Voter Mobilization Nonprofit to Suspend Activities, Dismiss Staff

The voter registration and mobilization nonprofit Voter Formation Project is preparing to close its doors next month, the group’s chief executive announced. 

In an email to supporters, VFP’s Founder and CEO Tatenda Musapatike said that the nonprofit would suspend activities and dismiss its staff as of June 1 while leadership reassesses “how to execute our mission ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.”

The exact circumstances of the decision are unclear. Musapatike did not respond to C&E’s requests for comment. But in her email announcing the move, Musapatike said that “the past several months have been incredibly challenging for all organizations in the pro-democracy movement, Voter Formation Project included.”

She cited recent “chaos and tumult” as the catalyst for VFP’s decision to halt its work. 

While Musapatike didn’t mention any particular policies or developments driving the decision, President Donald Trump has moved in recent months to clamp down on voter registration efforts. In March, Trump signed an executive order that would require prospective voters to show proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote. 

The order also seeks to withhold federal funding from states that count mail and absentee ballots received after Election Day. Critics have accused the Trump administration of trying to disenfranchise millions of current and would-be voters, and exert executive control over election laws.

VFP’s Impact

Musapatike, a former Facebook employee, launched VFP in the wake of the 2020 presidential election as an effort to register and mobilize new and infrequent voters of color through long-term digital advertising and outreach. 

Last year, the nonprofit ran thousands of digital ads across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat and other platforms focused on voter registration and turnout across a handful of battleground states. A year-end report published by VFP found that the efforts had reached some 42 million people in 2024. 

In Pennsylvania alone, VFP said, its program was responsible for registering 11,512 new voters and turning out more than 100,000 to vote. 

“We are incredibly proud of the campaigns we ran in the seven states that were most critical in the presidential election,” Musapatike wrote in her email announcing VFP’s decision to suspend activities. “And our research directly validated our central theory of change: that the longer people are exposed to our civic education advertising programs, the more likely they are to vote.” 

“This is the big takeaway for us from this election cycle: long-term messaging works and must be a central component of digital pro-democracy campaigns going forward,” she added.