams Coalition, a local initiative that is committed to creating transformational, community-led change for Black, Latinx, Indigenous and AAPI communities in Cleveland, Ohio; CFDC organizes its work through four focus areas and Cleveland VOTES leads the equitable civic engagement and democracy building.

Over the course of this plan, these efforts, along with our frequent public events, speaking engagements, and presence at community gatherings, will be amplified and broadcasted by our social and earned media work, meeting Clevelanders in all of the places they gather.

Our Grounded in Power Strategy

If 2025 taught the world anything it’s that whatever plans you thought you had, you need to be ready to adapt when the moment calls for it.

As Clevelanders have engaged to protect their neighbors and speak out against fascism, many of our partners and an emerging class of active community members have called for increasing training and support. Our Grounded in Power Hub is our answer to those calls. It’s centered around three key programs:

The Community Legal Advocate Training, in partnership with Detroit Justice Center is a model that emphasizes advocacy and direct services for vulnerable populations who require legal assistance but lack access to legal representation.

Civil Disobedience + Resistance Training,in partnership with Rev. Raymond Greene aims to provide historical grounding, practical skills and nonviolent discipline strategies for leaders as they navigate the current landscape.

Movement Lawyers: Legal Defense Fund + Network, assisting local non-profits in connection to movement attorneys in need of support amongst the onslaught of legal challenges.

Just like we evolved to create these three efforts, we’ll continue to look to partners and community members to help us add and update these offerings to meet future challenges and future activism.

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VOTER ENGAGEMENT + ACTIVATION STRATEGY

Cleveland VOTES celebrates civic holidays annually to elevate the joy in democracy! Civic holidays are pivotal in our partnerships, as it allows for ongoing collaboration towards common mobilization goals such as voter registration and early voting.

National Voter Registration Day, CarniVOTE, Rally for the Culture, #mystoryisrealBlack Bus Tour & Democracy Chats, Vote Early Day, and Election Hero Day are all opportunities to bring energy and urgency to the collective power of our votes. These are the moments that allow us to directly access the residents in our city.

One way we build on the energy of engagement events like civic holidays is with our Vote Squad.

The Vote Squad team leverages voter turnout data to prioritize neighborhoods in the city where we can connect with Clevelanders where they are, at events, on campus, at their doors, and through our GOTV phonebanking. They register and support voters in getting connected and getting to the polls.

BUILDING POWER +

DEVELOPING LEADERS

For Clevelanders and partner organizations ready to go deeper, our annual cohorts, grantmaking cycles, and other year-round endeavors create clear pathways for activation.

By growing their leadership, laying the groundwork for resourcing, and building power together around a unified vision for our city, these spaces continue to invest in the goals that drive collective action.

Equitable Civic Engagement Fund

The Equitable Civic Engagement Fund (ECEF) provides grants to nonprofit organizations committed to educating, connecting and empowering residents about voter engagement in the Greater Cleveland area. ECEF is about bridging resources and organizations to a greater purpose of reclaiming and rewriting narratives around voting and elections. That work is centered in Cleveland, but a small but growing Midwest expansion sibling effort launched in 2024 and is doing meaningful work in Eau Claire, Chicago, Detroit, and Minneapolis.

Where the Equitable Civic Engagement Fund is going...

At its core, ECEF is about ensuring that folks doing powerful work engaging their communities have the financial and training resources they need. Success means more of all of it. We expect to grant 10% more resources in each election than the one before it, and to continue to provide breakthrough Community of Practice content and opportunities that reach and strengthen participants, but avoid wasting time or taking away from the work on the ground. We will know based on participation and feedback if we’ve succeeded, and track feedback year-over-year to see where we can improve.

The Democracy Collective

The Democracy Collective (DemCo) is a 9-month long, experiential leadership program designed to build participants’ capacity for and commitment to equitable civic engagement. The program grows the participants’ individual and collective power to effect change in their communities through the development of advocacy and leadership skills. Participants explore their shared issues of concern, learn about the landscape of power in Cleveland, identify levers for change, and develop projects to address their priorities.

Where the Democracy Collective is going...

We are deeply proud of our DemCo work and look forward to growing its impact. There is an opportunity in doing deeper work to connect DemCo participants to programs like More Than My Art, to expand our youth engagement, to build more intentionally across cohorts, and to expand the power and impact of our program and thoughtfully connect with cohort members for years to come.

