Communities are made whole by the people and local businesses within them. Without ensuring that those voices are heard, our communities no longer represent who we are. Upside works every day to ensure that people & local businesses are better off economically— but it’s up to everyone to make sure we are better off socially. During elections, we all have the opportunity to ensure that our leaders represent the values and beliefs we hold dear, so Upside is doing its part to help people participating in our democracy.

Doing our part internally

It doesn’t matter which side of the political spectrum we are on — it just matters to us that we are all actively participating to strengthen and shape our communities. Internally, the Upside team has instituted several voting projects to help us vote, to encourage others to vote, and to provide us with information about how to volunteer.

WE’RE VOTING. Everyone at Upside is able to take the time they need from their work day to vote in elections. Though we’re all budgeting for that time in our work day, there’s no need to “take time off” since we all have unlimited PTO.  

WE’RE ENCOURAGING OTHERS TO VOTE. Beyond ourselves, we’re encouraging others to vote by partnering with Vote Forward. Vote Forward gives a letter template that we can personalize and then assigns a set number of registered voters in our areas of operation for us to write to. At the time of publication, the Upside team has sent hundreds of letters across the country.

WE’RE HELPING OTHERS VOTE. For those of us who feel comfortable volunteering right now, we’re using Power to the Polls to help find ways to get involved with local elections in our areas of operation. There are a number of Upsiders volunteering at their polling places, and they are taking extra precautions to stay safe during COVID-19.

Helping users get to the polls

‍We want to make sure all of our users are able to cast their vote, especially given that COVID-19 has made wallets even tighter than usual. So we are offering a 10¢/gal bonus to help users get to their polls or local drop box. All users have to do is email support@getupside.com with a picture to show that they got to their polling place (or mail box!). Our team fielded more than 20,000 submissions, and you can see some of those photos here.

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There is much to be done to enable all to thrive, and participating in our democracy is just a start.