Election Resources for Museums and Historic Sites by Made By Us

Check out the GenZ Engagement Scorecard 

Election Resources
for Museums and Historic Sites

A living list, hosted by Made By Us with Every Museum a Civic Museum. 

Want to suggest? Leave a comment.

Tips and Examples

Tools and Activations

Useful Movements to Connect With

Research for Institutional Engagement

Inspiration + Urgency

Case Studies

As the U.S. prepares for the 250^th, Made By Us provides essential support to help museums engage 18-30 year-olds in this moment and all programming. Civic Season (Juneteenth – July 4^th), Youth250, content collaborations @historymadebyus and ongoing trainings, data and resources are available for all coalition members. VAM members are invited to join the Made By Us coalition with this registration form, or reach out to Alex Edgar, Alex@HistoryMadeByUs.org for more information.

*New* Responding to Political Violence

These are nonpartisan resources we’ve vetted and found useful. 

• Peacemaker’s Tools from American University’s PERIL: Polarization and Extremism Research 

• Definitions and tips for newsrooms, but very applicable to museums, from Election SOS

• From Bridging Divides Institute at Princeton:

  • State-by-state De-Escalation Directory with trainings available in your state

  • Dataset tracking hostility towards local officials around the country

  • Case studies in GA, MI and NC communities mitigating political violence risk

  • Speaking Out Against Bigoted, Dehumanizing Rhetoric – a guide to taking action in partnership with the Western States Center

Examples and Arguments to Share with Leaders/Board

• Why Your Museum Needs a Civic Strategy by Every Museum a Civic Museum in AAM

• AAM’s Guide to Election Year Advocacy

• 15 Ways Museums and Historic Sites Can Support Voters, by Made By Us

• How Museums are Helping Americans Bridge Divides, by Made By Us in AAM

• Lessons learned from Election Scenario Planning for Museums in 2020, by Bob Beatty from our workshop with Sarah Jencks and the National Conference on Citizenship 

• IMLS: How Museums and Libraries Are Fostering Civic Engagement Through Voting

• American Historical Association (by Made By Us): History Museums are Vibrant Civic Spaces

• AASLH: Here’s why your museum should get out the vote

• Art Newspaper: From art to doing 'their part': US museums provide a vital community service by acting as polling sites

“Share this!” Activations and Content to Share 

Evergreen resources. Free to share and re-use unless otherwise indicated.

• Check your voter registration with this voting-history portal, by Made By Us & ActiVote

• Use the Civic Superpowers Quiz as a starting point for engagement 

• Share what you stand for with the “I Stand For ___” poster generator by Made By Us

• Add your wish for America’s future: MyWishForUs.com 

• Educating for American Democracy’s educator resources for K-12 (Sign up for quarterly Community Learning Partner ecosystem calls here.)

• Instagram explainers:

  • 15th Amendment

  • Caucuses

  • Latino Voting Rights Activists You Should Know

  • 6 Women In Voting Rights History

  • Why your vote matters

• Civic Season Learning Resources (evergreen, new ones added annually!)

• New American History explainers:

  • Gerrymandering and Redistricting

  • Analyze the House of Representatives/Voting Patterns

Useful Movements to Connect With

• Get Out the Vote efforts

  • Creative Campus Voting Project

  • Rock the Vote

  • Students Learn Students Vote

  • 18byVote

  • Pizza To The Polls

  • A list of nonpartisan voting organizations here

• Civic Season, Juneteenth - July 4th

  • Register

  • Get the toolkit

  • Host your own events, submit them to the website or host supported events like Slice of History Pizza Parties

  • Build your own itinerary of events and resources to learn from

  • Check out new (coming soon!) and evergreen learning resources 

• Civic Holidays - September through November

  • National Voter Registration Day

  • National Voter Education Week

  • Vote Early Day

  • Election Heroes Day

• Global Volunteer Month, April 

  • Encourage folks to do jury service, become poll workers, and other civic roles

• National Week of Conversation, April

  • Good for dialogue and cross-partisan “bridging “events

• Civic Learning Week, March 11-15

  • Focused on K-12 learners, educators, and schools - participate in their events or create your own

• Community Connection and Belonging

  • Belonging Begins with Us Community Activation Toolkit

    • Or join the Belonging Begins with Us campaign

  • Future’s Happening: Host-Your-Own Civic Bright Spots Summit playbook

How To: Conduct Voter Registration and Empower 2024 Voters

Museums and historic sites can register voters. Here are some resources to do that!

How to Do Voter Registration | New England Museum Association webinar

Originally hosted Sept. 17, 2024

Citizen Connect’s Voting Resource Guide.

• Print this sticker with QR code on the back to distribute to visitors!

DoSomething offers your own branded voter registration web page - all you need to do is sign up, and promote your custom link either on-site or digitally.

Research for Institutional Engagement

• The Civic Alliance “Civic Engagement Playbook” (aimed at corporations, with parallels for museums)

• Frameworks Institute’s tips for “Framing Democracy” for the public.

  • See also: AASLH’s Re-Framing History Project.

• Democracy Toolkit for newsrooms

• Replenishing trust: Civil society’s guide to reversing the trust deficit

• More in Common US:

  • Study: Social Connection Across Differences in the US 

  • Study: Defusing the History Wars 

  • A Guide to How Americans Can Strengthen Democracy During a Divisive Election

  • Study: American Identity

• Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement’s Civic Language Perceptions Project and Civic Language Guidance

• The National Institute for Civil Discourse’s Branding Civility guide explores how specific groups perceive language

• Wilkening Consulting’s 2023 Annual Survey of Museum Goers asked specific questions about museums as civic institutions, including data stories 

• Pearce Godwin (Listen First Project) Field Guide to Engaging Conservatives in the Bridging Movement

• Map of organizations bridging divides - good overview of the landscape

Inspiration + Urgency

• Washington Post’s 2022 “voter toolkit” - a nice model for collecting and sharing resources with people online.

• Oct 2023 Reddit with 7,500 comments: What is the worst case for the 2024 election?

• Fewer Americans self-reported as “thriving” in 2023, a low only surpassed in 2020 (first year of COVID) and 2008 (Great Recession). The number of Americans “suffering” topped 4% for 5 of the last 6 quarters. Gallup.

• Few Americans believe that democracy in the United States is working well, and half of all voters agree strongly that "democracy in the United States is facing serious threats today." More Perfect.

Case Studies

Have a case study to share? Please tell us here!