More Than My Art

Our Creative Activism initiative utilizes various community building and skill sharing activities to integrate the perspectives and experiences of artists in Cleveland into civic engagement efforts. This program deliberately seeks to harness the transformative power of creative expression for meaningful social change, in order to identify and incorporate more diverse voices. While this program is similar to our other programmatic offerings, it differs by engaging self-identifying artists and culture workers in multi-disciplinary areas. It is our hope that this program is ever evolving and that by engaging creatives we find new ways to amplify the messages of marginalized communities.

Where More Than My Art is going...

The power in MTMA is in the ways it awakens, deepens, and develops paths for our creators and their audiences. It is both personal and collective, and while it is often presented and viewed in a moment, it very literally stays with you mentally and emotionally well beyond that point in time. Our vision for the program reflects that. More creators, more audiences, more mediums, more cities, a broader range of ages and backgrounds, a stronger connection to next steps, so that a creative may be a future DemCo participant, their organization may receive support from ECEF or stand alongside us at the Cleveland Power Alliance, and so we can keep seeing impacts that stay and build over time.

OUR POLICY BLUEPRINT

As a nonpartisan organization, we’re dedicated to ensuring broad and meaningful civic engagement across our city. We hold the perspective that with a commitment and ability to continue growing it will impact the decisions made at city hall.

The Policy Blueprint is our framework for increasing broader civic participation and decision making around the issues that impact Cleveland, such as housing, education, public safety, and who decides.

With our policy platform we:

Educate by ensuring that Clevelanders are part of the process from start to finish, while engaging neighbors and communities around the city, and finding the resources they need, even if the candidates don’t find it convenient.
Connect by ensuring that neighbors who have real needs and are looking for real change have opportunities and paths to come together to address those issues.
Empower by ensuring that voting, and engaging civically isn’t simply an action folks take because they are supposed to, but instead is a choice they make in power and towards change.

Where Policy Blueprint is going...

It starts by listening and ends with community powered action. Through engagements like Democracy in the Living Room and Elections Unfiltered, we want to meet our members where they are and grounding priorities in real questions, experiences, and visions. Each year we plan to go deeper, expand our reach wider, and strengthen how residents shape the future of the city they call home.

Cleveland Power Alliance

The Cleveland Power Alliance is a growing coalition of value-aligned organizations coming together to build a community-driven vision for a multi-racial democracy. Rooted in the lived experience, the Alliance exists to unify local efforts, coordinate meaningful action, and strengthen the civic ecosystem in ways that last. As a movement full of agitators and changemakers, we want to keep this momentum not just for one election or moment, but for the long haul.

Cleveland VOTES serves as the anchor of this work, providing the infrastructure, relationships, and strategic alignment that offers space for the Alliance to grow with intention. We are not interested in building new things for the sake of it, instead we are connecting what already works, while investing in trust and collaboration to build a foundation for new energy and possibility to emerge.

Together, we are establishing collective power that is accountable and capable of delivering transformative change for Cleveland.

Where Cleveland Power Alliance is going...

Laying the bricks for a lasting, trusted coalition full of collective power. The Cleveland Power Alliance needs to be fully resourced, deeply connected, and grounded in community leadership to continue on its current trajectory. As it continues to advance, the buy-in from elected officials and adoption of our work by those running for office are necessary to help shape strong policy, and continue accountability from residents. The path forward is clear, this is a coalition that stands on its own, with Cleveland VOTES as a core partner, cementing a space that communities recognize as the place where civic power is built and held.

The community we’re building: CV Activators

Wrapping up our dedicated time with program participants and attendees is always a moment of celebration. But the question we most often hear is, “What’s next?”

We are committed to continuing the work with our past fellows, partners, grantees, and cohort members beyond their point of entry. Democracy is more than elections, and our work happens year round. We aim to create spaces to remain connected, share ongoing opportunities, sharpen participant skills, and take action while building collective power. We do this at gatherings, during learning sessions, and through organizational collaboration. This network of leaders will strengthen the ecosystem of Cleveland long term, and help build the equitable democracy we all deserve.

This is not about a Facebook group or a way to ask a new set of folks to donate. It’s about ensuring our commitment to the work we do and the people we do it with doesn’t stop, ever, and builds towards something more meaningful. We want to answer the question of “what’s next” and work on the next question, “Where are we going together?”

