The Voter Registration Project is a voter mobilization group which targets African-American, Latino, Native American, low-income, and other voter groups likely to lean left-of-center. The organization claims to be non-partisan, but is run by individuals with long-standing connections to left-of-center non-profits, including the AFL-CIO labor union federation, George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, and the State Voices network of liberal state-level advocacy groups. ^[1] It also works to promote voting within blocs that tend to support the Democratic Party by giving grants to numerous left-of-center nonprofit groups.

The organization began as Voting for America in 1986 but was reformed as the Voter Registration Project in 2015.

Leadership

The Voter Registration Project is led by individuals with histories of working for left-of-center advocacy groups.

Ilona Prucha

Current President Ilona Prucha, is a senior program officer at Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, and is a co-chair of the Funders Committee for Civic Participation (FCCP). ^[2] Prucha assumed the position of VRP president in 2018.

John Yang

Current treasurer, John C. Yang, is the president of Asian Americans Advancing Justice and was formerly a trade adviser to the Commerce Secretary, Penny Pritzker, during the Obama administration. ^[3]

Isaiah Castilla

Board member Isaiah Castilla is a managing director at Arabella Advisors, and has previously worked as the general counsel for the Democracy Fund and Bolder Advocacy, a project of the Alliance for Justice. Castilla has also worked as the finance director of several PAC’s supporting Democratic gubernatorial candidates. ^[4]

Matt Singer

Board member Matt Singer is the founder of National Voter Registration Day, a nonprofit organization and civic holiday created to encourage voter registration. Singer is a partner at Impactual, a left-of-center political consulting firm, and has previously worked at left-leaning voter mobilization groups like the Movement Voter Project, the Alliance for Youth Action, and Forward Montana. ^[5]

Bill Vandenberg

Secretary Bill Vandenberg has over 20 years of experience working for left-of-center political advocacy organizations. ^[6]

In 1996, Vandenberg co-founded the Colorado Progressive Coalition, a state-based left-of-center advocacy group which supports expanded government healthcare provisions and anti-discrimination laws. ^[7]  Vandenberg was an “award-winning state-based advocate, anti-racism activist, coalition builder, ballot initiative strategist, political organizer,”^[8] as he was co-director of the organization until 2008.

Vandenberg left the Colorado Progressive Coalition to serve numerous roles at the Open Society Foundations, the George Soros-backed network of more than 20 nonprofits dedicated to supporting left-of-center causes. Vandenberg works as the director of Special Initiatives and Partnerships at OSF. ^[9]

Vandenberg also serves on the Advisory Boards for numerous left-of-center voter advocacy groups: the Youth Engagement Fund, Youth Engagement Action Fund,^[10] and the State Engagement Initiative. ^[11]

Betsy Lin

Campaign director, Betsy Lin, previously worked as a staffer for multiple Democratic campaign committees. From 2013 to 2018, Lin worked as the Chief of Staff for Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI). Lin has previously worked as a senior staffer for several other Democratic politicians, and as the deputy political director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. ^[12] In March 2020, Lin was a featured speaker at a Funders Committee for Civic Participation (FCCP) webinar concerning voter registration, where she was described as an affiliate of “EVC.” ^[13]

Former Leadership

Since 2015 the Voter Registration Project has experienced a high rate of turnover among its board members and key employees, many of whom are high-profile figures in left-leaning political circles.

Jeff Malachowsky

Former president Jeff Malachowsky has worked for numerous left-of-center nonprofits for over twenty years. ^[14][15]  He was the co-founder of Oregon Voice, a member of the State Voices Network, a left-of-center community activism organization which rallies grass-root organizations for progressive causes. ^[16] Malachowski also co-founded the Western States Center, a left-of-center group focused on community organizing to support progressive political goals. ^[17] Additionally he sat on the board of the Oregon Bus Project Foundation (now called Next Up), a Portland-based left-of-center voter advocacy group. ^[18]

For over seven years until 2018, Malachowsky’s primary job was program director at the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund,^[19] a secretive left-of-center grantmaking foundation created by three hedge fund billionaires: Andrew Shechtel, David Gelbaum and C. Frederick Taylor. ^[20]

Along with his work at the president of the Voter Registration Project, Malachowsky worked with other left-of-center nonprofits. ^[21] He sits on the Board of Directors of the Penny Family Fund, a grantmaking foundation which supports environmentalist causes. Malachowsky also was a founding co-director of and continues to sit on the board of directors for the National Institute on Money in State Politics, a nonprofit that tracks campaign finance in state-level campaigns that is funded by numerous major left-of-center nonprofits, including the Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation. ^[22]

Lauren Groh-Wargo

Lauren Groh-Wargo was Voter Registration Project’s treasurer until 2017, when she was hired by now-former Georgia State Rep. Stacey Abrams (D-Atlanta) to run Abrams’s Georgia gubernatorial campaign. After Abrams lost to Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA), Groh-Wargo became CEO of Fair Fight Action, a left-of-center voter rights advocacy group founded by Abrams. ^[23]

