Members rightly want to know and sometimes ask us, "Where do our membership dues go?" That's a valid question and I'm writing to let you know a little about it and to provide links to League sites where you can find detailed information for yourself.
First of all, if the average yearly membership in LWVWilco is $80, did you know that our League doesn't get all of that money? In fact, in this scenario, $32 goes to LWVUS, $22 goes to LWVTX, and $26 stays with LWVWilco. We're grateful to have that income, believe me, but we also see how much good is being done nationwide and statewide with your generous support.
In Texas right now, there are 32 chapters of local Leagues throughout the state. These chapters represent the constituents locally, work on the Voter Guides for local and county elections, show up in many places to register and provide information to voters, go into schools to educate young people, use social media to get the word out, and more, and all of this work is totally volunteer. We maintain a website, we organize candidate forums, we give information to groups who request a speaker, we weigh in on matters that affect voting in our county.
In the LWV of Texas, in 2022, they published 4 Voter Guides for the four elections held that year, printed and distributed 80,000 Voter Guides in English and Spanish, and produced Vote411.org, an online voter information resource which has the Voter Guide and ballot information in a zip-code specific format, available in four languages: English, Spanish, Simple Chinese, and Vietnamese. In addition, the LWVTX conducts two election website reviews for all 254 counties in Texas, one before the primary and a second before the midterms in November. LWVTX is also engaged in defending democracy in the courts, filing an amicus brief in Moore v Harper and engaging in other lawsuits seeking to address voter suppression in people of color, the disabled, students, senior citizens, and the economically disadvantaged in Texas. They provided grants to Local Leagues amounting to $20,000 and were able to hire 2 new staff members. They run a statewide organization with all the costs inherent in this non-profit work. The $22 each membership provides to LWVTX is only part of the donation stream that funds all the efforts to empower and defend democracy.
It should come as no surprise that LWVUS does a lot with the dues they receive from us as well as well as the generous donations they receive from many sources. They run Vote411.org on a national level, produce the national section of the Voter Guides, are involved in election Get Out the Vote campaigns, work with state Leagues on voter registration, are involved in national election litigation, advocating for voting rights, advocating for fair maps and a fair Census, and run the UN Observer Corps.
I promised to give you links to financial reports for these national and state Leagues, so if you have read this far, there's no way I would let you down!! Please click here for League of Women Voters US
LWVUS Financial Report and here for League of Women Voters of Texas
LWVTX Financial Report 2022 .
At your next membership renewal time, we ask you to please remember that your financial contributions are spent in the pursuit of democracy and empowering voters all over Williamson County, our great state, and our beloved United States! Thank you for your ongoing and generous support.