Where our alumni effort is going:

Our commitment to program participants does not end when a program concludes, it is truly where the journey begins. We have already seen the organic cross-pollination and now we want to formalize it. Starting with the Democracy Collective and expanding to More Than My Art, Cleveland VOTES is crafting clear and inviting pathways around an effort we’re calling CV Activators for folks to stay connected through ongoing learning, cross-cohort relationships, A “civic passport” and new opportunities with our immense network of partners, both locally and nationally. With a goal of continuing engagement with one-third of each cohort, this network will grow organically as they move together across the civic ecosystem.

COMMUNICATIONS + NARRATIVE

We have always embraced narrative, storytelling, and art as core elements of how our work builds beyond an event or program and reaches and sticks with Clevelanders. We don’t view ourselves as having a communications department and we don’t do social media just to catalog our events. Instead we use communications tools as platforms to connect in different ways, share powerful content, reach people where they are, and stay in relationships.

Our newsletter, website, social media, and voter education materials are ways to share information, remind folks about key dates and events, answer questions and troubleshoot, and share resources. Our longform content--like the award winning Voting in the Land documentary series--and reports are ways to dig deeper, and explore and socialize the programs we’re building and problems we’re trying to solve.

OPERATIONS + CULTURE

The way we go about our work matters. We want to do great work, and we do. But how we do it is important. That’s why we invest in systems and an operations team that ensures everything from the locations we use to the sign up process to the food we share together reflects our values and the broader work we’re doing. It’s why we dig into the details and follow up and evaluate and yes, think about the menu and the music and the backdrops. It’s why we take leadership development seriously not just for our leaders but for our staff and interns as well. Back-of-house operations are just as important as front-of-house production.

As we have become our own 501(c)3 organization, those details have become even more important to us. We know that our legacy is going to be not simply what we produce as an organization but the way we grow and support leaders whose accomplishments will be even more vast and impactful. Over the course of this plan, we will be actively exploring expanding our financial, human resource and operational functions.

We’re proud to get the details right. And we’re proud to be focused on how every participant, intern, staff person, and consultant on our team knows they are part of something, and commits to something, and is invested in to work towards our mission and values. We don’t just apply them to others, we start with ourselves.

LOOKING AHEAD

At the beginning of this plan, we referenced the state of our nation and democracy at large. While we cannot forecast all the interventions that will be needed to fight back authoritarianism and fascism, what has been laid out in the aforementioned pages provides a solid foundation to build upon over the next four years.

Finally, operating as a 501(c)3 has provided us the necessary foundation to meet our mission. However, as the challenges and threats increase - we are confident that we’ll need to expand the toolbox and introduce new strategies. These new strategies will necessitate exploring what it looks like to be a multi-entity institution (e.g. c4, PAC). And perhaps one day we will build an arm that will enable us to support a multigenerational pipeline of Black and Brown candidates who want to serve in elected office.

Let's Talk About Voter Turnout

Cleveland’s voter turnout has steadily declined since 2016. During the 1990s through the early 2000s, turnout was relatively high. Cleveland saw an uptick during 2008-2012, which many accredit to the first Barack Obama campaign and 2012 subsequent victory. However, since 2014 there has been a steady decline, with local election turnout numbers coming in under 30%. While there is much commentary and research detailing the reasons, let’s try to summarize some of the major pain points.

To confront these challenges, we are working to advance, and want to work with partners to build capacity around a Multiracial Democracy Blueprint for Cleveland to:

Champion Participatory Governance – putting power directly in the hands of communities, so every Clevelander knows their vote and voice matters because they can see it and engage well beyond the ballot box.
Track Civic Health Boldly – using shared metrics to hold ourselves and institutions accountable, beyond voter turnout, so that we can measure the full and broad extent of civic health and participation, as well as the growth in our community.
Build Lasting Civic Infrastructure – equipping communities with the tools, networks, and resources to sustain power for the long term, so that we are not reliant on short-term investments in elections but instead built for the day in and day out work to transform our city.

Systemic and Structural

Roadblocks to a Multiracial Democracy

Diminished Social Capital

Civic life has been declining for decades.

