North Dakota Native Vote (NDNV) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit engaging tribal communities to build a representative democracy in North Dakota. Founded in 2018, the organization began as a grassroots response to House Bill 1369—a law that required North Dakota voters to list their physical addresses on their ID cards. The law disenfranchised thousands of Native voters during the 2018 midterm elections, as many residents of reservations in North Dakota rely on P.O. boxes for mail and do not have standard residential street addresses. NDNV’s community organizing, educational campaigns, policy advocacy, and legislative advocacy played a pivotal role in protecting Native people’s voting rights during the 2018 midterms, and the organization continues to serve tribal citizens across the state, both in reservation communities and urban areas. “We are a resource for self-determination,” says Nicole Donaghy, NDNV’s Executive Director and a Hunkpapa Lakota from the Standing Rock Sioux Nation. “North Dakota Native Vote works to build power for Native American communities in North Dakota.”
North Dakota Native Vote board member Tawny Cale speaks at a news conference in Bismarck, North Dakota, in February 2020. Photo: North Dakota Native Vote
An Indigenous woman-led nonprofit with four full-time staff, North Dakota Native Vote is a small but mighty organization. In 2018, NDNV launched the Get Out the Vote program, an initiative providing North Dakota’s Native communities with the resources they need to participate fully in the democratic process. That same year, NDNV partnered with Mato Ohitika Analytics to create the Data Democracy Project—an Indigenous-led data collection system that democratizes data for the benefit of Native communities and examines voter and census data to inform tribal citizens of their right to vote. NDNV also runs the Rural Climate and Energy Program, an initiative working to build Indigenous representation on local Rural Electric Cooperative (REC) governance boards, alleviate energy burdens faced by North Dakota’s Native communities, and transition toward renewable energy sources. In October 2024, NDNV was awarded the Bush Prize, receiving $139,000 in recognition of its impactful work in strengthening civic engagement among Native peoples.
North Dakota Native Vote provides Indigenous communities with the resources they need to participate fully in the democratic process. Photo: North Dakota Native Vote