League of Women Voters

League of Women Voters of the United States
Founded	February 14, 1920
Founder	Carrie Chapman Catt
Type	Nonprofit
Focus	Political education and advocacy
Location	Washington, D.C.;
Key people	Sania Irwin (President)
Revenue	$9,183,106 (2020)
Website	LWV.org

The League of Women Voters (LWV) is an American nonprofit, nonpartisan political organization. Founded in 1920, its ongoing major activities include registering voters, providing voter information, and advocating for voting rights. In addition, the LWV works with partners that share its positions and supports a variety of progressive public policy positions, including campaign finance reform, women's rights, health care reform, gun control and LGBT+ rights.^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]

The League was founded as the successor to the National American Woman Suffrage Association, which had led the nationwide fight for women's suffrage. The initial goals of the League were to educate women to take part in the political process and to push forward legislation of interest to women. As a nonpartisan organization, an important part of its role in American politics has been to register and inform voters, but it also lobbies for issues of importance to its members, which are selected at its biennial conventions. Its effectiveness has been attributed to its policy of careful study and documentation of an issue before taking a position.^[9]^[10]^[3]^{: 92, 127–161}^[11]

^ "IRS Form 990 2020" (PDF). GuideStar. Internal Revenue Service. Retrieved 1 October 2022.
^ Ford, Lynne (2009). Encyclopedia of Women and American Politics. Infobase Publishing. p. 280. ISBN 9781438110325. The National League of Women Voters (NLWV) was established in 1920...Rather than directly entering electoral politics, the NLWV dedicated its efforts to educating newly enfranchised women, studying national legislation and social policy, and participating in local civic matters.
^ ^a ^b Sharer, Wendy B (13 March 2007). Vote and Voice: Women's Organizations and Political Literacy, 1915–1930. Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 9780809387687. Anticipating the difficulty of integrating former suffragists into partisan American politics, Catt called for a successor organization to the NAWSA that would train new women voters in electoral procedures and further the interests of women within the platforms and administrative structures of political parties.
^ "League of Women Voters". Ballotpedia. Retrieved 24 August 2022. The League of Women Voters' work includes get out the vote efforts, often shortened to GOTV. These are concerted efforts to register voters and increase voter turnout during elections. ... As part of their GOTV efforts, the League of Women Voters was designed to educate voters on the issues and candidates on their ballots during each election cycle.
^ "Remaining Nonpartisan in Hyper-partisan Times". The League of Women Voters. 10 February 2021. Retrieved 24 September 2022. The League's advocacy work is issued based, and we arrive at our positions based on careful study and input from our members in communities across the country. We never derive our positions from politicians, and even when candidates or parties support the same issue, we never endorse them.
^ "The "Women Voters"" (PDF). The New York Times. October 11, 1954. Retrieved October 9, 2022. The organization has won the respect of both political parties for its scrupulous nonpartisan-ship.
^ Smith, Ethel B. (November 29, 1925). "Women working for new laws" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved October 4, 2022. The Women's Joint Congressional Committee is a well set up piece of machinery which functions for a combined membership of organized women numbering literally millions. Mrs. Maud Wood Park, then President of the National League of Women Voters, took the lead in carrying out the idea by calling the other women together to discuss it...the National League of Women Voters... was planned definitely as a non-partisan political organization of women.
^ Cite error: The named reference lgbt was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ "Women's league plans voter drive" (PDF). The New York Times. June 1, 1969. Retrieved October 4, 2022. Last summer, the league (in New York) registered 18,000 new voters in 80 communities where enrollment was below 30%.
^ Green, Marie (4 September 1983). "League of Voters Tackles 80s Issues". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 September 2022. The league from the national to the local level spends a lot of time on advocacy work. An issue is intensely studied -- for years sometimes -- and a consensus is reached among members. The league then discusses, urges, and "we lobby like crazy," according to Percy Lee Langstaff, president of the Connecticut League.
^ Cashin, Maria Hoyt (2013). Sustaining the League of Women Voters in America. New Academia Publishing. ISBN 9781955835237. A look at the decline of civic engagement, and how nonpartisan organizations like the League of Women Voters can help save and promote democracy.

[1] "IRS Form 990 2020" (PDF). GuideStar. Internal Revenue Service. Retrieved 1 October 2022.

[ford-2] Ford, Lynne (2009). Encyclopedia of Women and American Politics. Infobase Publishing. p. 280. ISBN 9781438110325. The National League of Women Voters (NLWV) was established in 1920...Rather than directly entering electoral politics, the NLWV dedicated its efforts to educating newly enfranchised women, studying national legislation and social policy, and participating in local civic matters.

[voteandvoice-3] Sharer, Wendy B (13 March 2007). Vote and Voice: Women's Organizations and Political Literacy, 1915–1930. Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 9780809387687. Anticipating the difficulty of integrating former suffragists into partisan American politics, Catt called for a successor organization to the NAWSA that would train new women voters in electoral procedures and further the interests of women within the platforms and administrative structures of political parties.

[4] "League of Women Voters". Ballotpedia. Retrieved 24 August 2022. The League of Women Voters' work includes get out the vote efforts, often shortened to GOTV. These are concerted efforts to register voters and increase voter turnout during elections. ... As part of their GOTV efforts, the League of Women Voters was designed to educate voters on the issues and candidates on their ballots during each election cycle.

[5] "Remaining Nonpartisan in Hyper-partisan Times". The League of Women Voters. 10 February 2021. Retrieved 24 September 2022. The League's advocacy work is issued based, and we arrive at our positions based on careful study and input from our members in communities across the country. We never derive our positions from politicians, and even when candidates or parties support the same issue, we never endorse them.

[6] "The "Women Voters"" (PDF). The New York Times. October 11, 1954. Retrieved October 9, 2022. The organization has won the respect of both political parties for its scrupulous nonpartisan-ship.

[7] Smith, Ethel B. (November 29, 1925). "Women working for new laws" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved October 4, 2022. The Women's Joint Congressional Committee is a well set up piece of machinery which functions for a combined membership of organized women numbering literally millions. Mrs. Maud Wood Park, then President of the National League of Women Voters, took the lead in carrying out the idea by calling the other women together to discuss it...the National League of Women Voters... was planned definitely as a non-partisan political organization of women.

[lgbt-8] Cite error: The named reference lgbt was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[nyleague-9] "Women's league plans voter drive" (PDF). The New York Times. June 1, 1969. Retrieved October 4, 2022. Last summer, the league (in New York) registered 18,000 new voters in 80 communities where enrollment was below 30%.

[10] Green, Marie (4 September 1983). "League of Voters Tackles 80s Issues". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 September 2022. The league from the national to the local level spends a lot of time on advocacy work. An issue is intensely studied -- for years sometimes -- and a consensus is reached among members. The league then discusses, urges, and "we lobby like crazy," according to Percy Lee Langstaff, president of the Connecticut League.

[11] Cashin, Maria Hoyt (2013). Sustaining the League of Women Voters in America. New Academia Publishing. ISBN 9781955835237. A look at the decline of civic engagement, and how nonpartisan organizations like the League of Women Voters can help save and promote democracy.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]


Founded	February 14, 1920; 104 years ago (February 14, 1920)
Founder	Carrie Chapman Catt
Type	Nonprofit
Focus	Political education and advocacy
Location	Washington, D.C.
Key people	Sania Irwin (President)
Revenue	$9,183,106 (2020)^[1]
Website	LWV.org