As Robert Putnam noted, social capital in the U.S. has eroded since the 1960s. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this trend, deepening isolation and inequities. Many communities shifted to vote-by-mail while navigating widespread misinformation about its safety and integrity.

Population Loss

Cleveland has faced decades of population decline, particularly in East Side neighborhoods.

Fewer residents mean fewer registered voters and lower turnout. Research from Cleveland VOTES and the Ohio Progressive Collaborative (2021) shows the sharpest declines among older Black residents on the East Side. While this trend shapes participation, it remains outside the control of voter engagement organizations.

Structural Barriers

Cities like Cleveland face persistent barriers to voting.

This includes inflexible work schedules, limited transportation, language obstacles, and health disparities, which a 2023 study shows can reduce residents’ ability to participate.

Declining Enthusiasm + Faith in Elections

Voter turnout is declining across Ohio.

Cuyahoga County dropped from 71% in 2020 to about 64% in 2024, with similar decreases in Franklin, Hamilton, and Summit counties. Episodic engagement remains a key challenge—voters and organizers alike express frustration with campaigns that fail to invest in sustained outreach, relationships, and the tools needed for meaningful community engagement.

Lack of Trust + Misinformation

Misinformation, amplified by social media and emerging technologies, continues to fuel disengagement and skepticism about the value of voting.

A 2021 study by Cleveland VOTES, Policy Matters Ohio, and HIT Strategies found that Cleveland non-voters care deeply about community issues but lack trust in those in power and access to reliable information about candidates and ballot issues.

Voter Suppression Tactics

Cleveland, like many Ohio cities, faces voter roll purges, polling place closures in predominantly Black East Side neighborhoods, local redistricting, and state legislation that makes equitable access to the polls more difficult.

ON THE HORIZON:

PREPARING FOR THE 2030 CENSUS

As we finalize our 2026-2030 Strategic Plan Refresh, it’s vitally important that we uplift the prioritization of our work towards the 2030 Census.

As we look back to Census efforts in 2019-2020, we know that efforts in Cleveland started late. Additionally, funding and support were not sufficient. We were further challenged with engaging residents due to COVID. One of the challenges we know we will face in the coming years is the lack of trust community members have with their personal information being inappropriately used by the federal government. While this was certainly a concern in 2020, the fracturing of our democracy has only gotten worse and we have to be prepared to mitigate these concerns to the best of our ability.

Laying the groundwork for the 2030 Census

The U.S. Census is conducted every ten years. It provides an official count of Americans, which determines congressional representation; it also provides critical data that lawmakers and many others use to provide daily services, products, and support for communities. More than $2.8 trillion annually in federal funding to states, localities, and families is distributed based on census data. Ohio received $77,350,960,172

in census-guided federal spending in Fiscal Year 2023.

Yet historically, the census has missed disproportionate numbers of young children, rural families, seniors, people of color, and the poor.

As we look ahead to the roadmap for the 2030 Census, lessons learned from our work in 2020 include:

1. Start much earlier. We are starting to lay th groundwork by engaging national Census partners, local government and philanthropy to ensure we develop a comprehensive multi-year plan.

2. Engage 2020 partners to learn and reflect on the work and begin identifying strategies for 2030. Facilitate learning and education among key stakeholders and the broader community.

3. Organize and coordinate with our philanthropic funding partners to ensure we can invest in trusted messengers and a robust communications plan, including funding flexible, multi-year support.

4. Work with state and local governments to ensure there are earmarked funds for Census efforts.

5. Develop and invest in a messaging and narrative strategy that goes well-beyond printing and distributing flyers.

6. Identity, build and invest in a resident-focused network that can serve as liaisons between community members.

7. Work to ensure that this does not feel like a ‘one-off’ specifically for Census related work, but instead building the capacity for more resident-led engagement and participation across the entire civic engagement spectrum.

THANK YOU

This strategic plan reflects a turning point for Cleveland VOTES.

We have grown rapidly and expanded beyond the vision of our previous plan. We’ve turned ideas into programs, and evolved those programs in more impactful ways that we imagined. We’ve done that with a lot of support, trust, and resources invested in us and the direction we’re working to take our community. We are deeply grateful.

This new plan is both an extension of where we were already going, and a continued spreading of our wings towards needs and opportunities we see around our city.

We’re proud of it, and we are going to work diligently to outgrow it too.