Katherine Peck

Former board Member Katherine Peck was the Senior Vice President of the left-of-center Civic Participation Action Fund ^[24] and Chairwoman of the Board of State Voices. Peck is also a board member of the Advancement Project,^[25] and is on the Advisory Boards of the Latino Engagement Fund and the Latino Action Engagement Fund. ^[26]

Steve Rosenthal

Board Member Steve Rosenthal is an experienced political consultant who works with labor unions, Democratic candidates, and left-of-center organizations. Rosenthal was the Political Director of the AFL-CIO from 1995-2002, the largest federation of American unions. In 2003, he received $142 million from George Soros to launch a massive voter mobilization campaign against George W. Bush’s presidential reelection efforts through the America Coming Together PAC. Since 2004, Rosenthal has worked for the left-of-center voter mobilization nonprofits, Working for Us Pac and the Atlas Project. ^[27]

In 2015, Rosenthal founded his own for-profit consulting group, The Organizing Group, which leverages his connections with left-wing donors and organizations to mobilize voting for Democratic campaigns. ^[28]

Kimberly Rogers

Campaign director Kimberly Rogers is also the only known employee of the Voter Engagement Fund, a nominally nonpartisan voter advocacy group formed by the New Venture Fund to bolster left-of-center political causes. ^[29] In 2016, Rogers was a featured speaker at a Funders Committee for Civic Participation (FCCP) seminar on voter registration, though she was listed as a representative of “Everybody Votes.” The Seminar featured State Voices then-president, Roger Vann, and was moderated by VRP secretary Bill Vandenberg. ^[30]

Funding

Donors to the Voter Registration Project Network

Since 2016 Voter Registration Project, and its affiliates, Voter Registration Project Education Fund and Register America, have received millions of dollars in funding from a variety of powerful left-leaning organizations. Below is a table detailing known grantors to the Voter Registration Project network of organizations.

Grant Recipients

The Voter Registration Project gives grants to left-of-center organizations seeking to mobilize voters to support Democratic candidates. ^[31]

New Virginia Majority Education Fund, the education-wing of the far-left associated voter mobilization group New Virginia Majority, received $820,000. New Florida Majority, a far-left associated voter mobilization group, received $148,204. ^[32] Both New Virginia Majority and New Florida Majority are members of the State Power Caucus, a radical-left-influenced network of state-level left-progressive organizing groups. ^[33]

State Voices Network, another left-of-center community activism organization which rallies state-level organizations for progressive causes, received $653,295. ProGeorgia State Table, a member of the State Voices Network, received $234,810. ^[34]

A number of North Carolina organizations received Voter Registration Project grants. Blueprint NC, a network of 41 nonprofits advocating for left-progressive policy,^[35] received $145,255; North Carolina A. Philip Randolph Institute, a “constituency group” of the AFL-CIO, received $128,946; ^[36] Action Institute North Carolina, a community organizing group dedicated to increasing government benefits for low-income communities,^[37] received $70,221; People’s Alliance Fund, a grantmaking fund which supports higher minimum wage laws and left-progressive voter outreach in North Carolina, received $61,575; and North Carolina Public Interest Research Group Education Fund, the education-wing of the NCPIRG Citizen Lobby, the North Carolina branch of Ralph Nader’s network of advocacy groups, received $20,360. ^[38]

Mi Familia Vota Education Fund, the education-wing of Mi Familia Vota, a Hispanic voter mobilization group, received $262,190. ^[39] Hispanic Federation, an advocacy group that supports more government benefits for Hispanic Americans, received $58,580. ^[40] One Arizona, a voter mobilization group that targets ethnic and racial minorities,^[41] received $342,031. ^[42] GALEO Latino Community Development Fund, a Latino community group which registers Latino voters,^[43] received $8,100. ^[44]

New Georgia Group, another voter-advocacy group founded by Stacey Abrams,^[45] received $86,426. ^[46] Georgia Standup, an education organization that promotes housing subsidies, labor unions, and government benefits,^[47] received $48,204. ^[48] 9 to 5 Georgia, a women’s advocacy group which supports labor regulations that favor women,^[49] received $43,123. ^[50] Georgia Coalition for People’s Agenda, a voting rights advocacy group,^[51] received $34,375. ^[52]

Organize Florida Education Fund, an activist-training organization, received $61,842. ^[53] Engage Miami Civic Fund, a voter mobilization group,^[54] received $19,619. ^[55]

Alliance for Youth Organizing, a voter mobilization group based in the western United States, received $48,239. ^[56] New Era Colorado Fund, a voter mobilization fund, received $46,198. ^[57] Voter Participation Center, a voter mobilization group with ties to moveon.org, received $11,418. ^[58] Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, a coalition of thirty groups supporting progressive politics, received $10,600. ^[59]

The following is a complete list of grants made by the Voter Registration Project from 2016 to 2019: ^{[60] [61] [62] [63]}

Network Grantmaking

From 2016 to 2019, the Voter Registration Project and its affiliate organizations, the Voter Registration Project Education Fund and Register America, distributed a total of $61 million in grants to left-of-center voter mobilization groups in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, and Virginia. ^{[64] [65] [66]} The following is a complete list of the Voter Registration Project network’s grantmaking from 2016 through 2019.